Local Administrator Password Solution for Mac
We needed a way to securely manage local admin accounts on our Macs so we developed this system to complement Microsft LAPS, used by our Windows colleagues. As currently designed, this solution creates a local Admin account on every Mac enrolled into Casper and stores the account password in the Mac's inventory record as an Extension Attribute. On a specified interval Casper will then randomize the local Admin account password going forward.
As written currently, LAPS has several components that are integrated with the JAMF Casper Suite:
- A Casper Computer Extension Attribute to hold the current LAPS password.
- A Casper local user account for API calls.
- Two Smart Groups used to identify Computers with/without the local admin account.
- The LAPS Account Creation script.
- The LAPS script.
- A Casper policy that creates the local Account, via a manual trigger.
- A Casper policy that creates the local Account, for FileVault enabled Macs, via a manual trigger.
- A Casper policy that randomizes the Local Admin account password using a manual trigger, after initial account creation, by running a script.
- A Casper policy that randomizes the Local Admin account password on a specified interval, by running a script.
- A Casper policy that calls LAPS Account Creation script.
- A local log for LAPS on each Mac.
{APIusername}
This is the name of the local user within Casper that will be leveraged by the API.
{APIpassword}
This is the password used by the Local User within Casper, it should be long and robust.
{AccountShortName}
This is the shortname of your Local Admin account that will be created on your client Macs enrolled in Casper.
{AccountDisplayName}
This is the display name of your Local Admin account that will be created on your client Macs enrolled in Casper.
{AccountInitialPassword}
This will be the seed password for creating your Local Admin account on your Macs. This is required to maintain a functional FileVault and keychain for the account. This password is immediately randomized after the account is created.
Display Name: LAPS (This name is hardcoded into the scripts, if you change this name update the scripts accordingly)
Description: This attribute will display the current Local Admin Password of the device.
Data Type: String
Inventory Display: General
Input Type: Text Field
Recon Display: User and Location (Not Used)
Notes: The field is editable to allow for troubleshooting or manually overriding the password.
Username: {APIusername}
Access Level: Full Access
Privilege Set: Custom
Access Status: Enabled
Full Name: {APIusername}
Email Address: (Not Used)
Password: {APIpassword}
Privileges:
JSS Objects:
Computer Extension Attributes: RU
Computers: RU
Users: U
Notes: For Casper permissions C=Create, R=Read, U=Update, D=Delete (Not sure why the "Users" permission is needed. After much trial and error, and a call to JAMF, I discovered this permission set was required to properly read and update the Computer tables)
Replace {AccountShortName} with the name of the local admin account you will use for LAPS.
1. Display Name: {AccountShortName} LAPS User Missing
Criteria: Local User Accounts, does not have, {AccountShortName}
2. Display Name: {AccountShortName} LAPS User Present
Criteria: Local User Accounts, has, {AccountShortName}
Display Name: LAPS Account Creation
Options:
Priority: Before
Parameter Labels:
Parameter 4: API Username
Parameter 5: API Password
Parameter 6: LAPS Account Shortname
Parameter 7: LAPS Account Display Name
Parameter 8: LAPS Password Seed
Parameter 9: LAPS Account Event
Parameter 10: LAPS Account Event FVE
Parameter 11: LAPS Run Event
The current version of the LAPS Account Creation script is available here.
Notes: The LAPS Account Creation script performs the following actions:
1. Verifies that all variable parameters have been populated within Casper.
2. Verifies the location of the JAMF binary.
3. Populates the Local Admin account password seed into the LAPS extension attribute within Casper.
4. Checks if FileVault 2 in enabled on the Mac then calls Casper to create the local admin account accordingly.
• If FileVault 2 is not enabled, a regular admin account will be created on the Mac.
• If FileVault 2 is enabled, a FileVault 2 enabled admin account will be created on the Mac, the script will then verify that the new admin account is listed as FileVault enabled.
5. After the account has been created the LAPS script is called to randomize the initial password seed.
apiURL Put the fully qualified domain name address of your Casper server, including port number
(Your port is usually 8443 or 443; change as appropriate for your installation)
LogLocation Put the preferred location of the log file for this script. If you don't have a preference, using the default setting of /Library/Logs/Casper_Laps.log should be fine.
Display Name: LAPS
Options:
Priority: After
Parameter Labels:
Parameter 4: API Username
Parameter 5: API Password
Parameter 6: LAPS Account Shortname
The current version of the LAPS script is available here.
