It's located on the OS X recovery volume, so the default way to access this tool is by first booting to this volume, and then selecting it from the Utilities menu. To set up a firmware password in OS X, you must use Apple's Firmware Password Utility. The Firmware Password Utility allows you to set a password. Unfortunately in older Mac systems a firmware password could be bypassed by making even the simplest hardware changes to the system (for example, removing a RAM module) however, starting with Mac models released in 2011, Apple's firmware passwords now require servicing in order to be bypassed, making the password a far more effective security system. If you need to perform these actions, then you can always disable the password temporarily.

In addition to locking down the Mac's boot environment, the firmware password prevents resetting hardware variables like the PRAM. However, locking the firmware also makes it so someone would need the firmware password to access the boot menu. Apple's Firmware Password Utility is available by default from the Utilities menu in the OS X installer or recovery partition.Īnother means of bypassing OS X security measures is to hold the Option key at startup to view the boot menu and select a secondary volume such as an external USB drive to boot from, and subsequently access any file on the internal boot volume. These include Single User mode, in which the system drops you to a command line with root privileges, and Safe mode, in which nonessential and third-party system services (including security options) may be disabled at startup. Locking the firmware prevents the system from accepting boot arguments and loading in modes that might allow access to sensitive data.

If this concerns you, you might consider locking the system's firmware. Even with robust security software installed on a Mac system and Apple's efforts to prevent unwanted tampering, someone with brief physical access to your Mac can bypass security measures by booting to alternative volumes or loading in Single User mode.

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