Steam.app would like to receive keystrokes from any application

catalinagamesprivacySecuritysteam

I just installed a new version of Steam on macOS Catalina 10.15 (19A602) and got this unexpected request:

Keystroke Receiving

Steam.app would like to receive keystrokes from any application

Keystroke Receiving: Steam.app would like to receive keystrokes from any application

I hit Deny since I can't see any good reason why Steam should need this. I can't find any answers, having looked at a thread on Reddit and Apple Support forums. This security article from Sophos, Synthetic clicks and the macOS flaw Apple can’t seem to fix seems to be related.

Why would Steam need this?

Best Answer

Under Catalina's security model, Apps are supposed to operate isolated from everything else, including your data. If they want to use your data or a service from another App, they must ask you for permission to do so.

Source.

This seems reasonable given the message in the dialog box, however I can find no direct information directly from Apple so please take it under advisement until it can be confirmed.

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