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!
General
RSS for tagPrioritize 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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Hi everyone,
I'm currently working on a native macOS app (built with SwiftUI) and I'm trying to implement Password AutoFill functionality so users can use their saved credentials from Keychain or third-party password managers.
I've gone through Apple's documentation, WWDC sessions, and sample code, but I've noticed that the resources primarily focus on iOS and web implementations. There's very limited guidance specifically for macOS.
I've set up:
Associated Domains entitlement with the webcredentials: service
The apple-app-site-association file on my server
TextField with .textContentType(.username) and SecureField with .textContentType(.password)
However, I'm still not seeing the expected AutoFill behavior on macOS like I would on iOS.
Has anyone successfully implemented Password AutoFill on a native macOS app? Are there any macOS-specific considerations or additional steps required that differ from iOS?
Any guidance, sample code, or pointers to documentation I might have missed would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Apple,
Currently we want to have enhancement for SMS OTP that we want to implement OTP Autofill, But after do some research we're stuck with option that the OTP only show in keyboard suggestion, is there any way for making OTP is automatically filled without user have to click the keyboard suggestion when receiving the SMS.
Thanks
Best Regards,
Admiral Sultano Harly.
Due to business requirements, we need to transfer our app Gem Space for iOS from our current Apple Developer account to a new account.
We have a major concern regarding our users and the data associated with the app.
The user data is currently stored using an App Group with the identifier, for example: "group.com.app.sharedData"
According to some information we’ve found, it might be possible to complete the transfer by removing the App Group from the old account and creating a new one with the same identifier in the new account.
However, other sources suggest that App Group containers are owned by the specific team, and data stored in the container may become inaccessible after the app is transferred to a different team. This raises concerns about the possibility of users losing access to their data after updating the app from the new account.
Could you please clarify the expected behavior of App Groups in this case?
Do we need to perform any kind of data migration, and if so, could you please provide detailed guidance on how to do it safely and without impacting user data access?
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Hi community,
I'm wondering how can I request the permission of "System Audio Recording Only" under the Privacy & Security -> Screen & System Audio Recording via swift?
Did a bunch of search but didn't find good documentation on it.
Tried another approach here https://github.com/insidegui/AudioCap/blob/main/AudioCap/ProcessTap/AudioRecordingPermission.swift which doesn't work very reliably.
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
AudioToolbox
AVAudioEngine
Core Audio
AVFoundation
Hi team,
We are experiencing an issue where some users in China are unable to create passkeys due to authentication errors.
This is the UI flows
The method we use to prompt users is passkey creation. Technically, this is implemented using Apple’s AuthenticationServices framework. We create an instance of ASAuthorizationController and conform to ASAuthorizationControllerDelegate to handle the results of the authentication attempt.
In failure cases, we receive ASAuthorizationError.failed (code 1004), along with some additional details describing the nature of the failure.
However, we are currently unable to determine the exact root cause of this issue or how to resolve it. At this point, we can only make assumptions based on the limited error information provided.
Our current hypothesis is that due to network restrictions, Apple may be unable to reach the .well-known endpoint where we host the associated domain file. Alternatively, even if the file is successfully loaded and cached to Apple’s CDN, the system in China may not be able to reach the CDN itself.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could help us understand what might be causing this problem and guide us on how we can resolve it effectively.
Thanks,
Hung
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Passkeys in iCloud Keychain
Authentication Services
Hi,
It may be a stupid question, but we really wonder if there is a way for MDM to push a unique mTLS cert to our iOS application or if it can populate a client certificate in the iOS where our application can access it. Like browser app, how do browser mTLS certs get pushed?
Thanks,
Ying
Since release of 18.4. prepareInterfaceToProvideCredential .oneTimeCode case is not called and instead prepareInterfaceForUserChoosingTextToInsert() is called. That is the wrong delegate for this case and it causes confusion for the users.
Also, some TOTP fields are recognised however, the key icon button is not presented above the keyboard next to TOTP suggestions.
