General:
Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Networking
TN3151 Choosing the right networking API
Networking Overview document — Despite the fact that this is in the archive, this is still really useful.
TLS for App Developers forums post
Choosing a Network Debugging Tool documentation
WWDC 2019 Session 712 Advances in Networking, Part 1 — This explains the concept of constrained networking, which is Apple’s preferred solution to questions like How do I check whether I’m on Wi-Fi?
TN3135 Low-level networking on watchOS
TN3179 Understanding local network privacy
Adapt to changing network conditions tech talk
Understanding Also-Ran Connections forums post
Extra-ordinary Networking forums post
Foundation networking:
Forums tags: Foundation, CFNetwork
URL Loading System documentation — NSURLSession, or URLSession in Swift, is the recommended API for HTTP[S] on Apple platforms.
Moving to Fewer, Larger Transfers forums post
Testing Background Session Code forums post
Network framework:
Forums tag: Network
Network framework documentation — Network framework is the recommended API for TCP, UDP, and QUIC on Apple platforms.
Building a custom peer-to-peer protocol sample code (aka TicTacToe)
Implementing netcat with Network Framework sample code (aka nwcat)
Configuring a Wi-Fi accessory to join a network sample code
Moving from Multipeer Connectivity to Network Framework forums post
NWEndpoint History and Advice forums post
Network Extension (including Wi-Fi on iOS):
See Network Extension Resources
Wi-Fi Fundamentals
TN3111 iOS Wi-Fi API overview
Wi-Fi Aware framework documentation
Wi-Fi on macOS:
Forums tag: Core WLAN
Core WLAN framework documentation
Wi-Fi Fundamentals
Secure networking:
Forums tags: Security
Apple Platform Security support document
Preventing Insecure Network Connections documentation — This is all about App Transport Security (ATS).
WWDC 2017 Session 701 Your Apps and Evolving Network Security Standards [1] — This is generally interesting, but the section starting at 17:40 is, AFAIK, the best information from Apple about how certificate revocation works on modern systems.
Available trusted root certificates for Apple operating systems support article
Requirements for trusted certificates in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 support article
About upcoming limits on trusted certificates support article
Apple’s Certificate Transparency policy support article
What’s new for enterprise in iOS 18 support article — This discusses new key usage requirements.
Technote 2232 HTTPS Server Trust Evaluation
Technote 2326 Creating Certificates for TLS Testing
QA1948 HTTPS and Test Servers
Miscellaneous:
More network-related forums tags: 5G, QUIC, Bonjour
On FTP forums post
Using the Multicast Networking Additional Capability forums post
Investigating Network Latency Problems forums post
WirelessInsights framework documentation
iOS Network Signal Strength forums post
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
[1] This video is no longer available from Apple, but the URL should help you locate other sources of this info.
Network
RSS for tagNetwork connections send and receive data using transport and security protocols.
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Activity
NWPathMonitor appears to retain itself (or is retained by some internal infrastructure) once it has been started until cancelled. This seems like it can lead to memory leaks if the references to to the monitor are dropped. Is this behavior documented anywhere?
func nwpm_self_retain() {
weak var weakRef: NWPathMonitor?
autoreleasepool {
let monitor: NWPathMonitor = NWPathMonitor()
weakRef = monitor
monitor.start(queue: .main)
// monitor.cancel() // assertion fails unless this is called
}
assert(weakRef == nil)
}
nwpm_self_retain()
I want to know the reason for last Wi-Fi disconnection. It would be helpful to that I can get the reason-code received from the access point.
For a long time our app had this creation of a URLRequest:
var urlRequest = URLRequest(url: url, cachePolicy: .reloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData, timeoutInterval: timeout)
But since iOS 26 was released we started to get crashes in this call. It is created on a background thread.
