Prioritize user privacy and data security in your app. Discuss best practices for data handling, user consent, and security measures to protect user information.

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Passkey's userVerificationPreference in authentication
Hi, I'm using webauthn.io to test my macOS Passkey application. When registering a passkey whichever value I set for User Verification, that's what I get when I check registrationRequest.userVerificationPreference on prepareInterface(forPasskeyRegistration registrationRequest: any ASCredentialRequest). However, when authenticating my passkey I can never get discouraged UV on prepareInterfaceToProvideCredential(for credentialRequest: any ASCredentialRequest). In the WWDC 2022 Meet Passkeys video, it is stated that Apple will always require UV when biometrics are available. I use a Macbook Pro with TouchID, but if I'm working with my lid closed, shouldn't I be able to get .discouraged?
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401
Jan ’26
Yubikey Authentication iPad/iOS26
Hey all, Question for the masses.... Does the Yubikey authentication have a OS dependency and it only works with a stable, public OS? Does Azure/Okta/Yubikey beta OS26? My CEO installed iPadOS 26 on his iPad and was not able to authenticate via Yubikey into our company environment. I ran the same scenario on my iPad using iPadOS 26 and I had the same results. Downgrading to iPAdOS doesn't pose these issues. I'm assuming something isn't fine-tuned yet?
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404
Aug ’25
Regression: QuickLookAR shares USDZ file instead of source URL on iOS 26
On iOS 26, QuickLookAR (ARQuickLookPreviewItem) shares the actual .usdz file via the system Share Sheet instead of the original website URL. This is a regression from iOS 17–18, where sharing correctly preserved and sent only the source URL. Repro steps: 1. Open a web-hosted USDZ model in QuickLookAR (Safari). 2. Tap Share. 3. Share via any messenger. 4. The full .usdz file is sent. Expected: Share Sheet sends only the original URL. Actual: Share Sheet sends the USDZ file. Impact: Uncontrolled distribution of proprietary 3D assets. Critical IP / data leak. Blocks production AR deployments relying on QuickLook. Environment: iOS 26.0–26.1, iPhone 14 / 15. Works as expected on iOS 17–18. Test case: https://admixreality.com/ios26/
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648
Jan ’26
com.apple.devicecheck.error - 3: Error Domain=com.apple.devicecheck.error Code=3 "(null)"
Hi, In our app we are using DeviceCheck (App Attest) in a production environment iOS. The service works correctly for most users, but a user reported failure in a flow that use device check service. This failure is not intermittently, it is constant. We are unable to reproduce this failure and we are believing that this failure occurred by new version ios 26.3 because for others users using early versions the service is normally. Environment iOS 26.3 Real device App Attest capability enabled Correct App ID, Team ID and App Attest entitlement Production environment Characteristics: appears constantly affects only unique user -Don't resolves after time or reinstall not reproducible on our test devices NSError contains no additional diagnostic info (Error Domain=com.apple.devicecheck.error Code=3 "(null)") We saw about this error code 3 in this post 812308, but it's not our case because the ios version in this case is not iOS 17.0 or earlier. Please, help us any guidance for solution. Thank you
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Jan ’26
Title: MAS Sandbox Quarantine Flag Issue - Plugins Marked "Corrupt" by Host App
I've made my first app and encountered an unexpected (potentially existential) issue. The Manager app is designed to tag 3rd party "plugins" used by a DAW, storing metadata in a local SQLite database, and move them between Active and Inactive folders. This allows management of the plugin collection - the DAW only uses what's in the Active folder. Permissions are obtained via security-scoped bookmarks on first launch. The app functions as intended: plugin bundles move correctly and the database tracks everything. No information is written to the plugins themselves. The Problem:
When moving plugins using fs.rename() , the MAS sandbox automatically adds the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute to moved files. When the DAW subsequently rebuilds its plugin cache, it interprets quarantined plugins as "corrupt" or potentially malicious and refuses to load them. Technical Details: Moving files with NSFileManager or Node.js fs APIs within sandbox triggers quarantine Sandboxed apps cannot call xattr -d com.apple.quarantine or use removexattr() The entitlement com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write doesn't grant xattr removal rights User workaround: run xattr -cr /path/to/plugins in Terminal - not acceptable for professional users Question:
Is there any MAS-compliant way to move files without triggering quarantine, or to remove the quarantine attribute within the sandbox? The hardened-runtime DMG build works perfectly (no sandbox = no quarantine added). Any insight appreciated!
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524
Jan ’26
Application with identifier is not associated with domain
Hi, This issue is happening during Passkey creation. We’ve observed that approximately 1% of our customer users encounter a persistent error during Passkey creation. For the vast majority, the process works as expected. We believe our apple-app-site-association file is correctly configured, served directly from the RP ID over HTTPS without redirects, and is up-to-date. This setup appears to work for most users, and it seems the Apple CDN cache reflects the latest version of the file. To help us diagnose and address the issue for the affected users, we would appreciate guidance on the following: What tools or steps does Apple recommend to identify the root cause of this issue? Are there any known recovery steps we can suggest to users to resolve this on affected devices? Is there a way to force a refresh of the on-device cache for the apple-app-site-association file? Thank you in advance for any input or guidance.
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159
May ’25
Issue with record.changePassword Clearing Keychain Information Hello,
I am developing a sample authorization plugin to sync the user’s local password to the network password. During the process, I prompt the user to enter both their old and new passwords in custom plugin. After the user enters the information, I use the following code to sync the passwords: try record.changePassword(oldPssword, toPassword: newPassword) However, I have noticed that this is clearing all saved keychain information, such as web passwords and certificates. Is it expected behavior for record.changePassword to clear previously stored keychain data? If so, how can I overcome this issue and ensure the keychain information is preserved while syncing the password? Thank you for your help!
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162
Mar ’25
Clone Device Detection
In our mobile we are using UUID as a device identifier . With this ID we using certain function like Primary device and secondary devices .
Primary device has more control to the app other than secondary device .
In our case user is getting new iPhone and the apps related data are moved to new device from old device from clone option.

While moving the keychain data is also moved , which is causing the new device also has same UUID and the customer are using both the devices in some cases ,

So both devices are considered as primary in our app .
Is there any way to identify the device is cloned ,

Needed suggestion
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260
Dec ’25
XCode Enhancement Request... The ability to Obfuscate Builds
Hi... It would be nice if Apple / XCode would be so gracious to explore the possibility of providing the ability to include: Code scrambling / renaming Control-flow obfuscation String encryption Anti-debugging Anti-hooking Jailbreak detection App integrity checks Runtime tamper detection That way, we could eliminate the need to settle for third-party software. Who do we have to bribe to submit such a request and entertain such an idea?
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129
Dec ’25
implement entitlement "com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-only" in sandbox profile
First, I do not publish my application to the AppStore, but I need to customize a sandbox environment. It seems that sandbox-exec cannot configure entitlements, so I have used some other APIs, such as sandbox_compile_entitlements and sandbox_apply_container. When encountering the entitlement "com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-only", I am unsure how to correctly write sandbox profile to implement this. Can anyone help me?
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May ’25
Secure Enclave Cryptokit
I am using the CryptoKit SecureEnclave enum to generate Secure Enclave keys. I've got a couple of questions: What is the lifetime of these keys? When I don't store them somewhere, how does the Secure Enclave know they are gone? Do backups impact these keys? I.e. can I lose access to the key when I restore a backup? Do these keys count to the total storage capacity of the Secure Enclave? If I recall correctly, the Secure Enclave has a limited storage capacity. Do the SecureEnclave key instances count towards this storage capacity? What is the dataRepresentation and how can I use this? I'd like to store the Secure Enclave (preferably not in the Keychain due to its limitations). Is it "okay" to store this elsewhere, for instance in a file or in the UserDefaults? Can the dataRepresentation be used in other apps? If I had the capability of extracting the dataRepresentation as an attacker, could I then rebuild that key in my malicious app, as the key can be rebuilt with the Secure Enclave on the same device, or are there measures in place to prevent this (sandbox, bundle id, etc.)
