Mac Terminal - 'pointer being freed was not allocated' error when opening terminal - macos

Question

I get the following message when opening the terminal on mac
Last login: Tue Mar 11 14:33:24 on console
login(291,0x7fff78af9310) malloc: * error for object 0x7f974be006f0: pointer being freed was not allocated
* set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
[Process completed]
... and I don't seem to be able to escape it. I've been having some weird permissions problems with Adobe CC - could the two be symptoms of a single problem?

Answer 1

It looks like you don't have the right permissions on the /usr/bin directory.
Solution for OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and later:
Install Onyx 3.1.3 app (Free analog of Disk Utility)
Choose 'Maintenance' -> 'Permissions' -> 'Execute'.
Solution for older versions of OS X:
Open 'Disk Utility' app -> Press 'Repair Disk Permissions'.
It will set default permissions for the /usr/bin directory.
If this step doesn't help try this:
Delete com.apple.terminal.plist from the ~/Library/Preferences folder;

Answer 2

Running on Mac OS X Mavericks just
Open "Disk Utility" app -> Press "Repair Disk Permissions"
Solved the problem
I couldn't find any com.apple.terminal.plist in the ~/Library/Preference folder

Answer 3

I had a similar issue while running OSX 10.11.6. I got a similar error when I ran certain commands, but it did not force bash to exit. It just aborted the command.
I tried running Onyx and repairing disk permissions via command line with no results (along with about another 100 or so desperate "fixes").
Eventually, I tried upgrading to a newer version of bash, which fixed the problem. To do this:
brew install bash
sudo -s
echo /usr/local/bin/bash >> /etc/shells
chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash
Restart the computer.
I write this in the hopes that if someone else has this error they have one more fix to try!

Answer 4

I tried running the Disk Utility and it kept crashing. I had to run it from OSX Recovery Mode.
You can enter OSX Recovery Mode during system boot by holding down CMD ⌘+R as your mac is booting up. Choose Disk Utility when it reaches the Recovery Options screen.

Answer 5

I had the same problem with my dev machine. After several hours of trying anything other than a reinstall I finally realized that was the only choice. It should have been the FIRST choice. SO EASY!
Back up the critical data (just in case)
Enter the recovery mode by pressing cmd+r at start up
Choose "Reinstall Mac OS X"
That's it. When my computer restarted I was prompted for my Apple ID credentials and then my user loaded like normal, with a working Terminal, even. I didn't need to reinstall / restore anything. The whole process (including the user folder backup) took about 45 min.
Final step, remove all of the sketchy utilities installed trying to fix this without a reinstall.