EPS issue on MacOS Sequoia

I've found that I can still click and drag an EPS file onto the Illustrator icon in my dock to open it without the security popup appearing.

The click and drag is an annoying extra step, but I can't do what I need in Photoshop with these files. I tried changing the default application to illustratir but it didn't work and still gave me popups.

The reason I am still using EPS is because that's what iStock uses for a lot of their vectors instead of SVGs, and iStock is industry standard at my job.

I’m guessing that this might not be anything Adobe changed, and might be related to Apple recently deprecating Adobe PostScript for security reasons. Although Adobe PostScript was a major driver in launching digital print publishing with the Apple Mac almost 40 years ago, PostScript originated at a time where nobody worried about malware and the World Wide Web didn’t exist to spread malware so fast. Apple has been taking a hard line on malware, and when they reviewed PostScript and its serious known security vulnerabilities, Apple decided to start dropping support for all forms of PostScript. Fortunately, PDF does almost everything PostScript used to, using modern code that works much better, so it was no problem for Apple and Adobe to dig in with PDF instead of EPS. Some details:

PostScript’s sudden death in Sonoma (Howard Oakley)

View .ps and .eps files on Mac (Apple) “macOS no longer includes built-in support for viewing PostScript (.ps) and Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) files. Apps that support these files are available from other developers on the App Store and elsewhere.”
Sonoma puts the last nail in the coffin for PostScript on macOS (AppleInsider) “PostScript's demise on the Mac shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who's been paying attention. The writing has been on the wall for years…”

EPS is, of course, Encapsulated PostScript. It’s the same old insecure PostScript code, the only difference is that it’s “encapsulated” in a wrapper (to be easy for other apps to import), and with a bitmap preview stuck on it. By today’s standards, EPS is a pretty awful format and should not be anyone’s first choice. Adobe understood this a long time ago, which is why they upgraded Illustrator format to basically be PDF, and then upgraded other Adobe apps so that they could directly import .AI (PDF) format and not need EPS in any way in the future. I personally haven’t used EPS in years.

Which leads to my next question: With EPS being so antiquated and so insecure that Apple and Adobe are running away from it as fast as they can, why do you need EPS files? Are you running software that specifically requires EPS files, or is it cheap EPS clip art, old graphics archives, or something else?

Because the long term solution is to switch to a better vector format than EPS, and convert old EPS graphics to something better using an app like Illustrator. Today, that would be vector formats such as Illustrator .AI format, PDF, and SVG. 

You're not alone.

Please check out this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1ekv55h/cant_right_click_open_app_on_macos_sequoia/?rdt=49493

It has some guidance and hacks. Apple has identified EPS files as a source of malware (which they might be in some rare cases). Also: when you circumvent the system's security measures, you might also open doors to really bad actors.

Hello @default27403662f0cxi8,

Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind confirming the version of the OS/Illustrator and if Illustrator mainly behaves this way with specific files so I can better assist you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav