Gatekeeper is a security feature in macOS designed to ensure that only trusted software runs on your Mac. It helps protect your system by verifying the source of applications and ensuring they have not been tampered with. This is particularly important for preventing malware and other malicious software from compromising your system. In this article, we will explore how to configure and manage Gatekeeper settings using the command line, which is essential for system administrators and advanced users who need to maintain a secure macOS environment.

Examples:

1. Checking Gatekeeper Status: To check the current status of Gatekeeper, you can use the spctl command in the Terminal. This command-line tool manages security assessment policies.

   spctl --status

   If Gatekeeper is enabled, you will see the output:

   assessments enabled

2. Enabling Gatekeeper: To enable Gatekeeper, ensuring that only apps from the App Store and identified developers can run, use the following command:

   sudo spctl --master-enable

3. Disabling Gatekeeper: Disabling Gatekeeper is not recommended as it reduces the security of your Mac. However, for specific use cases such as testing or running certain applications, you might need to disable it temporarily:

   sudo spctl --master-disable

   After running this command, you can allow apps from any source by going to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General and selecting "Anywhere."

4. Allowing Specific Applications: If you want to allow a specific application that is being blocked by Gatekeeper, you can add it to the list of allowed apps using its path:

   sudo spctl --add /path/to/application.app

5. Removing an Application from the Allowed List: To remove an application from the allowed list, use the following command:

   sudo spctl --remove /path/to/application.app

6. Listing All Allowed Applications: To see a list of all applications that have been explicitly allowed by Gatekeeper, use:

   spctl --list