I've also tested 18.5 and it has the same issue.
provideOneTimeCodeWithoutUserInteraction works just fine.
Has anybody else experienced something similar? This is on the login screen.
I call update() and it doesn't call me back with view()
2025-08-21 17:04:38.669 Db SecurityAgentHelper-arm64[1134:2df1] [***:LoginView] calling update()
Then silence...
Hi there,
I'm trying to use SFAuthorizationPluginView in order to show some fields in the login screen, have the user click the arrow, then continue to show more fields as a second step of authentication. How can I accomplish this?
Register multiple SecurityAgentPlugins each with their own mechanism and nib?
Some how get MacOS to call my SFAuthorizationPluginView::view() and return a new view?
Manually remove text boxes and put in new ones when button is pressed
I don't believe 1 works, for the second mechanism ended up calling the first mechanism's view's view()
Cheers,
-Ken
Hello,
I have encountered several challenges related to System Integrity Protection (SIP) state detection and code signing requirements. I would like to seek clarification and guidance on the proper approach to programmatically determine the SIP state.
Here are the issues I’ve encountered:
XPC Code Signing Check APIs:
APIs like setCodeSigningRequirement and setConnectionCodeSigningRequirement do not work when SIP disabled and that's ok given what SIP is.
LaunchCodeRequirement API:
When using Process.launchRequirement, the LaunchCodeRequirement API does not function anymore when SIP disabled.
The IsSIPProtected requirement behaves in a way that is not clearly documented -- it appears to only apply to pre-installed Apple apps.
Legacy APIs:
Older APIs like SecCodeCheckValidity are likely to be non-functional, though I haven’t had the chance to validate this yet.
Private API Concerns:
So to mitigate those limitations I prefer my app to not even try to connect to untrusted XPC or launch untrusted Processes when SIP is disabled. The only way to determine SIP state I could find is a low-level C function csr_get_active_config. However, this function is not declared in any publicly available header file, indicating that it is a private API.
Since private APIs cannot be used in App Store-distributed apps and are best avoided for Developer ID-signed apps, this does not seem like a viable solution.
Given these limitations, what is the recommended and proper approach to programmatically determine the SIP state in a macOS application?
Any insights or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Hi,
We're in the process of implementing Apple's App Integrity, but am getting stalled due to missing documents. Can anyone assist with this?
We've been following https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicecheck/validating-apps-that-connect-to-your-server to make the necessary updates, but have come up short with where the document references decoding the Attestation Object. Can we get more information here and how the decoding process work?
Seeing the following error when attempting automatic passkey upgrade - [Warning] NotAllowedError: The request is not allowed by the user agent or the platform in the current context, possibly because the user denied permission.
We're trying to enable Automatic passkey upgrade (https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2024/10125/?time=38) for our website but it's not working from our testing on iOS 18.2 and 18.3 Beta Safari.
The flow on our website looks like:
the customers use autofill to fill out email and password on the sign-in page (abc.com/signin)
PublicKeyCredential.getClientCapabilities is called to check if conditionalCreate supported.
land on another page of our website (abc.com/pageX), which calls navigator.credentials.create with mediation conditional (Right after sign-in).
We checked that we followed the steps in above video: Allow automatic passkey upgrades is enabled, mediation is set to conditional and password autofill is used to signed in. However, Safari threw an error [Warning] NotAllowedError: The request is not allowed by the user agent or the platform in the current context, possibly because the user denied permission.
Can Apple help guide us if anything is missed here?
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Passkeys in iCloud Keychain
Authentication Services
I have Authorisation Plugin which talks using XPC to my Launch Daemon to perform privileged actions.
I want to protect my XPC service narrowing it to be called from known trusted clients.
Now since I want authorisation plugin code which is from apple to call my service, I cannot use my own team id or app group here.
I am currently banking on following properties of client connection.
Apple Team ID : EQHXZ8M8AV
Bundle ID starting with com.apple.
Client signature verified By Apple.
