systempolicyd - akd - appstoreagent - Apple Telemetry on Mac Big Sur (Slowing down the whole computer) - Keeps pinging DNS names like icloud.com , apple.com from studentd-

Question

Level 1

4 points

systempolicyd - akd - appstoreagent - Apple Telemetry on Mac Big Sur (Slowing down the whole computer) - Keeps pinging DNS names like icloud.com , apple.com from studentd-

I am using my macbook basically because I like the size of the hardware ha ha. I cannot update to Sonoma and am missing lots of security updates. I constantly use my Laptop on public wifi as I do not have internet at home right now.

Can someone explain to me the following: all of these applications are pinging home to apple, disconnecting them suffers no Loss except a faster internet connection and faster CPU load time. I am using my computer for monitoring and want to list that it looks like these applications are not required. How did they come about my computer? What is the exact purpose, and if blocked I do not see a difference. Seems like I somehow might have picked up malware from an update during Recovery Internet updating when my laptop was backflashed to a previous version of OS X that I didnt even recognize.

Programs are the following:
akd
trustd
studentd
syspolicyd

Is this a macintosh spear fish attempt? This has been sitting on my BigSur and again seems to just use packets to phone home to the mother ship. I do not think this is needed since you are not pushing security updates to my laptop :) Next macbook should be a LEASE!

iPhone SE, iOS 18

Posted on Oct 30, 2024 2:27 PM

Reply

Answer 1

g_wolfman

Level 4

1,996 points

Oct 31, 2024 8:37 PM in response to TheDiker

akd is part of the AuthKit (authentication/authorisation) framework and used in the process of authenticating of iCloud and other accounts using Apple ID.

trustd provides services for evaluating trust in certificates for all processes on the system.

studentd manages the Apple Classroom experience for students and teachers that use MDM and the Apple School Manager service.

syspolicyd embodies the system policy controlling what may be installed, loaded, executed, or otherwise used on the system. It manages the policy database file, and serves as a general oracle that other system components may use to determine the system policy's verdict on a proposed operation. Think Gatekeeper notarization checks, etc.

There are man page entries for most everything you are interested in. They are all part of the OS, and doing what they were designed to do (act as hardened daemons with specific and limited functions that are decoupled from all the other daemons.

As for "phoning home" - well yes. I mean, how do you check the revocation status of a certificate without asking a certificate server?

Reply