How do I deactivate my microphone and iSight for security reasons?

Solution 1:

To disable iSight and other cameras, use:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleCameraInterface.kext

(tested on 10.9)

I'm not aware of a way to disable audio input without affecting output. It's the same hardware so unloading/removing the kext probably won't work. One step you can take is to turn the input volume down to zero in your sound preferences, but of course anyone who's able to log in will be able to turn it back up.

Solution 2:

I think you can specifically target your iSight camera by (re)moving /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component

According to this: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070323094959262

The link does mention that it is 10.4 specific and I haven't tried it under 10.8/10.9 but it's a good place to start.

Solution 3:

You want to check out isight-cli, which basically changes the permissions on the necessary drivers as suggested here and here.

isight-cli is based on original applescript isight-disabler.

Solution 4:

An update for OSX 10.11.6

Enable/disable the camera

1. First of all, you need to disable SIP by rebooting your mac in recovery mode (hold "Alt" key while rebooting then open the term.app and run csrutil disable and finally reboot).
2. I'm not a huge fan of file deletion in sytem folder. Use the power of Unix by changing changing the access rights of your selected files/folders/component. (secure if you have a decent admin password).

3. In a terminal, type the following commands for disabling the camera:

   sudo chmod a-r /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component/Contents/MacOS/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer
   sudo chmod a-r /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServicesPrivate.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC
   sudo chmod a-r /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC
   sudo chmod a-r /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMediaIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC
   sudo chmod a-r /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/AppleCamera.plugin/Contents/MacOS/AppleCamera
   

chmod a-r removes the read right (-r) for all groups and users (a).

4. Launch Quicktime/PhotoBooth or any other app which uses the camera. Everything's gonna be as no webcam is installed on your mac.

Enable/disable the mic

I'm still looking for a way to disable the mic without disabling the audio output.

To be continued...