This is what I have come up with.
func isClientTrusted(connection: NSXPCConnection) -> Bool {
let clientPID = connection.processIdentifier
logInfo("🔍 Checking XPC Client - PID: \(clientPID)")
var secCode: SecCode?
var secStaticCode: SecStaticCode?
let attributes = [kSecGuestAttributePid: clientPID] as NSDictionary
let status = SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes(nil, attributes, [], &secCode)
guard status == errSecSuccess, let code = secCode else {
logInfo("Failed to get SecCode for PID \(clientPID)")
return false
}
let staticStatus = SecCodeCopyStaticCode(code, [], &secStaticCode)
guard staticStatus == errSecSuccess, let staticCode = secStaticCode else {
logInfo("Failed to get SecStaticCode")
return false
}
var signingInfo: CFDictionary?
let signingStatus = SecCodeCopySigningInformation(staticCode, SecCSFlags(rawValue: kSecCSSigningInformation), &signingInfo)
guard signingStatus == errSecSuccess, let info = signingInfo as? [String: Any] else {
logInfo("Failed to retrieve signing info")
return false
}
// Extract and Verify Team ID
if let teamID = info["teamid"] as? String {
logInfo("XPC Client Team ID: \(teamID)")
if teamID != "EQHXZ8M8AV" { // Apple's official Team ID
logInfo("Client is NOT signed by Apple")
return false
}
} else {
logInfo("Failed to retrieve Team ID")
return false
}
// Verify Bundle ID Starts with "com.apple."
if let bundleID = info["identifier"] as? String {
logInfo("XPC Client Bundle ID: \(bundleID)")
if !bundleID.hasPrefix("com.apple.") {
logInfo("Client is NOT an Apple system process")
return false
}
} else {
logInfo("Failed to retrieve Bundle Identifier")
return false
}
// Verify Apple Code Signature Trust
var trustRequirement: SecRequirement?
let trustStatus = SecRequirementCreateWithString("anchor apple" as CFString, [], &trustRequirement)
guard trustStatus == errSecSuccess, let trust = trustRequirement else {
logInfo("Failed to create trust requirement")
return false
}
let verifyStatus = SecStaticCodeCheckValidity(staticCode, [], trust)
if verifyStatus != errSecSuccess {
logInfo("Client's signature is NOT trusted by Apple")
return false
}
logInfo("Client is fully verified as Apple-trusted")
return true
}
Q: Just wanted community feedback, is this correct approach?
Hello,
When using ASWebAuthenticationSession with an HTTPS callback URL (Universal Link), I receive the following error:
Authorization error: The operation couldn't be completed.
Application with identifier jp.xxxx.yyyy.dev is not associated with domain xxxx-example.go.link.
Using HTTPS callbacks requires Associated Domains using the webcredentials service type for xxxx-example.go.link.
I checked Apple’s official documentation but couldn’t find any clear statement that webcredentials is required when using HTTPS callbacks in ASWebAuthenticationSession.
What I’d like to confirm:
Is webcredentials officially required when using HTTPS as a callback URL with ASWebAuthenticationSession?
If so, is there any official documentation or technical note that states this requirement?
Environment
iOS 18.6.2
Xcode 16.4
Any clarification or official references would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
iOS
Security
Authentication Services
Universal Links
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for clarification on best practices for storing API keys in an iOS app — for example, keys used with RevenueCat, PostHog, AWS Rekognition, barcode scanners, and similar third-party services.
I understand that hard-coding API keys directly in the app’s source code is a bad idea, since they can be extracted from the binary. However, using a .plist file doesn’t seem secure either, as it’s still bundled with the app and can be inspected.
I’m wondering:
What are Apple’s recommended approaches for managing these kinds of keys?
Does Xcode Cloud offer a built-in or best-practice method for securely injecting environment variables or secrets at build time?
Would using an external service like AWS Secrets Manager or another server-side solution make sense for this use case?
Any insights or examples of how others are handling this securely within Apple’s ecosystem would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for considering my questions!
