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Rob Cole
Rob Cole
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Lion & osascript

Jul 23, 2012 2:15 PM

Tags: #lion #mac #security #permission #osascript

I have several plugins that use on-the-fly generation of text scripts expected to be executed by osascript interpreter.

 

That worked fine up through Snow Leopard, but Lion usually disallows such stuff.

 

Any ideas for work-around?

 

Rob

1790 Views   16 Replies   Latest reply: jarnoh, Jul 30, 2012 10:56 PM
 
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  • Matt Dawson
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    1. Matt Dawson,
    Jul 23, 2012 3:54 PM   in reply to Rob Cole
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    Nothing specific, sorry. Is there a way that you could write a static script that gets authorised somehow, and have it read configuration from a file instead? Or maybe its the location being written to (/tmp ?) that doesn't support execution of scripts?

     

    But when testing ideas for a work around I'd suggest making sure it can work in a sandboxed environment. Now that there is a Mac App Store version of Lightroom I suspect it will only be a matter of time before Apple force them to have it run in sandboxed mode.

     

    Matt

     
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  • Rob Cole
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    2. Rob Cole,
    Jul 23, 2012 4:11 PM   in reply to Matt Dawson
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    Example script (for saving metadata):

     

    "osascript" -e 'tell application "Lightroom" to activate' -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'key down command' -e 'keystroke "s"' -e 'key up command' -e 'end tell'

     

    and the error code: 256 (returned by osascript interpreter).

     

    I have assumed the problem was related to security, but I suppose it could be syntax or some other incompatibility (reminder: exact same script has been working for years previously...)

     

    It could very well be that compiling the script(s) into app(s) would solve the problem. e.g. no problems executing exiftool from plugins.

     

    Since scripts are not being written to disk I don't see how disk permissions (e.g. /tmp) would be a factor, unless such writing is implicit...

     

    How does one "make sure it works in a sandboxed environment"?

     

    Rob

     
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  • Matt Dawson
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    3. Matt Dawson,
    Jul 23, 2012 5:06 PM   in reply to Rob Cole
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    Rob Cole wrote:

     

    How does one "make sure it works in a sandboxed environment"?

     

    I'd suggest reading up about Mac's sandbox and temporary exception entitlements.

     

    I haven't seen anyone say that the Mac App Store version of Lightroom will become sandboxed but I can't see how they will be able to avoid it. If you are going to be reworking this part of your code anyway it wouldn't hurt to think ahead.

     

    Matt

     
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  • Rob Cole
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    4. Rob Cole,
    Jul 23, 2012 5:16 PM   in reply to Matt Dawson
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    Thanks Matt.

    R

     
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  • jarnoh
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    5. jarnoh,
    Jul 27, 2012 5:38 AM   in reply to Matt Dawson
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    So, the Mac App Store version can't launch any external scripts?  Can anyone confirm that?  Can I somehow emulate the App Store version's sandboxing features with sandbox-exec?

     

    I have a plugin that does keyboard stuffing (http://www.capturemonkey.com/excessor), it's working fine on Lion and Mountain Lion, but I only have regular downloadable version of Lightroom.  I'm not too eager to purchase another copy just for testing...

     
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  • Rob Cole
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    6. Rob Cole,
    Jul 27, 2012 1:12 PM   in reply to jarnoh
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    Hi Jarnoh,

     

    Is your excessor plugin feeding text scripts to osascript to execute?

     

    I've been trying to figure out whether it's all Lion systems or just some that have the problem. It's starting to sound like it's just some - maybe just the App Store versions. Hmm....

     

    Rob

     
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  • jarnoh
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    7. jarnoh,
    Jul 27, 2012 1:49 PM   in reply to Rob Cole
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    Yes, Excessor uses osascript to stuff in keyboard events.

     

    If it helps, I can try out your plugin, just tell me what to install and how it is supposed to work

     
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  • Matt Dawson
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    8. Matt Dawson,
    Jul 27, 2012 4:59 PM   in reply to jarnoh
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    To be clear, I am certain that the Lightroom 4.1 MAS version is not

    sandboxed. So the problems you are experiencing are likely to do with the

    operating system upgrade only.

     

    I was advising Rob that if he changes code he should future proof it to

    work in a sandboxed environment. I suspect that a future version will be

    forced by Apple to introduce sandboxing so might as well get ahead of the

    curve while making any change.

     

    I am not aware of any way to simulate a sandboxed MAS version without

    having purchased the MAS version first. Sorry.

     

    Matt

     
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  • Rob Cole
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    9. Rob Cole,
    Jul 27, 2012 6:09 PM   in reply to Matt Dawson
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    Thanks Matt,

     

    So next question is:

     

    Why does it work on some (Lion) systems, but not others?

     

    And of course:

     

    * Is it possible for the user to change system config so that it works, and for the sake of completeness:

    * Is it possible for the plugin programmer to change code so that it always works...

