I need to run an app that uses Adobe Air, but the installer for Adobe Air requires admin permissions. On general security principles, I limit what gets installed as admin user, and Adobe has a bad history when it comes to security, so it doesn't get exempted from my policy. I found that Mac OS X has a feature similar to Linux's LD_PRELOAD, called DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES, which changes the search path for libraries. So I'm wondering if this can be used to fake out installers that unnecessarily require admin permissions so the installer will install to the current user's directory instead of the system level directory. Or is there a better way to accomplish this?
MacOS – Install as non-admin user when the installer requires admin permissions
administratorinstallmacos
Related Solutions
Seems like you could use the SU command to switch to another user in Terminal. Once you've switched to the admin user you can use sudo commands coupled with the admin account's password.
For example, when I'm at one of my end user's Macs and I need to run something with elevated privileges (chown for example) without logging out and into the admin account (ladmin) I would use something like this (in bold):
Mr-Rabbits-Mac:~ notadminuser$ su ladmin
This will prompt for the ladmin account's password, once entered you will see a bash command prompt. From here I can run any sudo commands desired, entering ladmin's password as needed...
bash-3.2$ sudo chown user2 /some/folder
This will run the chown command using the now logged in ladmin user, prompting for the ladmin account's password. Once finished you can type exit to return to your logged in user's prompt.
Screenshot of similar process, only using sudo to run the ls command (just for example).
Boot into single user mode.
Delete the file /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and then type exit and press return
At that point, the system will boot back to the normal setup process (keeping your old users intact) You will be guided through the steps to create a new admin user so pick a short name that doesn't exist on the Mac and you can then re-grant your normal user admin rights if you wish.
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Best Answer
Drag-drop installs can go to an Applications folder at the root of the user's home folder and function without issue, but Adobe has been known for needing hooks in various parts of the OS. For example, a cursory overview of that package shows it wants to install certificates, the flashplayer plugin if not already present, etc. Conceivably, if you could 'snapshot'(using fsevents/dtrace/packaging tools like packagemaker or Composer, etc.) the installation in a VM and track down all the files it sprays on disk, and relocate those wherever applicable to the user folder on your system, AND the Air runtime and App in question could run without failing due to expecting to see resources in hardcoded directories....
In other words, magic 8-ball says 'highly unlikely'.