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macosmacos-big-sur

Can't run app because of permission in macOS v11 (Big Sur)


I installed macOS v11 (Big Sur) yesterday and since then I am not able to run some old application. This is the message I get:

You do not have permission to open the application

I think this application is from an unknown developer.

I tried different methods that were working in macOS v10.15 (Catalina) like:

spctl --master-disable

Or I tried also to disable SIP and AMFI.

I've also tried:

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/my_app.app

If I run the application from the terminal, this is the text version of the error I get:

The application cannot be opened for an unexpected reason, error=Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-10826 "kLSNoLaunchPermissionErr: User doesn't have permission to launch the app (managed networks)" UserInfo={_LSFunction=_LSLaunchWithRunningboard, _LSLine=2508, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fcb24c13ec0 {Error Domain=RBSRequestErrorDomain Code=5 "Launched process exited during launch." UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Launched process exited during launch.}}}

Also tried to disable encryption and run:

csrutil authenticated-root disable

This is the error window:

Enter image description here


Solution

  • The problem in my case it was related to a Big Sur problem where UPX compressed binaries are not recognised properly, so they were not executed with a permission error.

    There is some more information here: UPX compressed application fails to start on latest macOS release: Big Sur 11.01 #424

    So the solution is to unpack the binary with UPX and run it normally.

    Install upx with Homebrew (executable brew):

    brew install upx
    

    Now run this command:

    sudo upx -d /Applications/my_app.app/Contents/MacOS/my_app
    

    (Please note you have to specify the full binary path.)

    You should use the path of your binary instead of "/Applications/my_app.app/Contents/MacOS/my_app"

    Then run the application normally.