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How do I completely disable the Guest account on Leopard?

I thought I had turned off the "guest" account on Leopard, but was then darn surprised when a friend showed me that when he looked at the Network in our office my computer showed up. Worse, he could poke around on my file system as Guest!

Dave's Answer:

One change that I believe appeared in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5, that is) is that allowing file sharing from Guest users is now different to enabling remote login to the Guest account. Sounds like they should be the same, but as you'll see in a sec, there's a big difference between them.

Just as importantly, the default configuration for a Mac is now that the Guest account is enabled for file sharing but disabled for account login. I don't know that this is the best possible configuration, actually and would much rather have systems be secure by default rather than relying on the savvy of the user (and their attention and memory).

Fortunately it's really quite easy to fix this small security hole.

Simply go to Apple --> System Preferences and choose Accounts:

Click on that and you'll see a list of accounts on your computer down the left side. One of them will be Guest Account. Click that and you'll see what's going on:

Mac OS X: System Preferences: Accounts: Guest

I've highlighted the important checkbox you need to change in the image above: "Allow guests to connect to shared folders".

Uncheck that.

Now the listing for the Guest account on the left should no longer say "Sharing Only" but instead look like this:

Mac OS X: System Preferences: Accounts: Guest: Disabled!

That's what you want: "Disabled".

Now you should be safe.

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Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 7945)
Tagged: guest accounts, leopard, mac os x, security
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Comments

This is perfect! Just what I needed.

I've been surprised recently when I traveled, by the proliferation of other people's stuff that was appearing when I logged on at the airport. Why am I suddenly seeing all of these people's drives on my mac?

I was concerned that perhaps mine was showing up to other people too, and the last thing I want is everybody in the airport having access to my files!

But before I even did a Google search on it, your answer showed up here. I just fixed it following your steps. I hope all the other Leopard users out there realize their files are showing up for other people at the airport, and find the solution too.

It really seems that the default position is unsafe, and that Apple should change that. Thanks for the answer!

- Deanna.

Posted by: Deanna - Adventurous Wench at April 17, 2008 11:27 PM

I have disabled my general account as suggested, but there is still a list of other people showing up in my finder window under "shared devices'. Any idea how I can remove them?

Posted by: Howard at November 27, 2009 1:08 PM

I had to buy a new hard drive for my macbook. I replaced the drive with a larger one and using time machine tried to restore. That didn't work. Half way through it said the restore failed. I did this 5 times. Then I reinstalled leapord and then it asked me if I wanted to restore. I said yes. Now I have two user accounts and all applications have doubled. I wnat to know if I can delete the new user account that has been set up and just use my old one. Safari and Mail and several other applications quit when I try to open them. Any help would be appreciated.

Posted by: Barbara at December 26, 2009 7:46 AM

Howard, what you're seeing are *other people* you can connect to, not a list of who has connected to your system. Ask one of them if they can show you a list of what systems they can see and yours shouldn't be on the list. This is an asymmetric thing: they can be visible to you without you being visible to them.

Barbara, I have no idea what's happened, but am hoping you're not too far from an Apple Store: book a "Genius" appointment and have one of them do some hands-on troubleshooting to help figure out what's going on. Good luck!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at December 27, 2009 3:43 PM

Why can't you remove guest account TOTALY I want to REMOVE IT TOTALY AS IN DELETE NOT DISABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: glen at February 18, 2010 1:05 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!