HearthGate 1.9 is live

One audit story for SSH, VNC, logs, and license state.

HearthGate 1.9 is an audit-completeness release for real Mac remote access. VNC tunnel lifecycle events now join SSH session history, sensitive configuration changes leave clearer system events, log-clear and disconnect actions preserve a stronger audit trail, and license or setup failures are surfaced honestly instead of becoming silent state drift.

Download 30-day full trialSee launch pricing

Patch update

HearthGate 1.9.1

June 30, 2026

A small patch release that tightens the SSH boundary and polishes Share Sheet hand-off. Existing 1.9 installations update automatically on next launch; no manual action is required.

Tighter SSH lockdown

Two additional server-level guardrails keep sessions limited to the intended VNC tunnel path. Existing installations receive both protections automatically, and normal VNC-over-SSH connections are unaffected.

HearthGate icon in Share previews

Sharing a script, private key, or .hearthgate-connection file through AirDrop, Mail, or Messages now shows the HearthGate logo in the preview tile instead of a generic file icon.

Cleaner Share hand-off

Connection package files now carry cleaner file-type metadata, helping macOS route each shared file to the right opening app.

VNC tunnel lifecycle in System Events

VNC tunnel open and close events are now recorded persistently, next to SSH session history. A review can see both sides of the remote-access path instead of relying on temporary notifications.

Seven more security settings leave a trail

Changes to Screen Sharing, Remote Login, Legacy VNC, clipboard guard, wake force-close behavior, and Admin Lock policy now create operator-visible system events.

Connection logs stay HearthGate-specific

If Apple Remote Login is also enabled for development or administration, new HearthGate connection logs separate that traffic from HearthGate sessions so counts and history stay cleaner.

Honest license and setup failure surfaces

Activation, restore, and setup snapshot failures now show clearer messages and retry paths. The UI should not claim a state is safe or complete when the Mac could not persist it.

Audit integrity

The record should survive the action that changed it.

1.9 strengthens the boring but important moments: deleting logs, disconnecting all sessions before quit, restoring after license expiration, and uninstalling after keys were edited by hand. These are the places where a security tool earns trust.

Chain of custody

Log clear with a remaining marker

When logs are cleared, HearthGate preserves an audit marker with deletion counts, so the fact of the cleanup is still visible for review.

Session closure

Disconnect & Quit records reliably

The quit-time disconnect path now waits for its audit record, making the visible history line up with the operator action.

Uninstall integrity

Managed keys recognized by fingerprint

HearthGate-created keys can still be recognized during cleanup even if their comments were edited manually, reducing the chance of access material being left behind.

Operational examples

Where 1.9 changes day-to-day confidence

The visible feature set is quiet, but it affects the workflows that administrators and careful operators check when something has to be reconstructed later.

Use case

You review remote access after a support session

SSH session history and VNC tunnel lifecycle events now live in the same review path, making it easier to answer what connected, when it disconnected, and whether the screen path was involved.

Use case

You clear logs before handing over the Mac

A clear-all action no longer becomes invisible simply because the log content is gone. HearthGate leaves a cleanup marker so the audit story still has a beginning and an end.

Use case

You reactivate after an expired license

HearthGate preserves your previous Screen Sharing and VNC Lockdown choices instead of forcing the defaults back on, and it shows a retry path if local persistence fails.

Use case

You uninstall after editing authorized_keys

If a HearthGate-created key was renamed or commented differently by hand, cleanup can still identify it by fingerprint and avoid leaving managed access behind.

Security notes

Audit-complete, not audit-noisy.

HearthGate 1.9 adds more evidence where it matters, without exposing implementation details or flooding the operator with internal machinery. The release is designed to make remote-access history easier to trust during security review.

Learn about SILA, the codnamacs security lifecycle framework

Release notes at a glance

  • VNC tunnel lifecycle events are now persistent System Events, so screen access can be reviewed alongside SSH session history.
  • Seven additional setting changes now produce system events, including Screen Sharing, Remote Login, Legacy VNC, clipboard guard, wake force-close behavior, and Admin Lock policy.
  • Connection Logs now avoid mixing Apple Remote Login activity into HearthGate session history when both SSH paths are present on the Mac.
  • Delete-all-logs and Disconnect & Quit actions preserve stronger audit evidence around what changed and when.
  • License activation, license restore, and setup snapshot failures now show clearer operator-facing messages and retry paths.
  • Uninstall and teardown flows recognize HearthGate-managed keys more robustly, even when comments were edited manually.
  • Security-review touchpoints include audit-event coverage, audit-record content, protected audit information, information integrity, and error handling.

HearthGate 1.9

HearthGate 1.9 makes the quiet operational record harder to misunderstand.

Open HearthGate page