The macOS system must disable sending search data from Spotlight to Apple.

STIG ID: APPL-15-002024  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000095-GPOS-00049 |  Severity: medium |  CCI: CCI-000381 |  Vulnerability Id: V-269566

Vulnerability Discussion

Sending data to Apple to help improve search must be disabled.

The information system must be configured to provide only essential capabilities. Disabling the submission of search data will mitigate the risk of unwanted data being sent to Apple.

Check

Verify the macOS system is configured to disable sending search data from Spotlight with the following command:

/usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript << EOS $.NSUserDefaults.alloc.initWithSuiteName('com.apple.assistant.support')\
.objectForKey('Search Queries Data Sharing Status').js
EOS

If the result is not "2", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the macOS system to disable sending search data from Spotlight by installing the "com.apple.assistant.support" configuration profile.
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