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> Enable Terminal secure keyboard entry > Why? To prevent other apps from snooping on what you type. > How? Go to Terminal.app > Menu bar > Terminal, click “S

> Enable Terminal secure keyboard entry > Why? To prevent other apps from snooping on what you type. > How? Go to Terminal.app > Menu bar > Terminal, click “Secure Keyboard Entry”. I wasn’t aware of this setting. Seems like it should be enabled by default.

lapcat 4y ago
I had Secure Keyboard Entry enabled before, but starting on macOS Monterey it unfortunately causes other apps to launch in the background when Terminal is in the foreground, which makes the feature unusable for me. https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/monterey-security.html https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/monterey-security.html
- mathstuf 4y ago
  Oh, that's perfect. I hate how new apps get focus on macOS. Of course, now they'll "fix" it because I found some useful feature somewhere ;) .
  - plorkyeran 4y ago
    Yeah, this sounds like something I've always wanted. I'll take the inconvenience of having to explicitly switch to newly launched apps if it means that a newly launched app will never again steal focus while I was in the middle of typing.
    - lapcat 4y ago
      This feels like a false dichotomy to me. If I click an app in the Dock, I want it to come forward, always. If an app launches for some other reason, I don't want it to steal the focus, ever. But that's in general, independent of Secure Keyboard Entry.
      - mathstuf 4y ago
        My issue is that some apps take a while to start. While waiting, I go to do something else and then get brought back when the app finally decides to wake up. Apps being able to steal focus from a system password entry dialog is pure incompetence IMO. Fun side note: apps can steal focus from the lock screen password entry too (maybe this one has been fixed). Made it "fun" to log into locked screens while CI spawned dozens of windows in the background.
        lapcat 4y ago
        > My issue is that some apps take a while to start. While waiting, I go to do something else and then get brought back when the app finally decides to wake up. Agreed. I think I filed a Radar about this a dozen years ago or so. But the new Monterey behavior doesn't solve this problem, because it only applies to very limited circumstances.
        nyanpasu64 4y ago
        I want user interaction to be free of race conditions. If I click on an app that takes 1 second to start, then start typing, the resulting behavior shouldn't change based on whether I started typing before or after the window appears. In both cases, the input shouldn't make it to the previously focused app, and perhaps the input should even be buffered and sent to the new window once it appears (though I'm unsure if this is a good idea). And if you click back on the old window after clicking an app icon (which is slow to load), the newly opening app perhaps should not steal focus (interrupting user interaction at an unpredictable point) once it does pop up (though I'm unsure if this is an ideal user experience, how should the new app indicate its presence?).
      - throwaway675309 4y ago
        Hard disagree - the expected behavior should be: If I launch an item from the dock/finder AND I also don't context switch to another application, then and only then should the window show in the foreground and steal keyboard focus. I can't even begin to list the number of times where I've hit the enter key in an IDE at the exact moment that a application with a crucial modal message box steals focus.
  - abruzzi 4y ago
    I can’t count how many times I’m typing something (and since I don’t touch type, I’m looking at the keyboard, not the screen) and when I look up half of my text has gone into another app. I actually wish I could enable this one everything, not just secure text fields.
- revscat 4y ago
  That was an incredibly frustrating read. You click on an app in the dock and it doesn’t come to the foreground, and Apple marks this as “works as designed”? Just no.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    One of the many strange behavioral quirks of MacOS. I really love MacOS' compositor, but the window manager on top of it is just... yuck.
satysin 4y ago
You can use the following to set it as part of your install and setup automation script if you have one defaults write com.apple.terminal SecureKeyboardEntry -bool true

lapcat 4y ago

I had Secure Keyboard Entry enabled before, but starting on macOS Monterey it unfortunately causes other apps to launch in the background when Terminal is in the foreground, which makes the feature unusable for me. https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/monterey-security.html https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/monterey-security.html

mathstuf 4y ago
Oh, that's perfect. I hate how new apps get focus on macOS. Of course, now they'll "fix" it because I found some useful feature somewhere ;) .
- plorkyeran 4y ago
  Yeah, this sounds like something I've always wanted. I'll take the inconvenience of having to explicitly switch to newly launched apps if it means that a newly launched app will never again steal focus while I was in the middle of typing.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    This feels like a false dichotomy to me. If I click an app in the Dock, I want it to come forward, always. If an app launches for some other reason, I don't want it to steal the focus, ever. But that's in general, independent of Secure Keyboard Entry.
    - mathstuf 4y ago
      My issue is that some apps take a while to start. While waiting, I go to do something else and then get brought back when the app finally decides to wake up. Apps being able to steal focus from a system password entry dialog is pure incompetence IMO. Fun side note: apps can steal focus from the lock screen password entry too (maybe this one has been fixed). Made it "fun" to log into locked screens while CI spawned dozens of windows in the background.
      - lapcat 4y ago
        > My issue is that some apps take a while to start. While waiting, I go to do something else and then get brought back when the app finally decides to wake up. Agreed. I think I filed a Radar about this a dozen years ago or so. But the new Monterey behavior doesn't solve this problem, because it only applies to very limited circumstances.
      - nyanpasu64 4y ago
        I want user interaction to be free of race conditions. If I click on an app that takes 1 second to start, then start typing, the resulting behavior shouldn't change based on whether I started typing before or after the window appears. In both cases, the input shouldn't make it to the previously focused app, and perhaps the input should even be buffered and sent to the new window once it appears (though I'm unsure if this is a good idea). And if you click back on the old window after clicking an app icon (which is slow to load), the newly opening app perhaps should not steal focus (interrupting user interaction at an unpredictable point) once it does pop up (though I'm unsure if this is an ideal user experience, how should the new app indicate its presence?).
    - throwaway675309 4y ago
      Hard disagree - the expected behavior should be: If I launch an item from the dock/finder AND I also don't context switch to another application, then and only then should the window show in the foreground and steal keyboard focus. I can't even begin to list the number of times where I've hit the enter key in an IDE at the exact moment that a application with a crucial modal message box steals focus.
- abruzzi 4y ago
  I can’t count how many times I’m typing something (and since I don’t touch type, I’m looking at the keyboard, not the screen) and when I look up half of my text has gone into another app. I actually wish I could enable this one everything, not just secure text fields.
revscat 4y ago
That was an incredibly frustrating read. You click on an app in the dock and it doesn’t come to the foreground, and Apple marks this as “works as designed”? Just no.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  One of the many strange behavioral quirks of MacOS. I really love MacOS' compositor, but the window manager on top of it is just... yuck.

satysin 4y ago

You can use the following to set it as part of your install and setup automation script if you have one defaults write com.apple.terminal SecureKeyboardEntry -bool true