Switching from Remote Management to Screen Sharing

Apple Remote Management Service (ARMS) / Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) has been increasingly used to facilitate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against other network providers. For more information, please see this article: https://www.netscout.com/blog/asert/call-arms-apple-remote-management-service-udp

By default, all Macs that are deployed and configured by Mac Mini Vault have Screen Sharing enabled and ARMS/ARD disabled. ARMS/ARD is no longer allowed on our networks unless the service is firewalled with a software or hardware firewall.

We recommend making the following change during our free hands-on support hours or by opening a support ticket and providing login credentials so that we can make the change for you to minimize any down time.

It is important to use caution when switching from Remote Management to Screen Sharing. Doing so via the GUI will result in a loss of access to your remote Mac. In order to properly make the switch to Screen Sharing, you will need to connect to your remote Mac via SSH. Do not attempt these steps via Terminal within a VNC session.

Run the following three commands via SSH:

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -deactivate -configure -access -off

sudo launchctl enable system/com.apple.screensharing

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.screensharing.plist

If executed correctly, you should now be able to reconnect via Screen Sharing / VNC. If you have any issues, please open a support ticket and we will assist you with our free hands-on support.