Does this MacOS Lock screen flow make sense on the enterprise security terms?

Bhavin Gandha
2 min readJun 8, 2022

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I was using a mac mini for a long time and recently moved to a Newer gen Macbook and I noticed a strange thing.

When we do the lock screen on the MacBook still media play/pause button works if the screen is locked and it starts the media which was paused. That media could be a confidential presentation or recordings, so if someone gains physical access to the device and press the media play button they could hear the audio about that media as it plays in the background without the authentication.

As a Software Developer unauthenticated access to play any content on my device seems like a security problem to me.

To Produce the Scenario

  • Play and Pause any Audio/Video Media on Macbook
  • Lock the screen
  • Use the Physical media play button ⏯
  • Audio of media file will Play in the Background even when the screen is locked

I saw it as an issue and reported it to Apple but for Apple, it is a feature.

Solution for it could be like including a System or Application level permission control to enable/disable triggering media control from the lock screen so that it could be configured and be assured on it.

so just publishing this blog so everyone can share their view and can share it with enterprises that work with confidential media.

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