# Running As Root (Super User)

Mac OS X is a true multiuser operating system, with a super user named root. There have been several reports from Leopard users that their processes were running as root. Running all processes as the root user is very bad for security and causes many problems for Input Managers, the Mac OS X keychain, and 1Password.

You can see if this is happening to you by opening Activity Monitor from /Applications/Utilities/ and looking to see if many (if not all) of your processes are running as root. Note that in the sample below, everything is running as a regular user, in this case dave:

Running as the root user can cause many problems. The 1Password Input Manager extension will not load into any process that is running as the root user. Leopard has strict rules regarding when an Input Manager can load and one is that no process running as root will have Input Managers loaded into it.

Another problem that can result from this is the Mac OS X keychain Services returning the error code -25293, which will be presented by 1Password as “Decryption Error -25293.” The Mac OS X keychain Services verify the user when performing authorization and authentication, so that is likely the point of failure.

User processes running as root seems to be a Leopard-specific issue that occurs when upgrading an old user account. This is mentioned in the Apple Discussion forums. Unfortunately, there is no good solution to this problem mentioned in the thread. One 1Password user wrote in to say this was happening to them and when they went in to discuss the problem at the Genius Bar, they were instructed to perform an Archive and Install. If this is happening to you, sadly all we can recommend is that you work with Apple to resolve the issue, or perform an Archive and Install.

## 1Password Keychain Owned By root Super User

Sometimes after fixing the above issue, the file permissions of the 1Password data file file are still owned by root. This can cause problems when saving new items. When using the Mac OS X keychain it is even worse as Keychain Services will report errors during the decryption of items.

Be sure to verify that your data file file is owned by your user account. You can do so by launching Finder, selecting the data file, and clicking File > Get Info (or press ⌘I). In the information window, under Sharing & Permissions, your user account should have full read and write privileges.