Thread 10 Crashed:
0 libsystem_malloc.dylib 0x00000001920e309c _xzm_xzone_malloc_freelist_outlined + 864 (xzone_malloc.c:1869)
1 libswiftCore.dylib 0x0000000184030360 swift::swift_slowAllocTyped(unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long long) + 56 (Heap.cpp:110)
2 libswiftCore.dylib 0x0000000184030754 swift_allocObject + 136 (HeapObject.cpp:245)
3 Foundation 0x00000001845dab9c specialized _ArrayBuffer._consumeAndCreateNew(bufferIsUnique:minimumCapacity:growForAppend:) + 120
4 Foundation 0x00000001845daa58 specialized static _SwiftURL._makeCFURL(from:baseURL:) + 2288 (URL_Swift.swift:1192)
5 Foundation 0x00000001845da118 closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getter + 112 (URL_Swift.swift:64)
6 Foundation 0x00000001845da160 partial apply for closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getter + 20 (<compiler-generated>:0)
7 Foundation 0x00000001845da0a0 closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getterpartial apply + 16
8 Foundation 0x00000001845d9a6c protocol witness for _URLProtocol.bridgeToNSURL() in conformance _SwiftURL + 196 (<compiler-generated>:974)
9 Foundation 0x000000018470f31c URLRequest.init(url:cachePolicy:timeoutInterval:) + 92 (URLRequest.swift:44)# Live For Studio
Any idea if this crash is caused by our code or if it is a known problem in iOS 26?
I have attached one of the crash reports from Xcode:
2025-10-08_10-13-45.1128_+0200-8acf1536892bf0576f963e1534419cd29e6e10b8.crash
Hi there,
We have been trying to set up URL filtering for our app but have run into a wall with generating the bloom filter.
Firstly, some context about our set up:
OHTTP handlers
Uses pre-warmed lambdas to expose the gateway and the configs endpoints using the javascript libary referenced here - https://developers.cloudflare.com/privacy-gateway/get-started/#resources
Status = untested
We have not yet got access to Apples relay servers
PIR service
We run the PIR service through AWS ECS behind an ALB
The container clones the following repo https://github.com/apple/swift-homomorphic-encryption, outside of config changes, we do not have any custom functionality
Status = working
From the logs, everything seems to be working here because it is responding to queries when they are sent, and never blocking anything it shouldn’t
Bloom filter generation
We generate a bloom filter from the following url list:
https://example.com
http://example.com
example.com
Then we put the result into the url filtering example application from here - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/filtering-traffic-by-url
The info generated from the above URLs is:
{
"bits": 44,
"hashes": 11,
"seed": 2538058380,
"content": "m+yLyZ4O"
}
Status = broken
We think this is broken because we are getting requests to our PIR server for every single website we visit
We would have expected to only receive requests to the PIR server when going to example.com because it’s in our block list
It’s possible that behind the scenes Apple runs sporadically makes requests regardless of the bloom filter result, but that isn’t what we’d expect
We are generating our bloom filter in the following way:
We double hash the URL using fnv1a for the first, and murmurhash3 for the second
hashTwice(value: any, seed?: any): any {
return {
first: Number(fnv1a(value, { size: 32 })),
second: murmurhash3(value, seed),
};
}
We calculate the index positions from the following function/formula , as seen in https://github.com/ameshkov/swift-bloom/blob/master/Sources/BloomFilter/BloomFilter.swift#L96
doubleHashing(n: number, hashA: number, hashB: number, size: number): number {
return Math.abs((hashA + n * hashB) % size);
}
Questions:
What hashing algorithms are used and can you link an implementation that you know is compatible with Apple’s?
How are the index positions calculated from the iteration number, the size, and the hash results?
There was mention of a tool for generating a bloom filter that could be used for Apple’s URL filtering implementation, when can we expect the release of this tool?
Hello,
I am working to integrate the new com.apple.developer.networking.carrier-constrained.app-optimized entitlement in my iOS 26 app so that my app can use a carrier-provided satellite network, and want to confirm my understanding of how to detect and optimize for satellite network conditions.
(Ref: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements/com.apple.developer.networking.carrier-constrained.app-optimized )
My current approach:
I plan to set the entitlement to true once my app is optimized for satellite networks.
To detect if the device is connected to a satellite network, I intend to use the Network framework’s NWPath properties:
isUltraConstrained — I understand this should be set to true when the device is connected to a satellite network.
(Ref: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/network/nwpath/isultraconstrained )
linkQuality == .minimal — I believe this will also be set in satellite scenarios, though it may not be exclusive to satellite connections.
(Ref:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/network/nwpath/linkquality-swift.enum/minimal )
Questions:
Is it correct that isUltraConstrained will reliably indicate a satellite connection?
Should I also check for linkQuality == .minimal, or is isUltraConstrained sufficient?
Are there any additional APIs or best practices for detecting and optimizing for satellite connectivity that I should be aware of?
Thank you for confirming whether my understanding and approach are correct, and for any additional guidance.