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355
Jun ’25
Persistent Tokens for Keychain Unlock in Platform SSO
While working with Platform SSO on macOS, I’m trying to better understand how the system handles cases where a user’s local account password becomes unsynchronized with their Identity Provider (IdP) password—for example, when the device is offline during a password change. My assumption is that macOS may store some form of persistent token during the Platform SSO user registration process (such as a certificate or similar credential), and that this token could allow the system to unlock the user’s login keychain even if the local password no longer matches the IdP password. I’m hoping to get clarification on the following: Does macOS actually use a persistent token to unlock the login keychain when the local account password is out of sync with the IdP password? If so, how is that mechanism designed to work? If such a capability exists, is it something developers can leverage to enable a true passwordless authentication experience at the login window and lock screen (i.e., avoiding the need for a local password fallback)? I’m trying to confirm what macOS officially supports so I can understand whether passwordless login is achievable using the persistent-token approach. Thanks in advance for any clarification.
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120
Dec ’25
Running CryptoTokenKit as security agent
Hi, when creating a CryptoTokenKit extension according to https://developer.apple.com/documentation/cryptotokenkit/authenticating-users-with-a-cryptographic-token, it is neccessary to register it under the securityagent in order to make the CTK usable before login. i.e. we want to run sudo -u _securityagent /Applications/HostApp.app/Contents/MacOS/HostApp However, even with the empty application the command fails with illegal hardware instruction sudo -u _securityagent /Applications/HostApp.app/Contents/MacOS/HostApp I see that it always crashes when the HostApp is sandboxed, but it does not work even without sandboxing (i am sharing the error report message below). i actually noticed that when the HostApp is sandboxed and I run the above command, the extension starts to be usable even before login, even though i see the HostApp crash. The same does not happen without the sandbox So I am curious how to in fact properly register the CTK extension under security agent? Also am not sure how to unregister it from the _securityagent thank you for your help Version: 1.0 (1) Code Type: X86-64 (Native) Parent Process: Exited process [9395] Responsible: Terminal [399] User ID: 92 Date/Time: 2025-03-21 18:54:03.0684 +0100 OS Version: macOS 15.3.2 (24D81) Report Version: 12 Bridge OS Version: 9.3 (22P3060) Anonymous UUID: 41F9918C-5BCA-01C7-59C2-3E8CFC3F8653 Sleep/Wake UUID: 8AB66C75-3C32-41D4-9BD4-887B0FB468FE Time Awake Since Boot: 4300 seconds Time Since Wake: 1369 seconds System Integrity Protection: enabled Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: WMClientWindowManager Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000 Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 4 Illegal instruction: 4 Terminating Process: exc handler [9396] Application Specific Signatures: API Misuse Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: WMClientWindowManager 0 libxpc.dylib 0x7ff80667b2bd _xpc_api_misuse + 113 1 libxpc.dylib 0x7ff80665f0e4 xpc_connection_set_target_uid + 187 2 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b946693 -[WMClientWindowManager _createXPCConnection] + 1011 3 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b947361 -[WMClientWindowManager _xpcConnection] + 65 4 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b9447c9 __31-[WMClientWindowManager stages]_block_invoke + 41 5 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067af7e2 _dispatch_client_callout + 8 6 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067bca2c _dispatch_lane_barrier_sync_invoke_and_complete + 60 7 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b9446fc -[WMClientWindowManager stages] + 268 8 AppKit 0x7ff80b1fd0b7 __54-[NSWMWindowCoordinator initializeStageFramesIfNeeded]_block_invoke + 30 9 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067af7e2 _dispatch_client_callout + 8 10 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067b0aa2 _dispatch_once_callout + 20 11 AppKit 0x7ff80b1fd060 -[NSWMWindowCoordinator initializeStageFramesIfNeeded] + 296 12 AppKit 0x7ff80a3b3701 -[NSWindow _commonInitFrame:styleMask:backing:defer:] + 888 13 AppKit 0x7ff80a3b2f77 -[NSWindow _initContent:styleMask:backing:defer:contentView:] + 1222 14 AppKit 0x7ff80a3b2aa9 -[NSWindow initWithContentRect:styleMask:backing:defer:] + 42 15 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f321e0 0x7ff91776f000 + 8139232 16 SwiftUI 0x7ff917a8e2f2 0x7ff91776f000 + 3273458 17 SwiftUI 0x7ff917bccfba 0x7ff91776f000 + 4579258 18 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f2ca8e 0x7ff91776f000 + 8116878 19 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f24a65 0x7ff91776f000 + 8084069 20 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f21540 0x7ff91776f000 + 8070464 21 SwiftUI 0x7ff91849e9f1 0x7ff91776f000 + 13826545 22 SwiftUICore 0x7ffb13103ea5 0x7ffb12c81000 + 4730533 23 SwiftUICore 0x7ffb13102e0f 0x7ffb12c81000 + 4726287 24 SwiftUI 0x7ff91849e903 0x7ff91776f000 + 13826307 25 SwiftUI 0x7ff91849bc1c 0x7ff91776f000 + 13814812 26 AppKit 0x7ff80a54f191 -[NSApplication _doOpenUntitled] + 422 27 AppKit 0x7ff80a4efc59 __58-[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleAEOpenEvent:]_block_invoke + 237 28 AppKit 0x7ff80a963818 __102-[NSApplication _reopenWindowsAsNecessaryIncludingRestorableState:withFullFidelity:completionHandler:]_block_invoke + 101 29 AppKit 0x7ff80a4ef6fa __97-[NSDocumentController(NSInternal) _autoreopenDocumentsIgnoringExpendable:withCompletionHandler:]_block_invoke_3 + 148 30 AppKit 0x7ff80a4eee8f -[NSDocumentController(NSInternal) _autoreopenDocumentsIgnoringExpendable:withCompletionHandler:] + 635 31 AppKit 0x7ff80a96373d -[NSApplication _reopenWindowsAsNecessaryIncludingRestorableState:withFullFidelity:completionHandler:] + 269 32 AppKit 0x7ff80a3a6259 -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleAEOpenEvent:] + 529 33 AppKit 0x7ff80a3a5eb9 -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleCoreEvent:withReplyEvent:] + 679 34 Foundation 0x7ff807a4b471 -[NSAppleEventManager dispatchRawAppleEvent:withRawReply:handlerRefCon:] + 307 35 Foundation 0x7ff807a4b285 _NSAppleEventManagerGenericHandler + 80 36 AE 0x7ff80e0e4e95 0x7ff80e0da000 + 44693 37 AE 0x7ff80e0e4723 0x7ff80e0da000 + 42787 38 AE 0x7ff80e0de028 aeProcessAppleEvent + 409 39 HIToolbox 0x7ff81217b836 AEProcessAppleEvent + 55 40 AppKit 0x7ff80a39ee6a _DPSNextEvent + 1725 41 AppKit 0x7ff80adf38b8 -[NSApplication(NSEventRouting) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1290 42 AppKit 0x7ff80a38faa9 -[NSApplication run] + 610 43 AppKit 0x7ff80a362d34 NSApplicationMain + 823 44 SwiftUI 0x7ff9177a7da1 0x7ff91776f000 + 232865 45 SwiftUI 0x7ff917af0d40 0x7ff91776f000 + 3677504 46 SwiftUI 0x7ff917d8fef8 0x7ff91776f000 + 6426360 47 Crescendo CryptoTokenKit 0x10b1baf6e static HostApp.$main() + 30 48 Crescendo CryptoTokenKit 0x10b1bd2f9 main + 9 (HostApp.swift:24) 49 dyld 0x7ff8065c82cd start + 1805
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370
Mar ’25
Clarification on Team ID Behavior After App Transfer
Hi everyone, I’d like to clarify something regarding the behavior of Team IDs after an app transfer between Apple Developer accounts. I have an app update that enforces a force update for all users. My plan is to release this update under the current developer account, and then proceed with transferring the app to a different developer account shortly afterward. My concern is: once the transfer is complete, will users who download the same app version (released before the transfer) be logged out due to a change in Team ID? Specifically, does the transferred app continue to use the original Team ID (used to sign the last submitted build), or does the Team ID change immediately upon transfer — affecting Keychain access? Any insights or confirmation on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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154
Jun ’25
Crashing in sandbox-exec (FB16964888)
