System Preferences for Standard Users

in general, anything that effects the system is admin only ie. network, printing, security settings

Printing is a bit of irregular one, as the preference pane is locked, but if the standard user is a member of lpadmin group then they are able to add and remove printers.

If you want to get right into it i recommending reading through this post by the one and only Rich Trouton

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/managing-the-authorization-database-in-os-x-mavericks/

There is a couple links at the bottom of the post that give you an idea of how the authorisation database works and what you can do with it

Really good resource here that I believe is also referenced in @rtrouton 's blog:
http://www.dssw.co.uk/reference/authorization-rights/index.html

@calumhunter Thanks for the quick response.

I was running through the guide, but running under a local administrative user on Yosemite, I get the following result:

james-test-mbp:~ local-admin-user$ security authorizationdb read referenced.rights                          
NO (-60005)

Still feeling adventurous I continued with the following:

james-test-mbp:~ local-admin-user$ sudo security authorizationdb write system.preferences allow
Password:
YES (0)
james-test-mbp:~ local-admin-user$ sudo security authorizationdb write system.preferences.network allow
YES (0)

Feeling lucky, I ventured to my trusty control panel and ... nought.

Let's reboot...

@james.stracey

What exactly are you trying to achieve™?

Allow non-admins access to the network sys prefpane? For what purpose exactly?

Perhaps there are better ways to achieve the end goal

I need to allow a standard user to allow the use of and configure a new interface when plugged into the machine. These interfaces are typically created through the use of USB based docking stations. I've added an example of what a standard user is prompted with when connecting to an unfamiliar dock.

I also need to allow a standard user to create, edit and remove printers.

Edit to add:
a good guide on what system rights are available is here:
http://www.dssw.co.uk/reference/authorization-rights/index.html

Ah right ok, you could perhaps create a script to run from self service that detects new hardware. But configuration of that might get a bit more complicated if they want to do any more than DHCP

in which case your pretty much on the money with those two security commands but there is one more you need for 10.9 and 10.10 from what I can tell

so try this

sudo security authorizationdb write system.preferences allow
sudo security authorizationdb write system.preferences.network allow
sudo security authorizationdb write system.services.systemconfiguration.network allow

You'll need a reboot for that to take effect.

Allowing standard users to add/remove printers is as easy as adding them to the lpadmin group

ie.

dseditgroup -o edit -a $username -t user lpadmin

you could run that as a login script. Its idempotent, but you could run some checks first.

Here is a login script that I run. For Casper, you will need to fix up the logged_in_username variables. Casper provides the username as $3 so just set logged_in_username to $3 and you should be right

#!/bin/bash

##############################################################      
#                                                                                                                        #
# Author:   Calum Hunter                                                                                   # 
# Date:     15-05-2015                                                                                       #
# Version:  0.1                                                                                                   #
# Purpose:  Login script to ensure the user is a member of                               #
#           the lpadmin group in order to add/remove                                            #
#           printers.                                                                                                #
#                                                                                                                        #
##############################################################

# Script Configuration
logger_tag="LoginScript_lpadmin_group_check"
logged_in_user_id="$1"
logged_in_user_name=`id -un $1`
printer_group="lpadmin"

# Script Functions
check_group_membership(){                   # Function to test if a user is a member of the $printer_group
    member_check=`dsmemberutil checkmembership -U $logged_in_user_name -G $printer_group`
    if [ $? != "0" ]; then
        logger -p 2 -s -t $logger_tag "Error! Got error from dsmemberutil while trying to checkmembership of user $logged_in_user_name for presence in group $printer_group"
        exit 1
    fi
    if [ "$member_check" = "user is not a member of the group" ]; 
        then
            logger -p 5 -s -t $logger_tag "User: $logged_in_user_name is NOT a member of: $printer_group"
            add_user_to_lpadmin $logged_in_user_name
        elif [ "$member_check" = "user is a member of the group" ];
            then
                logger -p 5 -s -t $logger_tag "User: $logged_in_user_name IS a member of group: ${printer_group}, nothing to do here."
                exit 0
    fi
}

add_user_to_lpadmin(){                      # Function to add a user to the lpadmin group  
    logger -p 5 -s -t $logger_tag "Adding $logged_in_user_name to $printer_group ...."
    dseditgroup -o edit -a $1 -t user $printer_group
    if [ $? != "0" ]; then
        logger -p 2 -s -t $logger_tag "Error! Got error from dseditgroup trying to add $1 to $printer_group "
        exit 1
    fi
    logger -p 5 -s -t $logger_tag "User: $logged_in_user_name added to: $printer_group successfully."
}


#--- Run Script Functions ---#
check_group_membership

exit 0

@calumhunter The three lines to grant standard user access to the network preferences, I am guessing that that is all of the data that the script needs to contain to grant this. Is that correct?

Also, when should that run? Just once per machine at build time? Continuously at machine startup/login?

yeah for a first boot script it would be

#!/bin/sh

security authorizationdb write system.preferences allow
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.network allow
security authorizationdb write system.services.systemconfiguration.network allow

exit 0

that will modify the authorization database. it should survive reboots and os updates (maybe?)

you could make your script check the status of those keys and if its not allow set it to allow if you wanted to go that way

Easiest way to handle printing if you're going to enable everyone to add/remove printers anyhow:

/usr/sbin/dseditgroup -o edit -n /Local/Default -a everyone -t group lpadmin

All users will then be able to add printers as necessary. The only thing that can be tricky is the printer drivers themselves, which can require admin rights to install (or Self Service).

@ jazzyj Did you ever get this working?
I'm Trying to follow along here to give users access to network system preferences on OS X 10.11.4

Have tried
security authorizationdb write system.preferences allow
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.network allow
security authorizationdb write system.services.systemconfiguration.network allow

but still after a reboot standard users have no access
Have also read through RTroutons blog on how this works with OS X 10.10, but still no success
https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/managing-the-authorization-database-in-os-x-mavericks/

Hi all,

I have a followup on this matter.

As the commands work fine I now want to be able to revert the setting as I only want someone to have this access temporarily.

I am able to lock the pref again but clicking the lock now results in nothing. I mean that I cannot unlock the pref, no user/pass is asked. In other words .. it is broken....

Any ideas?

What I have done to lock the pref again is remove the lines <key>rule</key> and the containing string allow.

@rblaas I have tested and verified that is these commands unlock the preference

security authorizationdb write system.preferences allow
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.datetime allow

These commands will lock the preference

security authorizationdb write system.preferences authenticate-admin
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.datetime authenticate-admin

@donparfet Thanks for your quick reply.

I have tried your solution but no luck..

This is what I have done

To unlock:
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.network allow
security authorizationdb write system.services.systemconfiguration.network allow

To Lock
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.network authenticate-admin
security authorizationdb write system.services.systemconfiguration.network authenticate-admin

(after running the lock commands the pref is still unlocked. I can not lock it manually. Also after reboot the pref is still unlocked)

I am not running the system.preferences authenticate-admin because I have another pref which I do want to stay open. (printers)

To clarify: I want a normal user to be able to change the network settings. Maybe I am just doing it wrong aka wrong settings.

EDIT: I have tried using default and that seems to work.. Will do some more testing but for now it does the trick..

(security authorizationdb write system.services.systemconfiguration.network default)

Could this be handled in a different automated way without having to elevate permissions?

When you connect the device, does it update a file? Maybe a LaunchDaemon with a WatchPath, e.g.:

    WatchPaths =     (
        "/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration"
    );

This could trigger a script. Do you feel you could script the addition of a new dock?

networksetup may help you here, e.g. to start with:

networksetup -listallhardwareports