When setting new entitlements com.apple.developer.networking.carrier-constrained.appcategory and com.apple.developer.networking.carrier-constrained.app-optimized, I have a question about how URLSession should behave.
I notice we have a way to specify whether a Network connection should allow ultra-constrained paths via
NWParameters allowUltraConstrainedPaths: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/network/nwparameters/allowultraconstrainedpaths
There does not appear to be a similar property on URLSessionConfiguration.
In an ultra-constrained (eg. satellite) network, should we expect all requests made through an URLSession to fail?
Does all network activity when ultra-constrained need to go through a NWConnection or NetworkConnection specifically configured with allowUltraConstrainedPaths, or can URLSession ever be configured to allow ultra-constrained paths?
Hello,
I have an app that is using iOS 26 Network Framework APIs.
It is using QUIC, TLS 1.3 and Bonjour. For TLS I am using a PKCS#12 identity.
All works well and as expected if the devices (iPhone with no cellular, iPhone with cellular, and iPad no cellular) are all on the same wifi network.
If I turn off my router (ie no more wifi network) and leave on the wifi toggle on the iOS devices - only the non cellular iPhone and iPad are able to discovery and connect to each other. My iPhone with cellular is not able to.
By sharing my logs with Cursor AI it was determined that the connection between the two problematic peers (iPad with no cellular and iPhone with cellular) never even makes it to the TLS step because I never see the logs where I print out the certs I compare.
I tried doing "builder.requiredInterfaceType(.wifi)" but doing that blocked the two non cellular devices from working. I also tried "builder.prohibitedInterfaceTypes([.cellular])" but that also did not work.
Is AWDL on it's way out? Should I focus my energy on Wi-Fi Aware?
Regards,
Captadoh
I have been using the SCNetworkReachabilityGetFlags for 10+ years to inform users that their request won't work. In my experience this works pretty well although i am aware of the limitations.
Now, i am looking into the NWPathMonitor, and i have one situation that i'm trying to. get my head around - it's asynchronous.
Specifically, i am wondering what to do when my geofences trigger and i want to check network connectivity - i want to tell the user why the operation i'll perform because of the trigger couldn't be done.
SO. say i start a NWPathMonitor in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions. When the app is booted up because of a geofence trigger, might i not end up in a case where my didEnterRegion / didExitRegion gets called before the NWPathMonitor has gotten its first status?
The advantage here with SCNetworkReachabilityGetFlags, as i understand it, would be that it's synchronous?
If i want to upgrade to nwpathmonitor, i guess i have to do a method that creates a nwpathmonitor, uses a semaphore to wait for the first callback, then contunues?
Thoughts appreciated
Hello,
I have an app that was using the iOS 18 Network Framework APIs. It used Peer to Peer, QUIC and Bonjour. It was all working as expected. I wanted to upgrade to the new iOS 26 Network Framework APIs (NetworkBrowser, NetworkListener, NetworkConnection...).
I have things working (multiple devices can discover each other, connection to each other and send messages to each other) but my app crashes when I go to toggle of all the networking stuff.
In the iOS 18 Network Framework API NWConnection had a .cancel() function I could use to tell the other side the connection was done.
I dont see a cancel function for NetworkConnection.
My question is - how do I properly close down a NetworkConnection and also properly tell the other side the connection is done.
On my iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max devices, running iOS 26.0, 26.0.1, and 26.1, Wi-Fi raw socket communication works flawlessly. Even after keeping the connection active for over 40 minutes, there are no disconnections during data transmission.
However, on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro, the raw socket connection drops within 20 seconds. Once it disconnects, the socket cannot reconnect unless the Wi-Fi module itself is reset.
I believe this issue is caused by a bug in the iPhone 17 series’ communication module. I have looked into many cases, and it appears to be related to a bug in the N1 chipset.
Are there any possible solutions or workarounds for this issue?
For important background information, read Extra-ordinary Networking before reading this.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Network Interface APIs
Most developers don’t need to interact directly with network interfaces. If you do, read this post for a summary of the APIs available to you.
Before you read this, read Network Interface Concepts.
Interface List
The standard way to get a list of interfaces and their addresses is getifaddrs. To learn more about this API, see its man page.
A network interface has four fundamental attributes:
A set of flags — These are packed into a CUnsignedInt. The flags bits are declared in <net/if.h>, starting with IFF_UP.
An interface type — See Network Interface Type, below.
An interface index — Valid indexes are greater than 0.