Why are we doing this nonsense? We want to be able to run builds in a sandbox such that they can only see the paths they are intended to depend on, to improve reproducibility. With builds with a very large number of dependencies, there's a very large number of paths added to the sandbox, and it breaks things inside libsandbox. Either it hits some sandbox length limit (sandbox-exec: pattern serialization length 66460 exceeds maximum (65535), Nix issue #4119, worked around: Nix PR 12570), or it hits an assert (this report; also Nix issue #2311). The other options for sandboxing on macOS are not viable; we acknowledge sandbox-exec and sandbox_init_with_parameters are deprecated; App Sandbox is inapplicable because we aren't an app. Our use case is closer to a browser, and all the browsers use libsandbox internally. We could possibly use SystemExtension or a particularly diabolical use of Virtualization.framework, but the former API requires notarization which is close to a no-go for our use case as open source software: it is nearly impossible to develop the software on one's own computer, and it would require us to ship a binary blob (and have the build processes to produce one in infrastructure completely dissimilar to what we use today); it also requires a bunch of engineering time. Today, we can pretend that code signing/notarization doesn't exist and that we are writing an old-school Unix daemon, because we are one. The latter is absolutely diabolical and hard to implement. See this saga about the bug we are facing: Nix issue #4119, Nix issue #2311, etc. What is going wrong I can't attach the file fail.sb as it is too large (you can view the failing test case at Lix's gerrit, CL 2870) and run this: $ sandbox-exec -D _GLOBAL_TMP_DIR=/tmp -f fail.sb /bin/sh Assertion failed: (diff <= INSTR_JUMP_NE_MAX_LENGTH), function push_jne_instr, file serialize.c, line 240. zsh: abort sandbox-exec -D _GLOBAL_TMP_DIR=/tmp -f fail.sb /bin/sh Or a stacktrace: stacktrace.txt Credits Full credits to Jade Lovelace (Lix) for writing the above text and filing a bug. This is submitted under FB16964888
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202
Mar ’25
setCodeSigningRequirement seems not to work in new Service Management API setup.
I have developed a sample app following the example found Updating your app package installer to use the new Service Management API and referring this discussion on XPC Security. The app is working fine, I have used Swift NSXPCConnection in favour of xpc_connection_create_mach_service used in the example. (I am running app directly from Xcode) I am trying to set up security requirements for the client connection using setCodeSigningRequirement on the connection instance. But it fails for even basic requirement connection.setCodeSigningRequirement("anchor apple"). Error is as follows. cannot open file at line 46986 of [554764a6e7] os_unix.c:46986: (0) open(/private/var/db/DetachedSignatures) - Undefined error: 0 xpc_support_check_token: anchor apple error: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67050 "(null)" status: -67050 I have used codesign -d --verbose=4 /path/to/executable to check the attributes I do get them in the terminal. Other way round, I have tried XPC service provider sending back process id (pid) with each request, and I am probing this id to get attributes using this code which gives all the details. func inspectCodeSignature(ofPIDString pidString: String) { guard let pid = pid_t(pidString) else { print("Invalid PID string: \(pidString)") return } let attributes = [kSecGuestAttributePid: pid] as CFDictionary var codeRef: SecCode? let status = SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes(nil, attributes, [], &codeRef) guard status == errSecSuccess, let code = codeRef else { print("Failed to get SecCode for PID \(pid) (status: \(status))") return } var staticCode: SecStaticCode? let staticStatus = SecCodeCopyStaticCode(code, [], &staticCode) guard staticStatus == errSecSuccess, let staticCodeRef = staticCode else { print("Failed to get SecStaticCode (status: \(staticStatus))") return } var infoDict: CFDictionary? if SecCodeCopySigningInformation(staticCodeRef, SecCSFlags(rawValue: