Pulse Secure Stopping from opening at startup Mac

[ianchen]

A software that always opens on startup without any configuration option to turn it off should be considered malware.

Is PulseSecure malware? I'll say yes.

[pdavila]

: ) thank you, this is better than what I did.

I set RunAtLoad field to false in the macOS LaunchAgents.  You can also set the Disabled field to true, details below.  You will probably need to undo this and reboot to use the client.

% sudo su -

serenity:~ root# find /Library/LaunchAgents/ -name "*pulse*"                     

/Library/LaunchAgents/net.pulsesecure.pulsetray.plist

# vim /Library/LaunchAgents/net.pulsesecure.pulsetray.plist

...

        <key>Disabled</key>

        <false/>

        <key>RunAtLoad</key>

        <false/>

</dict>

</plist>

I assume this option is not available in the macOS client because of security features in macOS that would require a reboot after toggling such an option.

[emcee2]

So I realize this is an old message thread, but at some point in the past I actually did find the solution using macOS Automator to create a script to unload the pulse secure app for other users worked for me so I let things be.

Since that time there have been changes to hardware (Apple Silicon), OS and of course Ivanti... I don't know what things really changed with the app, but ultimately I have come back looking for a solution 'cause the unload function doesn't work for me anymore.

I finally sorted out that the Automator "run shell script" line should read:

launchctl unload –w /Library/LaunchAgents/net.pulsesecure.pulseagent.plist

and this seems to work for me now and does not fire up Ivanti for other users.

Note to Ivanti/Pulse secure: some pages back in this message thread another user pointed out that the whole reason for wanting to disable Ivanti for other users is that those other users have no need for the application.  It just gets in the way for other users, in my case like my wife and child, neither of whom need to launch the VPN to connect to my workplace.  I'm working from a home computer, and it's really annoying that Pulse Secure/Ivanti don't seem to care that there might be some other use cases other than 1 user on a computer owned & maintained by the user's employer.

I will also point out that should one exit this new revised Ivanti app, and the app is running in another user's profile, I cannot restart Ivanti Secure Access in my user profile!  I get some message that the app is in use, and until I can get the app exited in that other user's profile I'm SOL.

[zanyterp]

thank you for sharing this as an option that has been seen to work for you
i agree it is something that would be beneficial; i would suggest you reach out to your helpdesk and ask if they can put in an enhancement request through their contact with pulse secure/ivanti