What is netauth.sys.auth?

You may see netauth.sys.auth and netauth.sys.gui in Activity Monitor, especially on Macs managed by an organisation.

What are the netauth processes?

These are network authentication agents. netauth.sys.auth handles the authentication logic. netauth.sys.gui shows the user interface when network credentials are needed.

Together, they manage authentication when your Mac needs to check your identity with a network service. For example, when connecting to a corporate file server that needs a username and password.

When do they run?

The netauth processes are active when:

• Your Mac connects to a network share that needs authentication
• You reach a server through Finder's "Connect to Server" feature
• An application needs network credentials (Kerberos, NTLM, and so on)
• Your Mac is bound to Active Directory or Open Directory and needs to authenticate

On a personal Mac not connected to any managed network resources, these processes are rarely active.

What authentication methods do they support?

• Kerberos (common in Active Directory settings)
• NTLM (Windows network authentication)
• Basic authentication for SMB/CIFS file shares
• Other challenge-response authentication methods

Should you worry?

No. They are normal macOS system processes for handling network authentication safely. They make sure that credentials are handled properly when you reach protected network resources.

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