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[Actually legal!] Completely wiping macOS with installed MDMs? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/apple_enthusiast

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have two MacBooks that I acquired through two different startups. Both companies no longer exist and I was basically given the laptops. (They have just been sitting in my closet for a few years collecting dust, and it seems like a waste.)

Unfortunately, now that I want to use the laptops as part of a local k8s cluster (or even dedicated music production hardware), I am locked out of wiping the things because they want to connect to MDM servers that no longer exist or have admin passwords that have long since been forgotten.

Since these laptops are essentially "bricked" I have no problems opening them up and attempting hardware hacks to get around this stuff.

Both laptops are in various states of reset or wipe due to previous attempts to reset. (Funny thing, actually. I was personally responsible for locking down one of these laptops at the time they were in corporate use...)

Trash or treasure? I dunno. I am apple-dumb.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL 4 points 9 hours ago

I mostly fool around with older macs but if they're Intel, can't you just boot from a USB and then turn off system integrity protection and wipe the drive?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

....maybe?

It depends on Intel/Mx and what version of OS X was installed.

If you google 'mdm profile removal' you'll land on a LOT of options that may or may not work depending on how old these laptops are and what exactly was configured, how, and what options you have re. version of OS X installed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

One is a model "A1989" and another is "A2159", both of which are at least from 2018.

I believe I got them to a state where the recovery OS was re-installed? I am charging them now to get more information.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Cool, cool. I know there's some issues with Apple Silicon being somewhat uncooperative with removing MDM in a way that Intel ones aren't, so you don't need to deal with that at least?

I've used https://github.com/assafdori/bypass-mdm before and it DID work, but it's been a while.

Might be worth trying since it's stupidly straightforward and you're wiping and reinstalling stuff anyways.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Rock on, I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

From personal experience, these kinds of things are usually based on "security by obscurity" and is just a matter of pushing the right buttons in a specific order.

Unless hardware fuses are physically blown, there is usually a chance. While possible, I don't think any laptop manufacturer would implement that functionality without an expensive, special order contract.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, this feels more like keeping Debby from accounting from stealing her work laptop and thus making it useless for MOST people, while not making it a total unrecoverable brick, since they very much could if they wanted to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 24 minutes ago

Eyyy! One mac down, one to go.

It was just a shame to have this spare compute just sitting around and am glad it has avoided the recycling bin for at least another 4-5 years. (I don't like throwing electronics away. I'll even harvest components off of old stuff before it gets tossed, usually.)