Security risk: EA Background Service runs as root on Mac

@Bluebellflora  I apologize for not clarifying that the modders, the ones I download directly from, are above reproach, like MCCC and LittleMsSam. No worries there. I am very careful with what I put on my computer. But you had no way of knowing that, and your reply in that regard was valid, and something I might have cautioned someone about, too. 🙂

I did not link to the developer forum because I did not know if a link would be allowed. To summarize, the most helpful answer I got was a "yes and no" along with (paraphrasing here not a full quote) the chances of a hacker bothering with that vulnerability are slim because coding Unix/Mac is really hard. On one hand that makes me feel better, but on the other hand, the risk still exists.

I probably should have told you that I play my game on an old intel Mac that runs best on Monterey, which is not nearly as safe as Sonoma. I should have mentioned I use a malware solution that stops suspect processes rather than having a list of bad actors to defend against. It might not even allow the EA App for Mac to install. So that was also on my mind.

The bottom line is, I did not want to lose my game, because it means so much to me, and I felt backed into a corner with no escape. Origin was working just fine, and they are keeping it working for people who cannot upgrade, so I wanted the option to continue just like things were, but I was not given that option. EA is going to force me to use their new app or not play at all.

Perhaps I overreacted, in your opinion and quite possibly in the opinion of others. But I felt no desire to be contrarian or argumentative. I just needed to feel safe enough to make it possible for me to continue to play my game.

I have looked into this further, and read more of the "lots of programs/apps are as unsafe or more unsafe" type of thing followed by "don't worry about it." To me, it feels a great deal like being told "when you walk the streets of New York City, the Big Apple, just stay alert." Not the kind of advise that makes me feel safe.

The best solution would be for EA to make the app more safe and less invasive. I cannot depend on them doing that.

So I talked with my daughter and we came up with an alternative solution. She is helping me finance a new iMac, and I will remove everything but The Sims 4 on one of the two computers, and then play offline unless I need to update.

Everything I must keep safe will be on the other computer, which will stay online.

That way, I will not have to worry about safety on the computer with the app installed, because it will be very easy to simply reinstall my game should that ever become necessary, since nothing else will be on that computer. And it is a simple thing to keep redundant backups of my Saves and other game data.

Some people may feel this is going way overboard, but since it has been several years since I upgraded to a new Mac, to me it feels like a really good solution. Being able to play my sims means that much to me. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.