Disabling iSight Camera's

[jstandre]

Does anyone have an updated script that disables iSight Cameras on 10.9? I tried the script that is currently listed on the board, and it moves the files to the "Disabled Extension" folder. However, iSight is still working. The script says it has been tested up to 10.6. Any ideas?

[CasperSally]

Not sure what script you tried, but this is the one we were using, but I'm not sure if techs have needed it for 10.9

#!/bin/sh
rm -rf /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component
rm -rf /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugin

[Chris_Hafner]

+1 @CasperSally We used to do this years ago before we got around to actually educating our students about the 'acceptable use' of such technology. After all, they all have phones and other cameras. Though, I will say that I seem to remember that you're in k-12? It certainly makes sense with younger students. Regardless, CasperSally's script will work UNTIL you run an OS update so make sure to re-run said script when you do those!

[jstandre]

Thank you for the information. Yes, we have some 5th and 6th grade students abusing FaceTime.

[CasperSally]

We block facetime @ network level so students can still use iSight for Photobooth, etc.

[chris_kemp]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread - but I've run into an issue. We've been using something similar to what CasperSally's describing to disable iSight cameras on a certain group which has this as a security requirement. However, doing some testing on a recent laptop has apparently revealed a change in the camera being used in the newer laptops, and moving/deleting the drivers listed doesn't work - some of them apparently don't even exist on the affected systems.

The new machines have a different model ID from our older ones: Model ID: Apple Camera VendorID_0x106B ProductID_0x1570

This is a problem, because it will break our existing security script as newer machines enter the fleet. Has anyone else run into this, and figured out the solution?

[bpavlov]

Even if this current method works, you may want to also test to see if it works in El Capitan. I suspect it won't. Would be a good time to ask Apple to implement a way to disable the user of certain hardware via profiles. You never know if they'll implement it.

[chris_kemp]

El Cap aside, the fact that this doesn't reliably work in Yosemite either is a problem. I'd love to ask Apple to help, but realistically that probably isn't going to happen.