Apple macOS 15 (Sequoia) Security Technical Implementation Guide

The Apple macOS 15 (Sequoia) Security Technical Implementation Guide (V1 R8) has 160 STIG checks. New to STIG checklists? Read What is a STIG checklist?, CKL vs CKLB, and STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

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Severity

Version

V1 · R8

CurrentPublished Wed Sep 30 2026

The macOS system must disable Location Services.

Apple macOS 15 (Sequoia) Security Technical Implementation Guide

Assessment Title

Rule Text

The macOS system must disable Location Services.

Description

Discussion Text

Location Services must be disabled.

The information system must be configured to provide only essential capabilities. Disabling Location Services helps prevent unauthorized connection of devices, transfer of information, and tunneling.

New to STIG checklists? Read What is a STIG checklist? and CKL vs CKLB.

Objective

V-268480

Rule

SV-268480r1034380_rule

Severity

medium

Rule Version

APPL-15-002004

Documentable

false

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Rev 5

Assessment Procedure

Check Text

Verify the macOS system is configured to disable Location Services with the following command:

/usr/bin/sudo -u _locationd /usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript << EOS
$.NSUserDefaults.alloc.initWithSuiteName('com.apple.locationd')\
.objectForKey('LocationServicesEnabled').js
EOS

If the result is not "false", this is a finding.

Implementation Procedure

Fix Text

Configure the macOS system to disable Location Services with the following command:

/usr/bin/defaults write /var/db/locationd/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.locationd LocationServicesEnabled -bool false; 
pid=$(/bin/launchctl list | /usr/bin/awk '/com.apple.locationd/ { print $1 }')
kill -9 $pid

STIG check 58 of 160 in the Apple macOS 15 (Sequoia) STIG checklist

← Previous · V-268479The macOS system must disable Network File System (NFS) service.Next · V-268481 →The macOS system must disable Bonjour multicast.