kSecCSSigningInformation), &infoDict) == errSecSuccess, let info = infoDict as? [String: Any] { print("🔍 Code Signing Info for PID \(pid):") print("• Identifier: \(info["identifier"] ?? "N/A")") print("• Team ID: \(info["teamid"] ?? "N/A")") if let entitlements = info["entitlements-dict"] as? [String: Any] { print("• Entitlements:") for (key, value) in entitlements { print(" - \(key): \(value)") } } } else { print("Failed to retrieve signing information.") } var requirement: SecRequirement? if SecRequirementCreateWithString("anchor apple" as CFString, [], &requirement) == errSecSuccess, let req = requirement { let result = SecStaticCodeCheckValidity(staticCodeRef, [], req) if result == errSecSuccess { print("Signature is trusted (anchor apple)") } else { print("Signature is NOT trusted by Apple (failed anchor check)") } } var infoDict1: CFDictionary? let signingStatus = SecCodeCopySigningInformation(staticCodeRef, SecCSFlags(rawValue: kSecCSSigningInformation), &infoDict1) guard signingStatus == errSecSuccess, let info = infoDict1 as? [String: Any] else { print("Failed to retrieve signing information.") return } print("🔍 Signing Info for PID \(pid):") for (key, value) in info.sorted(by: { $0.key < $1.key }) { print("• \(key): \(value)") } } If connection.setCodeSigningRequirement does not works I plan to use above logic as backup. Q: Please advise is there some setting required to be enabled or I have to sign code with some flags enabled. Note: My app is not running in a Sandbox or Hardened Runtime, which I want.
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367
Apr ’25
Certificate Trust Failing in Latest OS Releases
Trying to apply 'always trust' to certificate added to keychain using both SecItemAdd() and SecPKCS12Import() with SecTrustSettingsSetTrustSettings(). I created a launchdaemon for this purpose. AuthorizationDB is modified so that any process running in root can apply trust to certificate. let option = SecTrustSettingsResult.trustRoot.rawValue // SecTrustSettingsResult.trustAsRoot.rawValue for non-root certificates let status = SecTrustSettingsSetTrustSettings(secCertificate, SecTrustSettingsDomain.admin, [kSecTrustSettingsResult: NSNumber(value: option.rawValue)] as CFTypeRef). Above code is used to trust certificates and it was working on os upto 14.7.4. In 14.7.5 SecTrustSettingsSetTrustSettings() returns errAuthorizationInteractionNotAllowed. In 15.5 modifying authorization db with AuthorizationRightSet() itself is returning errAuthorizationDenied.Tried manually editing authorization db via terminal and same error occurred. Did apple update anything on Security framework? Any other way to trust certificates?
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183
Jun ’25
Best Practice for Keychain Storage for a C++ Plugin in a Host App (Maya)?
Hi everyone, I'm developing a C++ plugin (.bundle) for a third-party host application (Autodesk Maya) on macOS, and I'm finalizing the design for our licensing system. The plugin is distributed outside the Mac App Store. My goal is to securely store a license key in the user's Keychain. After some research, my proposed implementation is as follows: On activation, store the license data in the user's login keychain as a Generic Password (kSecClassGenericPassword) using the SecItem APIs. To ensure the plugin can access the item when loaded by Maya, I will use a specific Keychain Access Group (e.g., MY_TEAM_ID.com.mywebsite). The final .bundle will be code-signed with our company's Developer ID certificate. The signature will include an entitlements file (.entitlements) that specifies the matching keychain-access-groups permission. My understanding is that this combination of a unique Keychain Access Group and a properly signed/entitled bundle is the key to getting reliable Keychain access. This should also correctly trigger the one-time user permission prompt on first use. Does this sound like the correct and most robust approach for this scenario? Are there any common pitfalls with a plugin's Keychain access from within a host app that I should be aware of? Thanks for any feedback!
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148
Jun ’25