> Mac keeps a list of (hashes of) apps that are not allowed to run. That's the XProtect blocklist, it's been around pretty long and hasn't caused any issues th

> Mac keeps a list of (hashes of) apps that are not allowed to run. That's the XProtect blocklist, it's been around pretty long and hasn't caused any issues that I'm aware of. > bug caused it not to cache the list long enough and it started causing problems when it couldn’t phone home What changed is that since Catalina macOS additionally makes a synchronous check the first time you open an app. For certain things that are not code signed (eg. shell scripts), it checks every time. This can cause multi-second delays when launching apps or executing commands in the shell. (see https://sigpipe.macromates.com/2020/macos-catalina-slow-by-design/ https://sigpipe.macromates.com/2020/macos-catalina-slow-by-d...) To my knowledge, this issue has not been fixed and is still a problem in Monterey (first time app launches on my M1 Max sometimes take several seconds). It's possible to deactivate the check for Terminal (by marking it as a "Developer Tool" using a checkbox that sometimes shows up in System preferences, and sometimes doesn't). I'm not aware of a way to avoid this slowdown in Finder without disconnecting from the internet.