— Paul
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
I've been spending days trying to solve the memory leak in a small menu bar application I've wrote (SC Menu). I've used Instruments which shows the leaks and memory graph which shows unreleased allocations. This occurs when someone views a certificate on the smartcard.
Basically it opens a new window and displays the certificate, the same way Keychain Access displays a certificate. Whenever I create an SFCertificateView instance and set setDetailsDisclosed(true) - a memory leak happens. Instruments highlights that line.
import Cocoa
import SecurityInterface
class ViewCertsViewController: NSViewController {
var selectedCert: SecIdentity? = nil
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.view = NSView(frame: NSRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 500, height: 500))
self.view.wantsLayer = true
var secRef: SecCertificate? = nil
guard let selectedCert else { return }
let certRefErr = SecIdentityCopyCertificate(selectedCert, &secRef)
if certRefErr != errSecSuccess {
os_log("Error getting certificate from identity: %{public}@", log: OSLog.default, type: .error, String(describing: certRefErr))
return
}
let scrollView = NSScrollView()
scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
scrollView.borderType = .lineBorder
scrollView.hasHorizontalScroller = true
scrollView.hasVerticalScroller = true
let certView = SFCertificateView()
guard let secRef = secRef else { return }
certView.setCertificate(secRef)
certView.setDetailsDisclosed(true)
certView.setDisplayTrust(true)
certView.setEditableTrust(true)
certView.setDisplayDetails(true)
certView.setPolicies(SecPolicyCreateBasicX509())
certView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
scrollView.documentView = certView
view.addSubview(scrollView)
// Layout constraints
NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
scrollView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor),
scrollView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor),
scrollView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.topAnchor),
scrollView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.bottomAnchor),
// Provide certificate view a width and height constraint
certView.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: scrollView.widthAnchor),
certView.heightAnchor.constraint(greaterThanOrEqualToConstant: 500)
])
}
}
https://github.com/boberito/sc_menu/blob/dev_2.0/smartcard_menu/ViewCertsViewController.swift
Fairly simple.
It seems it is not possible to give a CLI app (non .app bundle) full disk access in macOS 26.1. This seems like a bug and if not that is a breaking change. Anybody seeing the same problem?
Our application needs full disk access for a service running as a LaunchDaemon. The binary is located in a /Library subfolder.
Hi everyone,
I have a macOS application that uses Screen Recording permission. I build my app with an adhoc signature (not with a Developer ID certificate).
For example, in version 1.0.0, I grant Screen Recording permission to the app. Later, I build a new version (1.1.0) and update by dragging the new app into the Applications folder to overwrite the previous one.
However, when I launch the updated app, it asks for Screen Recording permission again, even though I have already granted it for the previous version.
I don’t fully understand how TCC (Transparency, Consent, and Control) determines when permissions need to be re-granted.
Can anyone explain how TCC manages permissions for updated builds, especially with adhoc signatures? Is there any way to retain permissions between updates, or any best practices to avoid having users re-authorize permissions after every update?
With Let's Encrypt having completely dropped support for OCSP recently [1], I wanted to ask if macOS has a means of keeping up to date with their CRLs and if so, roughly how often this occurs?
I first observed an issue where a revoked-certificate test site, "revoked.badssl.com" (cert signed by Let's Encrypt), was not getting blocked on any browser, when a revocation policy was set up using the SecPolicyCreateRevocation API, in tandem with the kSecRevocationUseAnyAvailableMethod and kSecRevocationPreferCRL flags.
After further investigation, I noticed that even on a fresh install of macOS, Safari does not block this test website, while Chrome and Firefox (usually) do, due to its revoked certificate. Chrome and Firefox both have their own means of dealing with CRLs, while I assume Safari uses the system Keychain and APIs.
I checked cert info for the site here [2]. It was issued on 2025-07-01 20:00 and revoked an hour later.
[1] https://letsencrypt.org/2024/12/05/ending-ocsp/
[2] https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=revoked.badssl.com