Why new "find devices on local networks" dialog box?

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hi: I happen to be running macOS Version 15.0 Beta (24A5320a) on my MacBook Pro.
Recently, when I reboot my Mac, I'm getting a new dialog box, or at least I don't recall this happening previously. It reads: "Allow "Keyboard Maestro Engine" to find devices on local networks?"

I searched the forum and the wiki, and can't find mention of this dialog box. I reviewed the "Security" panel of the KM Preferences, but none seem related to this dialog box.

I can't see why KM would need to access devices, and I'm not sure if this is because of all the security nonsense Apple is putting us through with Sequoia betas.

Is there something I can do to stop being prompted with this every time I reboot my MBP? Thank you.

2

Usually when Apple is referring to “finding devices” it is Bluetooth related, but Keyboard Maestro doesn't do any bluetooth stuff.

My guess would be that it is related to the network stuff, either the wifi related facilities like the Wireless Network trigger, or possibly Keyboard Maestro’s own built in server if that is enabled. Note that anything related to the Location facilities (like the Get Location action) might also be related.

It's hard to know what would specifically trigger that alert (it's hard to know what any of Apple’s security stuff does).

Unless you can narrow down when the alert is being displayed and connect it to a specific macro, it's going to be hard to figure out (though I expect it'll become clearer if it affects more people).

Unfortunately this is the way that it is heading - lots and lots of things Keyboard Maestro does are related to security restrictions since Keyboard Maestro is basically acting for you to control all sorts of things. And this is going to mean more and more security dialogs I'm afraid.

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3

Note that this is "find devices", not "Find My..." or similar.

Any app that has access to the network stack can find out enough information about local devices to infer a lot of information that Apple is throwing the Sequoia privacy blanket over. KM has the %MacIPAddress% and %WirelessNetwork% tokens, the "Wireless Network" condition, the "Wireless Network" and "Remote" triggers, a built-in web server...

Submit feedback to Apple using the Beta's reporter. These permission requests are almost certainly here to stay -- you need to let Apple know that having to confirm on every restart is a reduction in security because they are numbing you to important dialogs.

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4

Thanks for replying @peternlewis and @Nige_S. I'm not using the Wireless Network trigger, and the Web Server is not enabled. I previously got the message only when I rebooted my Mac, not when activating any macros. But in the last day, I've rebooted a few times trying to figure out what exactly triggers the message, and of course I can't get it to trigger. :slight_smile: So I'm chalking this up to Sequoia Security nonsense. I'll keep filing Apple feedback about the dialog box fatigue. Thank you!

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