Notes: The LAPS script performs the following actions:
1. Verifies that all variable parameters have been populated within Casper.
2. Verifies the location of the JAMF binary.
3. Verifies that a password is stored in the LAPS extension attribuite within Casper for this Mac.
• If no password is found or it is invalid, the script will proceed with a brute force reset of the password.
• If a password is valid, the script will reset the password and update the local Keychain and FileVault 2.
4. After reseting the password the script will then update the LAPS extension attribute for the Mac in Casper and verify that the new entry in Casper is valid on the local Mac.
apiURL Put the fully qualified domain name address of your Casper server, including port number
(Your port is usually 8443 or 443; change as appropriate for your installation)
LogLocation Put the preferred location of the log file for this script. If you don't have a preference, using the default setting of /Library/Logs/Casper_Laps.log should be fine.
newPass This function controls the randomized password string. If you don't have a preference, the default should be fine for your environment.
The diagram below details how the newPass function works, if you wish to modify the password string.
┌─── openssl is used to create
│ a random Base64 string
│ ┌── remove ambiguous characters
│ │
┌──────────┴──────────┐ ┌───┴────────┐
openssl rand -base64 10 | tr -d OoIi1lLS | head -c12;echo
└──────┬─────┘
│
prints the first 12 characters ──────┘
of the randomly generated string
Display Name: LAPS for {AccountShortName} – Create Local Account – Manual Trigger
Scope: All Computers
Trigger:
Custom: createLAPSaccount-{AccountShortName}
Frequency: Ongoing
Local Accounts:
Action: Create Account
Username: {AccountShortName}
Full Name: {AccountDisplayName}
Password: {AccountInitialPassword}
Verify Password: {AccountInitialPassword}
Home Directory Location: /Users/{AccountShortName}/
Password Hint: (Not Used)
Allow user to administer computer: Yes
Enable user for FileVault 2: No
This is a separate policy to eliminate false positve errors that accumulate in the logs if the Mac is using FileVault 2.
Display Name: LAPS for {AccountShortName} – Create Local Account FVE – Manual Trigger
Scope: All Computers
Trigger:
Custom: createLAPSaccountFVE-{AccountShortName}
Frequency: Ongoing
Local Accounts:
Action: Create Account
Username: {AccountShortName}
Full Name: {AccountDisplayName}
Password: {AccountInitialPassword}
Verify Password: {AccountInitialPassword}
Home Directory Location: /Users/{AccountShortName}/
Password Hint: (Not Used)
Allow user to administer computer: Yes
Enable user for FileVault 2: Yes
This policy randomizes the local admin accounts password after initial account creation.
Display Name: LAPS for {AccountShortName} - Manual Trigger
Scope: All Computers
Trigger:
Custom: runLAPS
Frequency: Once every day (Change this value to meet your institution's needs)
Scripts: LAPS
Priority: After
Parameter Values
API Username: {APIusername}
API Password: {APIpassword}
LAPS Account Shortname: {AccountShortName}
This policy randomizes the local admin accounts password on a specified interval.
Display Name: LAPS for {AccountShortName}
Scope: LAPS {AccountShortName} Account Present
Trigger: Recurring Check-in
Frequency: Once every day (Change this value to meet your institution's needs)
Scripts: LAPS
Priority: After
Parameter Values
API Username: {APIusername}
API Password: {APIpassword}
LAPS Account Shortname: {AccountShortName}
Name: LAPS – Create Account
Scope: {AccountShortName} LAPS Account Missing
Trigger: Startup, Check-in, Enrollment (You may also decide to add a manual trigger for advanced workflows)
Frequency: Ongoing
Scripts: LAPS Account Creation
Priority: Before
Parameter Values
API Username: {APIusername}
API Password: {APIpassword}
LAPS Account Shortname: {AccountShortName}
LAPS Account Display Name: {AccountDisplayName}
LAPS Password Seed: {AccountInitialPassword}
LAPS Account Event: createLAPSaccount-{AccountShortName}
LAPS Account Event FVE: createLAPSaccountFVE-{AccountShortName}
LAPS Run Event: runLAPS
A log is written to each Mac run LAPS for troubleshooting. The default location for this log is /Library/Logs/Casper_LAPS.log which can be modified if desired.