Apple Plans Tighter macOS Full Disk Access Controls Over AI Agent Data Access

Apple has said it will tighten the macOS Full Disk Access (FDA) permission because AI agents granted this access can silently read a user's entire system, including files, mail, messages and browsing history, without the person fully understanding what they've authorized. The move follows reports that Meta's Muse agent tool read a journalist's private iMessages after being given Full Disk Access along with an enabled Messages connector, prompting Meta to clarify that both settings are required for such access. It also comes after researcher Patrick Wardle publicly demonstrated a proof-of-concept exploit, dubbed not-a-mused, against Muse's Mac app, letting an unprivileged local process hijack Muse's dictation traffic and abuse its elevated trust, a flaw Meta has since patched. Wardle was also credited for reporting a separate vulnerability, CVE-2026-100754, in OpenAI's ChatGPT app for Mac that could have allowed attackers to hijack the assistant and steal chat logs and other stored data, underscoring the growing risk that highly privileged AI agents pose on macOS.