Blocking Safe Mode Boot to prevent kiosk mode bypassSolved

Yeah, this comes up fairly often in kiosk deployments. You can handle it at the OS level. On Windows, for example, you can modify the boot configuration with bcdedit to disable F8 boot options or prevent safe mode selection entirely. That, combined with kiosk lockdown policies and restricting local accounts, usually covers most bypass attempts. 

Ah, okay. So basically, MDM alone isn’t enough to fully stop safe mode boot? You have to layer it with OS-level protections? 

Exactly. Think of Hexnode as enforcing the kiosk restrictions and policies, but the OS settings handle the boot-level controls. On macOS, for instance, a firmware password can prevent safe mode or recovery mode boot. On Linux, it’s trickier—you’d need to protect GRUB and restrict access to single-user mode—but the principle is the same. It’s about closing the loopholes that safe mode could open. 

I’ve run into this as well. Even with these protections, you want to make sure local accounts have limited privileges, and users can’t modify startup settings. That way, even if someone knows how to boot into safe mode, they won’t be able to bypass the kiosk environment.

Got it, thanks! So, the takeaway is that we can use a combination of kiosk lockdown, account restrictions, and OS-level boot protections that can effectively prevent bypass. 

Exactly. Hexnode handles the policy enforcement while the OS-level tweaks handle the boot-level restrictions. Together, they make the kiosk setup much more secure.