Bitdefender kernel extension not loaded

I'm having difficulty with the part of Bitdefender installation that installs a kernel extension. In the Bitdefender main window, I see:


To properly run Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac ... you must manually allow Bitdefender to load on your system.

I follow the instructions:

Go to Security & Privacy and click Allow.
Restart your device to apply this change.

In the "Security & Privacy" settings, I see the message:


System software from developer "Bitdefender SRL" was blocked from loading.

I click the Allow button several times, but nothing seems to happen. I reboot, and see the same message in the main window. I've repeated the process, with the same results.

Bitdefender seems to be scanning in the background, but it appears that the kernel extension that allows real time scanning is not installed.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Too Slim Sam

Following up on my own post ...

I omitted what turns out to be a crucial detail. I was trying to install Bitdefender for a family member via screen sharing. This works fine for the most part, but it turns out that the "Allow" button for installing a kernel extension cannot be clicked remotely; it must be clicked by a local user. This seems wise from a security standpoint.

Problem solved.

mcgroarty

Yup. This is by design. If you look in logs for macOS you'll see:

> Dropping mouse down event because sender's PID (942) isn't 0 or self (522)

Some third-party pointing devices that require their own drivers also do not work. macOS itself verifies that the button click event is not being triggered by a ****** or program rather than a physical device.

Apple should really produce some sort of visible error there, however. I see a lot of people run into this.