A BSD interface name. For example, an Ethernet interface might be called en0. The interface name is shared between multiple network interfaces running over a given hardware interface. For example, IPv4 and IPv6 running over that Ethernet interface will both have the name en0.
WARNING BSD interface names are not considered API. There’s no guarantee, for example, that an iPhone’s Wi-Fi interface is en0.
You can map between the last two using if_indextoname and if_nametoindex. See the if_indextoname man page for details.
An interface may also have address information. If present, this always includes the interface address (ifa_addr) and the network mask (ifa_netmask). In addition:
Broadcast-capable interfaces (IFF_BROADCAST) have a broadcast address (ifa_broadaddr, which is an alias for ifa_dstaddr).
Point-to-point interfaces (IFF_POINTOPOINT) have a destination address (ifa_dstaddr).
Calling getifaddrs from Swift is a bit tricky. For an example of this, see QSocket: Interfaces.
IP Address List
Once you have getifaddrs working, it’s relatively easy to manipulate the results to build a list of just IP addresses, a list of IP addresses for each interface, and so on. QSocket: Interfaces has some Swift snippets that show this.
Interface List Updates
The interface list can change over time. Hardware interfaces can be added and removed, network interfaces come up and go down, and their addresses can change. It’s best to avoid caching information from getifaddrs. If thats unavoidable, use the kNotifySCNetworkChange Darwin notification to update your cache. For information about registering for Darwin notifications, see the notify man page (in section 3).
This notification just tells you that something has changed. It’s up to you to fetch the new interface list and adjust your cache accordingly.
You’ll find that this notification is sometimes posted numerous times in rapid succession. To avoid unnecessary thrashing, debounce it.
While the Darwin notification API is easy to call from Swift, Swift does not import kNotifySCNetworkChange. To fix that, define that value yourself, calling a C function to get the value:
var kNotifySCNetworkChange: UnsafePointer<CChar> {
networkChangeNotifyKey()
}
Here’s what that C function looks like:
extern const char * networkChangeNotifyKey(void) {
return kNotifySCNetworkChange;
}
Network Interface Type
There are two ways to think about a network interface’s type. Historically there were a wide variety of weird and wonderful types of network interfaces. The following code gets this legacy value for a specific BSD interface name:
func legacyTypeForInterfaceNamed(_ name: String) -> UInt8? {
var addrList: UnsafeMutablePointer<ifaddrs>? = nil
let err = getifaddrs(&addrList)
// In theory we could check `errno` here but, honestly, what are gonna
// do with that info?
guard
err >= 0,
let first = addrList
else { return nil }
defer { freeifaddrs(addrList) }
return sequence(first: first, next: { $0.pointee.ifa_next })
.compactMap { addr in
guard
let nameC = addr.pointee.ifa_name,
name == String(cString: nameC),
let sa = addr.pointee.ifa_addr,
sa.pointee.sa_family == AF_LINK,
let data = addr.pointee.ifa_data
else { return nil }
return data.assumingMemoryBound(to: if_data.self).pointee.ifi_type
}
.first
}
The values are defined in <net/if_types.h>, starting with IFT_OTHER.
However, this value is rarely useful because many interfaces ‘look like’ Ethernet and thus have a type of IFT_ETHER.
Network framework has the concept of an interface’s functional type. This is an indication of how the interface fits into the system. There are two ways to get an interface’s functional type:
If you’re using Network framework and have an NWInterface value, get the type property.
If not, call ioctl with a SIOCGIFFUNCTIONALTYPE request. The return values are defined in <net/if.h>, starting with IFRTYPE_FUNCTIONAL_UNKNOWN.
Swift does not import SIOCGIFFUNCTIONALTYPE, so it’s best to write this code in a C:
extern uint32_t functionalTypeForInterfaceNamed(const char * name) {
int fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
if (fd < 0) { return IFRTYPE_FUNCTIONAL_UNKNOWN; }
struct ifreq ifr = {};
strlcpy(ifr.ifr_name, name, sizeof(ifr.ifr_name));
bool success = ioctl(fd, SIOCGIFFUNCTIONALTYPE, &ifr) >= 0;
int junk = close(fd);
assert(junk == 0);
if ( ! success ) { return IFRTYPE_FUNCTIONAL_UNKNOWN; }
return ifr.ifr_ifru.ifru_functional_type;
}
Finally, TN3158 Resolving Xcode 15 device connection issues documents the SIOCGIFDIRECTLINK flag as a specific way to identify the network interfaces uses by Xcode for device connection traffic.
