PanicLock

PanicLock is macOS menu bar utility that instantly disables Touch ID and locks the screen with a single click or closing your laptop lid.

PanicLock fills a gap macOS leaves open: there is no built-in way to instantly disable Touch ID when it matters. Biometrics are convenient day-to-day, and sometimes preferable when you need speed or want to avoid your password being observed. But in sensitive situations, law enforcement and border agents in many countries can compel a biometric unlock in ways they cannot with a password. PanicLock gives you a one-click menu bar button, a customizable hotkey, or an automatic lock-on-lid-close option that immediately disables Touch ID and locks your screen, restoring password-only protection without killing your session or shutting down.

Download PanicLock

Features

  • One-click panic lock — Click the menu bar icon or press a hotkey to instantly lock
  • Lock on Close — Optionally lock and disable Touch ID when you close the lid
  • Temporarily disables Touch ID — Forces password-only unlock
  • Auto-restore — Original Touch ID settings restored after unlock
  • Keyboard shortcut — Configure a global hotkey (e.g., ⌃⌥⌘L)
  • Launch at login — Start automatically when you log in

Install

Homebrew

brew install paniclock/tap/paniclock

Manual Download

Download the latest DMG from the releases page.

Requirements

  • macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
  • Mac with Touch ID

Usage

Action Result
Left-click icon Trigger panic lock immediately
Right-click icon Open menu (Preferences, Uninstall, Quit)

Lock on Close

When enabled in Preferences, closing your Mac's lid will automatically disable Touch ID and lock your screen. Touch ID stays disabled until you re-login with your password. If your screen locks for other reasons (screensaver, display sleep, etc.), Touch ID will still work as normal.

First Launch

On first use, you'll be prompted for your admin password to install the privileged helper. This is a one-time setup.

Building from Source

  1. Clone this repository
  2. Open PanicLock.xcodeproj in Xcode
  3. Set your Development Team in both targets (PanicLock and PanicLockHelper)
  4. Update Team ID in Info.plist (SMPrivilegedExecutables) and Info-Helper.plist (SMAuthorizedClients)
  5. Build and run

Uninstall

Homebrew:

brew uninstall paniclock

From the app: Right-click → "Uninstall PanicLock..." → Enter admin password

Manual:

sudo launchctl bootout system/com.paniclock.helper
sudo rm -f /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.paniclock.helper
sudo rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.paniclock.helper.plist
rm -rf /Applications/PanicLock.app

How It Works

PanicLock uses a privileged helper (installed via SMJobBless) to modify Touch ID timeout settings:

  1. Reads current timeout via bioutil -r -s
  2. Sets timeout to 1 second via bioutil -w -s -o 1
  3. Locks screen via pmset displaysleepnow
  4. Restores original timeout after ~2 seconds

Security

  • Minimal privileges — Helper only runs 3 hardcoded commands (bioutil, pmset)
  • No command injection — Timeout parameter is a Swift Int, not a string
  • Code-signed XPC — Helper verifies connecting app's bundle ID + team ID + certificate
  • No network activity — App is 100% offline, no telemetry or analytics
  • No data collection — Only stores preferences (icon style, keyboard shortcut)
  • Open source — Full code available for audit

Releasing

The release script handles building, signing, notarizing, and packaging:

./scripts/release.sh

Features:

  • Extracts version from Xcode project automatically
  • Signs with Developer ID for distribution outside the App Store
  • Submits to Apple for notarization (can take minutes to hours)
  • Creates a notarized DMG for distribution
  • Supports parallel notarizations — each version gets its own build/release/<version>/ directory

Workflow:

  1. Bump MARKETING_VERSION in Xcode
  2. Run ./scripts/release.sh — builds and submits for notarization
  3. Run again later to check status and continue when approved
  4. Final output: build/release/<version>/PanicLock-<version>.dmg

License

MIT License — See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or pull request.