Moutain Lion - is EspionageHelper still working properly??

[netjpk]

Hi,

I use Espionage mainly to lock folders (I.e., they are not encrypted). Since switching to Mountain Lion, I noticed that I can now click on "locked" folders and still see all their contents. Previously, when clicking on a locked folder, one was prompted to input the password to open the folder - otherwise access was denied. Now, as mentioned, I can immediately see the contents (file names, file types) of the "locked" folders. However, when I double-click a file contained in such a folder it won't open (either "file type not recognized" or "insufficient privileges"). While this is not as good a protection as not even seeing the folders contents, this still prevents unauthorized people from opening these files. However, if I myself want to open these files I have to invoke the Espionage program and switch the folder status manually from "locked" to "unlocked" - needless to say, this is very inconvenient! (I am also not aware of a context-sensitive submenu (right-click) that would offer to unlock a folder!?)

So, I was wondering if that is because of a problem with EspionageHelper or whether there could be another cause for this problem!? In any case, a way to fix it would be appreciated

Thanks!

-J.P.

[zsolt]

Hello Jp, I just tested it and I have no problems, it behaves same as with Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion.
Please try to protect another test folder and see if it behaves the same with it, plus open the console and check if there are any warnings or errors thrown when you try to access the folder.
Do you have any problems with folders which are encrypted?

Rgds
Zsolt

[netjpk]

Hello zsolt,

thanks for the reply! I tried what you suggested, but had still the same symptoms, i.e., I can see a "locked" folders contents but I cannot open any of the contained files. At least now, when I double-click on such a file, I get the prompt to enter the password for unlocking the folder. Still, it is not optimal that one can see the folders contents by name, file type and (sometimes) the icon preview.

I am not sure what you could see in the Console (I am not an expert), but I attach a screenshot showing some lines from the Console that might be relevant.

I am not encrypting any folders - I guess I feel that data loss is much more likely when encrypting...

Cheers,

-J. P.

[zsolt]

Hello J.P., you did it all well. Thanks for the error log. This is something I did not encounter so far.
Considering you did not encrypt any folder so far, there is nothing to restore and decrypt, so it is quite painless to uninstall and install Espionage again.

Please launch Espionage, select uninstall from the Espionage menu, once done, reboot your mac and then start Espionage again. It should start up asking you to define the master password, once done, you should be presented with the list of protected folders which should be empty, then try to add a new folder to it and password protect it.

Let me know how it went.

Thanks
Zsolt

[netjpk]

OK, I think we are getting somewhere...

De- and re-installing Espionage worked and the behavior was back to normal... for about a minute. Then Finder requested access to the locked folder (not exactly sure why, some process looking at all folders regularly!?) and since I didn't want to have to deal with these kinds of requests, I put Finder on the WhiteList. After that, I was back to the recently seen behavior, where I can look into a "locked" folder, but not open any of the contained files.

What did I do wrong? I guess I should remove Finder from the Whitelist, right?! How to find out which processes regularly scan folders and which ones of those I can safely put on the Whitelist?

Thanks!

-J. P.

[zsolt]

Hello J.P.

Indeed, every now and then I forget about this whitelist thing, sorry about that, very probably this was initially the problem too so it was no need to reinstall.
If you put an application on white list then the application's request are automatically granted.
But in Finder's case it indeed introduces an unusual behavior because over here on my Mac it behaves as you described, I can enter into the folder but if I try to open it then it says I have no permission.

To put Finder on white list does not make a lot of sense because the main purpose of password protection is exactly to prevent users browsing the filesystem to enter into the folder, and the application used for file system browsing is usually exactly Finder.

Why were you asked to unlock the folder in spite of you not entering into it, it might be that you checked under view options to calculate the folder size, this will make the Finder go through each folder to get the info about sizes in it.

Please remove the Finder from white list, use it for a while and see if you can detect any pattern in FInder's request to unlock the folder.

Maybe this will help us figure out why is this happening.

Rgds
Zsolt

[netjpk]

Hello zsolt,

sorry for the delayed reply! Yes, indeed, putting Finder on the Whitelist doesn't make a whole lot of sense!

I still don't know what process (related to Finder) was trying to gain access to the protected folders, but anyway, so far everything works fine again!

Thanks for your help and for "ping-ponging" this with me!

-J. P.

[ceshiwuhao]

To put Finder on white list does not make a lot of sense because the main purpose of password protection is exactly to prevent users browsing the filesystem to enter into the folder, and the application used for file system browsing is usually exactly Finder.