Revision History
2025-12-10 Added info about SIOCGIFDIRECTLINK.
2023-07-19 First posted.
Summary
NetworkConnection<WebSocket> in iOS 26 Network framework throws POSIXErrorCode(rawValue: 22): Invalid argument when receiving WebSocket ping (opcode 9) or pong (opcode 10) control frames. This prevents proper WebSocket keep-alive functionality.
Environment
iOS 26.0 (Simulator)
macOS 26.1
Xcode 26.0
Note: This issue was initially discovered on iOS 26 Simulator. The same behavior was confirmed on macOS 26, suggesting a shared bug in the Network framework. The attached sample code is for macOS for easier reproduction.
Description
When using the new NetworkConnection<WebSocket> API introduced in iOS 26 or macOS 26, the receive() method throws EINVAL error whenever a ping or pong control frame is received from the server.
This is a critical issue because:
WebSocket servers commonly send ping frames to keep connections alive
Clients send ping frames to verify connection health
The receive callback never receives the ping/pong frame - the error occurs before the frame reaches user code
Steps to Reproduce
Create a WebSocket connection to any server that supports ping/pong (e.g., wss://echo.websocket.org):
import Foundation
import Network
// MARK: - WebSocket Ping/Pong EINVAL Bug Reproduction
// This sample demonstrates that NetworkConnection<WebSocket> throws EINVAL
// when receiving ping or pong control frames.
@main
struct WebSocketPingPongBug {
static func main() async {
print("=== WebSocket Ping/Pong EINVAL Bug Reproduction ===\n")
do {
try await testPingPong()
} catch {
print("Test failed with error: \(error)")
}
}
static func testPingPong() async throws {
let host = "echo.websocket.org"
let port: UInt16 = 443
print("Connecting to wss://\(host)...")
let endpoint = NWEndpoint.hostPort(
host: NWEndpoint.Host(host),
port: NWEndpoint.Port(rawValue: port)!
)
try await withNetworkConnection(to: endpoint, using: {
WebSocket {
TLS {
TCP()
}
}
}) { connection in
print("Connected!\n")
// Start receive loop in background
let receiveTask = Task {
var messageCount = 0
while !Task.isCancelled {
do {
let (data, metadata) = try await connection.receive()
messageCount += 1
print("[\(messageCount)] Received frame - opcode: \(metadata.opcode)")
if let text = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) {
print("[\(messageCount)] Content: \(text)")
} else {
print("[\(messageCount)] Binary data: \(data.count) bytes")
}
} catch let error as NWError {
if case .posix(let code) = error, code == .EINVAL {
print("❌ EINVAL error occurred! (POSIXErrorCode 22: Invalid argument)")
print(" This is the bug - ping/pong frame caused EINVAL")
// Continue to demonstrate workaround
continue
}
print("Receive error: \(error)")
break
} catch {
print("Receive error: \(error)")
break
}
}
}
// Wait for initial message from server
try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(2))
// Test 1: Send text message (should work)
print("\n--- Test 1: Sending text message ---")
try await connection.send("Hello, WebSocket!")
print("✅ Text message sent")
try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(1))
// Test 2: Send ping (pong response will cause EINVAL)
print("\n--- Test 2: Sending ping frame ---")
print("Expecting EINVAL when pong is received...")
let pingMetadata = NWProtocolWebSocket.Metadata(opcode: .ping)
try await connection.ping(Data()) {
pingMetadata
}
print("✅ Ping sent, waiting for pong...")
// Wait for pong response
try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(2))
// Cleanup
receiveTask.cancel()
print("\n=== Test Complete ===")
print("If you saw 'EINVAL error occurred!' above, the bug is reproduced.")
}
}
}
The receive() call fails with error when pong arrives:
❌ EINVAL error occurred! (POSIXErrorCode 22: Invalid argument)
Test Results
Scenario
Result
Send/receive text (opcode 1)
✅ OK
Client sends ping, receives pong
❌ EINVAL on pong receive
Expected Behavior
The receive() method should successfully return ping and pong frames, or at minimum, handle them internally without throwing an error. The autoReplyPing option should allow automatic pong responses without disrupting the receive loop.
