Add to admin group membership (MACOS) - Mesh Central (Admin):

Table of Content:

About:

This guide explains how to remotely add a user to the admin group on a macOS device using MeshCentral. This gives the selected user administrator rights on that Mac.

How to:

!! IMPORTANT !!

Be extremely cautious when performing this action. Adding a user to the admin group grants full administrative privileges, which means they can:

  • Install or remove system software

  • Change critical system settings

  • Modify other user accounts

    Only perform this on devices or users where admin rights are explicitly approved by your organization. A mistake here can lead to security issues or loss of system integrity.

  1. You must have MeshCentral access with rights to open a terminal session on the target Mac. Go to Mesh Central. Search for the employees name and click it.

  2. In the device’s control panel, click on Terminal. Then click Connect to start a remote shell session with the Mac. (You may need to wait a few seconds for the connection to establish.)

Note:

Before making changes, it’s a good idea to confirm the current admin group membership.
Run the following command:

dscl . -read /Groups/admin GroupMembership

You’ll see a list of usernames that currently belong to the admin group.
Make sure that the target user is not already listed.
SH_Addtoadmingroupmembership(MACOS)l_AD-1.png

  1. Type this code in the terminal. Make sure to take a notice of the lack of the test_user in the admin GroupMembership and take note that the user appears after the code is executed. You will likely be prompted for the administrator password.
sudo dscl . -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership usernameofuser
  1. Make sure to verify that the user was added successfully.
   dscl . -read /Groups/admin GroupMembership

SH_Addtoadmingroupmembership(MACOS)l_AD-1.png

And you are done. 😄