Is there any **evidence or technical documentation** to support the notion that System Integrity Protection can cause excessive use of the CPU by `kernel_task` in some situation? ## Background No battery. With Sierra, and with pre-release High Sierra, when not booted in safe mode I nearly always found that `kernel_task` hogged the CPU. My usual workaround was safe mode. After considering answers to the following questions: - https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/72498/8546 (2012-11-24) - https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/116193/8546 (2014-01-06) - https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/170450/8546 (2015-02-04) - https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/179150/8546 (2015-04-01) - https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/194422/8546 (2015-07-04) - https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/203025/8546 (2015-09-02) – I aimed to move (set aside) the following file: `/System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext/Contents/Resources/MacBookPro8_2.plist` Prerequisite to the move: - disable System Integrity Protection (SIP). ---- After using `csrutil(1)` in Recovery OS 17A264c to disable SIP, I booted High Sierra in normal mode … … I'm pleasantly susprised to find that with the `.plist` still in place: - in normal mode **without** SIP, there's no hogging of the CPU. Shut down, started, still no hogging.