KB40736 - Receiving "Do you want to allow this page to open “PulseApplicationLauncher.app”?" prompt every time when launching Pulse Secure components with Safari browser

This article provides information about a security prompt received when launching Pulse Secure components with a Safari browser and no option to whitelist or remember the choice.

When attempting to launch any Pulse Secure component with 8.2RX and above using a Safari browser, the following message will appear:

Do you want to allow this page to open “PulseApplicationLauncher.app”?

Example:

This issue occurred due to changes in Safari 10.0.2+ to prompt end users a warning if an application attempting to launch an application outside of Safari using a custom url.  Starting with Pulse Connect Secure 8.2RX or Pulse Policy Secure 5.3RX and above, Pulse Secure has moved away from Java as a deployment mechanism and is leveraging Pulse Secure Application Launcher (PSAL) using a custom url (pulsesecure://).

For more information about PSAL, please refer to KB40102 - Pulse Secure Application Launcher (PSAL) to deliver & launch Pulse client applications without the use of Activex & Java

The following prompt will appear each time the end user attempts to launch any Pulse Secure component via a Safari browser.  To do this, click Allow in the pop-up screen.

This problem is not unique to Pulse Secure and affects all applications using a custom url when launched on a Safari browser.  At this point, there is no known mechanism to whitelist this message.  To avoid the prompt, Pulse Secure recommends using a different browser like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome which allows the end user to whitelist the following message.