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Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X: all processes on the computer become locked

In some circumstances, on Apple Mac OS X computers running version 10.4 and Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X, all processes on the computer can become locked.

This can happen if Sophos Anti-Virus has been installed from a Central Installation Directory (CID) which is being updated by Enterprise Console or Sophos Control Center. A component, Remote Management System (RMS), which is installed on the client computer to facilitate communication between the workstation and server, can trigger a flaw in Mac OS X version 10.4. If the affected Mac is disconnected from the network, it can become locked.

Note: This issue does not affect Mac OS X version 10.3, or Mac OS X version 10.4.3 and above.

This issue was investigated by Apple, and corrected in a later operating system release.

What to do

If you are running Sophos enterprise solutions, and cannot yet upgrade, you should

  1. Create a separate CID using the Sophos Anti-Virus Mac OS X network installer package. You will need a username and password to access this package.
  2. Install all affected computers from this special CID.

You can then use Sophos Update Manager to configure the installer to manage your computers from a CID supplied and updated by EM Library.

This will ensure that RMS is not installed. Your workstations will not be visible in Enterprise Console, but they will be updated, and protected from all new threats.

If you need more information or guidance, then please contact technical support.