To clarify for others: In /Library/DropboxHelperTools, you'll find a folder for each user full of setuid tools which run as root and do various privileged things. The dialog box you see is a native OS X API (i.e. > - We never see or store your admin password. We’ll do a better job here and we’re sorry for any anger, frustration or confusion we’ve caused. The intent was never to frustrate people or override their choices. We check and set privileges on startup - the intent was to make sure Dropbox is functioning properly, works across OS updates, etc. We never see or store your admin password. We've been working with Apple to eliminate this dependency and we should have what we need soon. We use elevated access for where the built-in FS APIs come up short. We use accessibility APIs for the Dropbox badge (Office integrations) and other integrations (finding windows & other UI interactions).
We only ask for privileges we actively use - but unfortunately some of the permissions aren’t as granular as we would like. We ask for permissions once but don’t describe what we’re doing or why. Clearly we need to do a better job communicating about Dropbox’s OS integration. Hi HN - Ben from Dropbox here on the desktop client team.