Actual Behavior
When a ping or pong control frame is received:
The receive() method throws NWError.posix(.EINVAL)
The frame never reaches user code (no opcode check is possible)
The connection remains valid, but the receive loop is interrupted
Workaround
Catch the EINVAL error and restart the receive loop:
while !Task.isCancelled {
do {
let received = try await connection.receive()
// Process message
} catch let error as NWError {
if case .posix(let code) = error, code == .EINVAL {
// Control frame caused EINVAL, continue receiving
continue
}
throw error
}
}
This workaround allows continued operation but:
Cannot distinguish between ping-related EINVAL and other EINVAL errors
Cannot access the ping/pong frame content
Cannot implement custom ping/pong handling
Impact
WebSocket connections to servers that send periodic pings will experience repeated EINVAL errors
Applications must implement workarounds that may mask other legitimate errors
Additional Information
Packet capture confirms ping/pong frames are correctly transmitted at the network level
The error occurs in the Network framework's internal processing, before reaching user code
Recent our APP performance online has revealed significant degradation in cellular network SRTT (Smoothed Round-Trip Time) on the latest iPhone models (iPhone 18.1, 18.2, and 18.3) relative to previous generation devices. IDC network transmission SRTT P50 increased by 10.64%, P95 increased by 103.41%; CDN network transmission SRTT P50 increased by 12.66%, P95 increased by 81.08%.
Detailed Performance Metrics:
1. Network Transmission SRTT Degradation
Following optimization of our APP's network library, iOS network transmission SRTT showed improvement from mid-August through mid-September. However, starting September 16, cellular network SRTT metrics began to degrade (SRTT increased). This degradation affects both IDC and CDN routes. WiFi network performance remains unaffected.
2. Excluding iOS 26.x Version Data
After data filtering, we discovered that the increase in iOS cellular network transmission SRTT was caused by data samples from iOS 26.x versions. When excluding iOS 26.x version data, network transmission SRTT shows no growth.
3. Comparative Analysis: iOS 26.x vs. iOS < 26.0
network transmission SRTT shows:
IDC (Internet Data Center) Links: P50 latency: 10.64% increase / P95 latency: 103.41% increase
CDN (Content Delivery Network) Links: P50 latency: 12.66% increase / P95 latency: 81.08% increase
4. Device-Model Analysis: iOS 26.x SRTT Degradation Scope
Granular analysis of iOS 26.x samples across different device models reveals that network SRTT degradation is not universal but rather specific to certain iPhone models.
These measurements indicate a substantial regression in
network performance across both data center and content
delivery pathways.
We are facing a DNS resolution issue with a specific ISP, where our domain name does not resolve correctly using the system DNS. However, the same domain works as expected when a custom DNS resolver is used.
On Android, this is straightforward to handle by configuring a custom DNS implementation using OkHttp / Retrofit. I am trying to implement a functionally equivalent solution in native iOS (Swift / SwiftUI).
Android Reference (Working Behavior) :
val dns = DnsOverHttps.Builder()
.client(OkHttpClient())
.url("https://cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query".toHttpUrl())
.bootstrapDnsHosts(InetAddress.getByName("1.1.1.1"))
.build()
OkHttpClient.Builder()
.dns(dns)
.build()
Attempted iOS Approach
I attempted the following approach :
Resolve the domain to an IP address programmatically (using DNS over HTTPS)
Connect directly to the resolved IP address
Set the original domain in the Host HTTP header
DNS Resolution via DoH :
func resolveDomain(domain: String) async throws -> String {
guard let url = URL(
string: "https://cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query?name=\(domain)&type=A"
) else {
throw URLError(.badURL)
}
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.setValue("application/dns-json", forHTTPHeaderField: "accept")
let (data, _) = try await URLSession.shared.data(for: request)
let response = try JSONDecoder().decode(DNSResponse.self, from: data)
guard let ip = response.Answer?.first?.data else {
throw URLError(.cannotFindHost)
}
return ip
}
API Call Using Resolved IP :
func callAPIUsingCustomDNS() async throws {
let ip = try await resolveDomain(domain: "example.com")
guard let url = URL(string: "https://(ip)") else {
throw URLError(.badURL)
}
let configuration = URLSessionConfiguration.ephemeral
let session = URLSession(
configuration: configuration,
delegate: CustomURLSessionDelegate(originalHost: "example.com"),
delegateQueue: .main
)
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.setValue("example.com", forHTTPHeaderField: "Host")
let (_, response) = try await session.data(for: request)
print("Success: (response)")
}
Problem Encountered
When connecting via the IP address, the TLS handshake fails with the following error:
Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1200
"A TLS error caused the secure connection to fail."
