Understanding what JAMF runs as on a Mac

[adamberns]

I am trying to explain to our engineers what JAMF runs as on a Mac. Simply put does it run as the Jamf user and does everything as sudo, does it just run under the Jamf user, does it run as root, or something else? I.E. what would ~ be? Is there a desktop folder associated with it?

[Jerneheim]

A break down of what's installed and run on a Mac can be found here:
https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/articles/100/components-installed-on-managed-computers

[jefff]

The Jamf binary runs as root. If you need to install as the current user, there are ways to do that through scripting. Searching the forium for "current user" will help you find those methods.

[bradtchapman]

The jamf binary needs to run as root. Any other configuration would be unsupported.

If you’re talking about ~ (home folder) then I can only assume someone in security is asking what the management account is used for.

The short answer is that you don’t really need it as much as you used to, but you might want to keep it as an escape hatch.

[dlondon]

Hi @adamberns - yes the jamf binary runs with a lot of rights. Just as, e.g. the SCCM binary does on a windows system. I'm not sure if you have been to any JAMF training but a lot of your question is covered in that so if you haven't, this could be a way to leverage some training for you.