     

    Rob

     
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  • Matt Dawson
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    10. Matt Dawson,
    Jul 27, 2012 8:19 PM   in reply to Rob Cole
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    I don't have much experience with Mac, and none with Lion, so can't give

    you any definitive answers.

     

    It is possible Lion has introduced some additional security around the

    functionality you are relying upon and that is causing the issues you are

    seeing. It might be the MAS version that is hitting the issue but is a Lion

    triggered issue and not an LR sandboxing one. Pretty sure I read somewhere

    there were malware related features in Lion. I wouldn't be surprised if key

    press stuffing and dynamic scripts were viewed with suspicion by such a

    feature.

     

    Matt

     
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  • jarnoh
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    11. jarnoh,
    Jul 30, 2012 5:10 AM   in reply to Rob Cole
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    Rob, are you seeing this behaviour yourself, or has one of your users reported it?  Are you getting multiple reports or just single incident?

     

    I haven't heard of any problems with Lion keyboard shortcuts with my plugins, but there isn't that many users with OS X 10.7.

     

    I find it hard to believe that there would be issues with dynamic scripts, maybe there's a hidden switch to adjust System Events permissions somewhere (and someone has non-default configuration...)

     

    BTW. My plugin skips the Lightroom activate part, since its invoked from menu, I'm expecting Lightroom to be already active

     

    Jarno

     
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  • Rob Cole
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    12. Rob Cole,
    Jul 30, 2012 12:42 PM   in reply to jarnoh
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    Hi Jarno,

     

    I have not seen it myself, but a couple of clients have reported it.

     

    You could be on to something - might have nothing to do with text osascript execution, and be more about the "activate" part.

     

    I'll consider making a change for testing.

     

    If you would try for me on your Lion system, ChangeManager. On File Menu / Plugin Extras, choose Lock. That will attempt to save metadata using "Cmd-S".

     

    If it's not obvious from the log file what happened, enable "Verbose Logging" in top section of plugin manager.

     

    Thanks bunches,

    Rob

     
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  • jarnoh
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    13. jarnoh,
    Jul 30, 2012 1:25 PM   in reply to Rob Cole
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    Here's the logfile

     

    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, INFOLocking one photo
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, INFO1 photo photos under consideration for snapshot and/or mark...
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGMain style: RC Finished, Summarized
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGSnapshotted /Volumes/dada/Pictures/2012/2012-07/2012-07-15/_7150537.ORF with Master 2012-07-30 23:09:26 Locked (test)
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGLens profile corrections are defined, but disabled.
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGMarked edit history of /Volumes/dada/Pictures/2012/2012-07/2012-07-15/_7150537.ORF with details: no adjustments
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGMarked edit history of /Volumes/dada/Pictures/2012/2012-07/2012-07-15/_7150537.ORF with profile: Adobe Standard
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGMarked edit history of /Volumes/dada/Pictures/2012/2012-07/2012-07-15/_7150537.ORF with snap: Master 2012-07-30 23:09:26 Locked (test)
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGsnapshotted and/or marked /Volumes/dada/Pictures/2012/2012-07/2012-07-15/_7150537.ORF
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, ERROR****** ERROR #2: Unable to lock /Volumes/dada/Pictures/2012/2012-07/2012-07-15/_7150537.ORF because Non-zero exit code returned by command: "chmod" a+w "/Volumes/dada/Pictures/2012/2012-07/2012-07-15/_7150537.xmp", exit-code: 256
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, INFOFinalizing to lockage of 0 photos...
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGPrevious lib filter table restored.
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGPrevious lib filter table restored.
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, DEBUGBackground state changed to: running
    2012-07-30 20:09:26 +0000, INFO0 photos locked.

     

     

     

    I'm not seeing any mention of osascript, and the chmod probably fails because the XMP is not generated. 

     

    From commandline, osascript code mentioned before works fine (I'm seeing the warning dialog, because I clicked reset-all-warnings buttons just to be sure)

     

    I'm guessing its problem with your code, but i didn't understand the stuff enough to add more logging :-)

     
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  • jarnoh
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    14. jarnoh,
    Jul 30, 2012 1:31 PM   in reply to jarnoh
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    I rerun it, but first saved XMP file myself (Cmd+S).  Now it works   So the problem is not the osascript, but chmod

     
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  • Rob Cole
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    15. Rob Cole,
    Jul 30, 2012 3:22 PM   in reply to jarnoh
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    Well that's a new one on me - thanks for turning that up .

     

    Still, on some systems, the osascript is clearly a problem (error message in log file is specific and unambiguous...).

     
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  • jarnoh
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    16. jarnoh,
    Jul 30, 2012 10:56 PM   in reply to Rob Cole
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    Still, I'm not buying this as a wide spread problem.  It's definately not a SDK problem anyway.

     

    Perhaps the users system is just misconfigured, or could use the magic of Disk Utility's repair permissions.  Error code 256 indicates a file access error, perhaps they have wrong permissions under /System/Library/CoreServices/System Events.app or something...

     
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