Quicken Protection

[ravedog]

I went to add the Quicken and its associated data folder, and it told me that the application Quicken did not appear to be an Application Bundle. SO I tried it nonetheless, and it locked up everything. WHen I launched Quicken ,it asked me for the Espionage password, and unlocked the folder. Everything worked. However, when I quit Quicken, it did not relock the folder.

Any ideas?

[greg]

We haven't tested Espionage with Quicken (as we don't have a copy of it), so it's difficult for us to know what the situation is.

Can you try the following:

• Download this: ravedog.command.zip
• Double-click the archive to extract the command file
• Double-click the command file, follow the instruction.

Copy/paste all of the output from the Terminal into your response.

[ravedog]

===============
    REPORT
===============
      
#1): ---------
Got path to Quicken: '/Applications/apps-general/Quicken 2007/Quicken 2007'

#2): ---------
It's a directory, that's good.

#3): ---------
Contents of /Applications/apps-general/Quicken 2007/Quicken 2007/Contents/MacOS:

   FSPUB.KEY
   PUB.KEY
   PUB2.KEY
   Quicken 2007
   WWWTRACE.TXT

logout

[Process completed]

[greg]

While making sure the application isn't running and the folder is locked, try renaming the Quicken 2007 application to: Quicken 2007.app

You'll need to re-associate it with the folder after renaming it.

[ravedog]

Hmmm. I added the .app then added the locked the data. When I launch Quicken, your PW dialog box pops up saying: The application 'LaunchCFMApp' wants access to the folder Quicken Data. What is LaunchCFMApp??
Put in password, Data unlocks, Quicken launches.

However, quitting the program does not re-lock the data. So I manually re-lock the data. Done. It works sorta, but that CFM thing i think is the culprit. Is that some sort of launch service thats acting as an intermediary for Quicken?

Another interesting note, when i launch iCal and the dialog opens, the dialog title says "Password Required." When I try with Quicken, it says "Folder Locked." Curious.

Oh I just tried one more time and this time I get the dialog "Folder Locked" and the application "diskimages-helper" wants access to the folder Quicken Data... If I click Cancel, Quicken still opens and asks where the data file is. what is going on?

[greg]

Oh I just tried one more time and this time I get the dialog "Folder Locked" and the application "diskimages-helper" wants access to the folder Quicken Data... If I click Cancel, Quicken still opens and asks where the data file is. what is going on?

There are two prompts that Espionage can bring up, one is for a "normal access", i.e. when something is trying to access something inside of a folder, and in this case the title of the prompt will be "Folder Locked".  The other prompt has the title "Password Required" and will show a picture of an application.  This is the application association prompt, it prevents the application from launching before its data is unlocked, and this is the prompt that we want to appear when you launch Quicken.

It looks like the Quicken application is not wrapped into a typical application bundle, and therefore Espionage isn't sure what executable to watch "for launch".  The easiest way for me to help would be if you could zip up the entire Quicken application (not its data, just the application), and email it to our support address.  We'll then be able to take a look at it closely to see what the problem is.

[ravedog]

Sent

[greg]

Sent

Thanks, we received it. I'll get back to you when we've had a chance to look it over, hopefully sometime today or tomorrow.

[greg]

My apologies that it's taken me so long to get back to you on this one, we've been extremely busy working on the next update.  I've finally had a chance to take a look at the problem and it seems like Espionage, in the way it currently behaves, is not compatible with Quicken.

The problem lies in the fact that Quicken is a Carbon app that is launched through a different application:

Code Select Expand

/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Support/LaunchCFMApp
Espionage expects that the bundle's executable is run instead:

Code Select Expand

/path/to/Quicken 2007/Contents/MacOS/Quicken 2007
Instead this executable is read in by LaunchCFMApp, and it is LaunchCFMApp that quits, not 'Quicken 2007'.  Espionage does not know of this connection and therefore does not know to watch for the exit of LaunchCFMApp.

All "pure" Carbon apps work this way actually, but they are getting rarer and rarer as it is possible for an application to use the Carbon framework while being bundled as a "normal" OS X application bundle, which Espionage has no problem with). It is possible to modify Espionage to recognize "pure" Carbon apps, but given our developmental resources, the increasing rarity of pure Carbon apps, and the fact that this is the only example that's been reported to us, it's unlikely that we'll be able to implement this soon. :-(

[harringg]

Any update or are we still out of luck with Quicken 2007?  I recently bought Espionage, but see this thread is from mid-2009.  Is the only fix to upgrade Quicken if we want it to work with Espionage?

[greg]

Any update or are we still out of luck with Quicken 2007?  I recently bought Espionage, but see this thread is from mid-2009.  Is the only fix to upgrade Quicken if we want it to work with Espionage?

Well it seems (at least according to ravedog) that Espionage does work with Quicken 2007, it's just the auto-lock that's not working. Unfortunately as I stated this is a rather low-priority item, so it's unlikely to be fixed soon, however you can always manually lock the folder from the menubar, and know also that if you use the screensaver password, that is sufficient protection to keep the folder's data safe. The folder is automatically "locked" if the machine loses power, shuts down, or if you logout of your user account.