Signal broke my hotkey daemon

[probaton]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug Description

I run SKHD on my Mac to rebind keys. SKHD requires access to to my keyboard input to work. As such, it doesn't work if I have an application running with that enables Secure Keyboard Entry, and promptly stopped working after I installed a recent Signal update.

A little digging confirmed that Signal was the culprit, so I would assume that this "feature" was introduced in a recent release? At any rate, killing Signal magically fixes my keyboard shortcuts, and restarting it disables them again.

I'm not saying Signal shouldn't support Secure Keyboard Entry, there are obvious advantages, but I'd appreciate it if it could be a toggle. In its current state the desktop app is completely useless to me, as my entire workflow is rooted in various SKHD bindings.

Steps to Reproduce

• Install SKHD: brew install skhd
• (Optional) Add a keybinding to ~/.skhd: ctrl - a : echo "cookies"
• Install the latest version of Signal
• Open any conversation in Signal
• Run SKHD: skhd

Actual Result:
skhd: secure keyboard entry is enabled by (480) 'terminal'! abort..
(Also, ctrl+a doesn't echo anything.)

Expected Result:
ctrl+a => cookies

Screenshots

Probably not the least useful screenie I've ever taken, but it's close.

Platform Info

Signal Version: v5.2.0
Operating System: macOS Catalina v.10.15.7
Linked Device Version: 2017 MacBook Pro 15"

Link to Debug Log

Obviously the debug log isn't going to be much use, as the error isn't occurring in Signal but in SKHD.

[grantbob]

I see this same behavior with Synergy on MacOS. As soon as you click in a text field it set SecureEventInput to ON and does not turn it off until you quit Signal. (Thus Synergy cannot get any keyboard input to funnel to the other systems)

[edbergavera]

I have the same issue with ShareMouse. This is happening to the latest Signal app 5.2.0 version.

Related: #4067

[adam-sroka]

I have the same problem here with espanso, my text expander, which stopped working after I updated Signal to v5.2.0 (on MacOS Big Sur 11.3.1). The same behavior with SecureInput occurs — espanso is working properly in all apps until I open Signal and start typing a message to someone, then espanso stops working in all applications. This completely hinders my use of the Signal desktop app, as I use espanso for custom emoji shortcuts, and also the usage of other apps where I use espanso for other text-expanding. I'd be really happy if something could be done about this, as I use predominantly use the Signal desktop app, which I always leave open and running on my Mac, so this not only makes it unasable, but also hinders my use of all other apps.

EDIT: As I found out, others have already pointed this out in #4067.

[maciejaszex]

I just updated the Signal app today and it broke my Logi Options settings (for example Logitech MX3 mouse). Custom gestures and scroll do not work when Signal is running... The only thing that helps is to kill the Signal process.

Signal 5.2.0
macOS 11.2.3

[jrozelle]

Same here with Alfred's Snippets (text expander). Really annoying.
"Signal seems to be preventing text expansion by locking secure entry"
And I think there is some conflict with Logitech : since updating to 5.2.0, I've lots of trouble with my wheels and fontion buttons.

Edit : confirmed : wheels & fonction are working on my mouse when Signal is closed.

[kanipan888]

Same here, the mouse wheels & fonction are working when Signal is closed.

[jespertheend]

I have the same here with Hammerspoon. Keyboard events stop working accross the entire os. I only have this issue when the message textbox is focussed though. So pressing cmd + F before switching to another application is a good workaround for now, but it still prevents me from handling keyboard events when typing messages.

[niebezpiecznik]

The workaround: put the cursor in the search field (top left) before cmd-tabbing away from Signal.

[grantbob]

The workaround: put the cursor in the search field (top left) before cmd-tabbing away from Signal.

This only works if you click in the text input window first then click in the search field. If you just select a conversation and SecureEventInput is enabled this does not turn if off.

[tripflex]

I can confirm I have this issue as well, took me a couple hours to track down issue specifically to Signal, but was able to replicate it well over 10 times so I know 100% it's from Signal Desktop.

Signal v5.2.0
OSX 10.15.7 (Catalina)

Breaks any kind of text expander application (Rocket Typist, Text Expander), as well as all Logitech options handling, mouse looses scroll, and side buttons and side scroll wheel. Keyboard loses all non-standard functionality (volume, screenshots, etc).

If the application is open it doesn't break anything, the minute I select a chat or perform any action in the window, breaks everything. Kill application, everything works normal again.

Being a full time developer this is killing me as my mouse and keyboard is my most used tool.

[tripflex]

Word of caution for those who may think doing a downgrade is possible ... from what i've found it doesn't appear to work due to database version requirements. Haven't found an easy way around this but for now I will just have to stop using desktop application, I can't live without my mouse and keyboard functionality :( So sad they shipped an update with such a horrible bug in it and no easy way to downgrade to version that doesn't have it

[indutny-signal]

Sorry to you see this happen. This is a duplicate of #4067 as far as I can tell. Let's continue the discussion there.