MacUserGenerator

A Mac utility that assists in automating the creation of macOS User Accounts.

MacUserGenerator (MUG) is written from the ground up, with ideas heavily inspired from MagerValp'sCreateUserPkg:

Light Appearance	Dark Appearance

Features

• Export a user account as a Python script (PY).
• Export a user account as an Installer Package (PKG).
• Ability to Open / Save the user account document / snapshot (MUGshot? 🙃).

	Booted Volumes	Targeted Volumes
Create User Accounts	Yes *	Yes
Set Administrator	Yes	Yes
Hide User Account	Yes	Yes
Hide User Account Home Folder	Yes	Yes
Login Automatically	Yes	Yes
Skip Setup Assistant	Yes	Yes
Abort if user account already exists	Yes	Yes

* macOS Mojave 10.14 Caveats:

• Supported when System Integrity Protection (SIP) is disabled

• When SIP is enabled, attempting to update the User ID and Home Directory attributes will result in the following prompts:

  Scripts	Packages

Under the hood (the nerdy stuff)

• Export a user account as a Python script (PY):

  • The user account password is hashed using PBKDF2. Your password does not appear in plain text anywhere!
  • The user account picture is embedded into the python script (base64). No need for a separate image file!

• Export a user account as an Installer Package (PKG):

  • Package is payload free - it uses the script export mentioned above as a postinstall script within the package.
  • Package will be signed with a Developer ID Installer Certificate (if selected) during export:

  

Things I would love some help with

• Ability for the user account to be allowed to unlock FileVault (FDE).

Requirements

• Written in Swift 5.0.1.
• Built using Xcode 10.2.1.
• Builds run on OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later.

Download

Grab the latest version of MacUserGenerator from the releases page.

Credits / Thank You

• Project created and maintained by Nindi Gill (ninxsoft).
• Per Olofsson (MagerValp) for his blessing and advice on the project.
• Greg Neagle (gregneagle) for his work on pycreateuserpackage - his project has really helped me understand how to communicate with the OS via the OpenDirectory API.
• Marcus Ransom (@marcusransom) for his advice and help with testing.

Version History

• 0.3
  • Export script rewritten in Python
    • Home directory is now created correctly
    • Full support for macOS Mojave 10.14!
    • User account creation will abort if username or uid already exists
  • Dark appearance support
  • Removed all unnecessary Setup Assistant checkboxes
  • Full name conversion to account no longer capitalises
  • A new UUID is generated every time the exported package / script is run
  • Xcode project updated to support Swift 5.0
• 0.2
  • Selecting Administrator for Account Type should now work correctly
  • Added option to skip the Data & Privacy screen
  • Photo support
  • Rewrote the export script:
    • No longer uses defaults write
    • Uses PlistBuddy instead
• 0.1
  • Initial release

License

Copyright © 2021 Nindi Gill
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.