This appears to happen because iOS sends the IP address as the Server Name Indication (SNI) during the TLS handshake, while the server’s certificate is issued for the domain name.
Custom URLSessionDelegate Attempt :
class CustomURLSessionDelegate: NSObject, URLSessionDelegate {
let originalHost: String
init(originalHost: String) {
self.originalHost = originalHost
}
func urlSession(
_ session: URLSession,
didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge,
completionHandler: @escaping (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) -> Void
) {
guard challenge.protectionSpace.authenticationMethod == NSURLAuthenticationMethodServerTrust,
let serverTrust = challenge.protectionSpace.serverTrust else {
completionHandler(.performDefaultHandling, nil)
return
}
let sslPolicy = SecPolicyCreateSSL(true, originalHost as CFString)
let basicPolicy = SecPolicyCreateBasicX509()
SecTrustSetPolicies(serverTrust, [sslPolicy, basicPolicy] as CFArray)
var error: CFError?
if SecTrustEvaluateWithError(serverTrust, &error) {
completionHandler(.useCredential, URLCredential(trust: serverTrust))
} else {
completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil)
}
}
}
However, TLS validation still fails because the SNI remains the IP address, not the domain.
I would appreciate guidance on the supported and App Store–compliant way to handle ISP-specific DNS resolution issues on iOS. If custom DNS or SNI configuration is not supported, what alternative architectural approaches are recommended by Apple?
I want to add more cipher suites. I use NWConnection to make a connection.
Before I use sec_protocol_options_append_tls_ciphersuite method to add more cipher suites, I found that Apple provided 20 cipher suites shown in the client hello packet. But after I added three more cipher suites, I found that nothing changed, and still original 20 cipher suites shown in the client hello packet when I made a new connection.
The following is the code about connection. I want to add three more cipher suites: tls_ciphersuite_t.ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256,
tls_ciphersuite_t.ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384,
tls_ciphersuite_t.ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
Can you give me some advice about how to add more cipher suites? Thanks.
By the way, I working on a MacOS app.
Xcode version: 16
MacOS version: 15.6
Hi,
I’m using Network Framework to implement a UDP client via NWConnection, and I’m looking for clarification about the correct and fully safe shutdown procedure, especially regarding resource release.
I have initiated some pending receive calls on the NWConnection (using receive). After calling connection.cancel(), do we need to wait for the cancellation of these pending receives?
As mentioned in this thread, NWConnection retains references to the receive closures and releases them once they are called. If a receive closure holds a reference to the NWConnection itself, do we need to wait for these closures to be called to avoid memory leaks? Or, if there are no such retained references, we don't need to wait for the cancellation of the pending I/O and cancelled state for NWConnection?
Hi,
I’m using Network Framework to implement a UDP listener via NWListener. I am looking for clarification about the correct and fully safe shutdown procedure, especially regarding resource release.
After calling listener.cancel(), do we need to wait for the .cancelled state before exiting the application? Or can we just exit once the cancellation is initiated, assuming the OS will close the NWListener and there will be no resource leak?
Is it recommended (or required) to set newConnectionHandler = nil when shutting down a UDP listener?
My understanding is that if there is no NWListener attached, then whenever a connection is accepted by the OS, it will not be delivered to the application and the OS will simply drop it.
Hi,
I played around the last days with the new NetworkConnection API from Network framework that supports structured concurrency. I discovered a behavior, which is unexpected from my understanding.
Let's say you have a dead endpoint or something that does not exist. Something where you receive a noSuchRecord error. When I then try to send data, I would expect that the send function throws an error but this does not happen. The function now suspends indefinitely which is well not a great behavior.
Example simplified:
func send() async {
let connection = NetworkConnection(to: .hostPort(host: "apple.co.com", port: 8080)) {
TCP()
}
do {
try await connection.send("Hello World!".raw)
} catch {
print(error)
}
}
I'm not sure if this is the intended behavior or how this should be handled.
Thanks and best regards,
Vinz
Hello,
I am studying the Building peer-to-peer apps codebase https://developer.apple.com/documentation/wifiaware/building-peer-to-peer-apps and am wondering why no connection is ever started?
I searched the codebase and didn't find .start() be called once.
Start function I'm referencing https://developer.apple.com/documentation/network/networkconnection/start()
Are NetworkConnections started automatically?
Note that I am using QUIC NetworkConnections (NetworkConnection) in what I'm trying to do.