General: Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Networking DevForums tag: Network Extension Network Extension framework documentation Routing your VPN network traffic article Filtering traffic by URL sample code Filtering Network Traffic sample code TN3120 Expected use cases for Network Extension packet tunnel providers technote TN3134 Network Extension provider deployment technote TN3165 Packet Filter is not API technote Network Extension and VPN Glossary forums post Debugging a Network Extension Provider forums post Exporting a Developer ID Network Extension forums post Network Extension Framework Entitlements forums post Network Extension vs ad hoc techniques on macOS forums post Network Extension Provider Packaging forums post NWEndpoint History and Advice forums post Extra-ordinary Networking forums post Wi-Fi management: Wi-Fi Fundamentals forums post TN3111 iOS Wi-Fi API overview technote How to modernize your captive network developer news post iOS Network Signal Strength forums post See also Networking Resources. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

We create custom VPN tunnel by overriding PacketTunnelProvider on MacOS. Normal VPN connection works seamlessly. But if we enable onDemand rules on VPN manager, intemittently during tunnel creation via OnDemand, internet goes away on machine leading to a connection stuck state. Why does internet goes away during tunnel creation?

Hi, I’m implementing a NetworkExtension content filter provider on iOS and I can’t get it to activate on device. I have an iOS app (App Store distribution) with a content filter provider extension (NEFilterDataProvider). The app builds, installs, and runs fine, and the extension is embedded correctly. Entitlements appear to be set for both the app and the extension, and the extension’s Info.plist is configured as expected. However, when I try to enable the filter via NEFilterManager (loadFromPreferences → set configuration → isEnabled = true → saveToPreferences), saveToPreferences fails with NEFilterErrorDomain code 1 and the message “Configuration invalid or read/write failed.” The extension never starts and startFilter() is never called. Main app bundle ID: uk.co.getnovi.student Extension bundle ID: uk.co.getnovi.student.NoviContentFilter Extension type: NEFilterDataProvider We are testing on an iPhone 15 running iOS 18.6.2 (22G100), the app is designed to run on iPhone. This app is intended for education use on student-owned personal iPhones installed from the App Store. The devices we are testing on are not supervised and not enrolled in MDM. We already use the Family Controls framework (ManagedSettings) for app restrictions and have the com.apple.developer.family-controls entitlement enabled for App Store distribution. I’ve read TN3134 and noticed content filter providers on iOS are described as “supervised devices only” in general, with additional notes around iOS 15.0 for “apps using Screen Time APIs” and iOS 16.0 for “per-app on managed devices,” plus a note that in the Screen Time case content filters are only supported on child devices. My question is whether this error is what you’d expect when attempting to enable a content filter provider on a non-supervised, non-managed device, or whether this should still work if the entitlement and configuration are correct. If non-supervised devices are not supported, is there any supported path for enabling NEFilter on iOS without supervision/MDM (for example via the Screen Time / Family Controls child authorization pathway), or will the system always refuse to enable the filter on standard devices? In summary: is NEFilterDataProvider supported on non-supervised devices for consumer App Store apps, or is this a platform restriction that cannot be worked around? Thanks, Matt

Hi, I’m implementing a NetworkExtension content filter provider on iOS and I can’t get it to activate on device. I have an iOS app (App Store distribution) with a content filter provider extension (NEFilterDataProvider). The app builds, installs, and runs fine, and the extension is embedded correctly. Entitlements appear to be set for both the app and the extension, and the extension’s Info.plist is configured as expected. However, when I try to enable the filter via NEFilterManager (loadFromPreferences → set configuration → isEnabled = true → saveToPreferences), saveToPreferences fails with NEFilterErrorDomain code 1 and the message “Configuration invalid or read/write failed.” The extension never starts and startFilter() is never called. Main app bundle ID: uk.co.getnovi.student Extension bundle ID: uk.co.getnovi.student.NoviContentFilter Extension type: NEFilterDataProvider We are testing on an iPhone 15 running iOS 18.6.2 (22G100). This app is intended for education use on student-owned personal iPhones installed from the App Store. The devices we are testing on are not supervised and not enrolled in MDM. We already use the Family Controls framework (ManagedSettings) for app restrictions and have the com.apple.developer.family-controls entitlement enabled for App Store distribution. I’ve read TN3134 and noticed content filter providers on iOS are described as “supervised devices only” in general, with additional notes around iOS 15.0 for “apps using Screen Time APIs” and iOS 16.0 for “per-app on managed devices,” plus a note that in the Screen Time case content filters are only supported on child devices. My question is whether this error is what you’d expect when attempting to enable a content filter provider on a non-supervised, non-managed device, or whether this should still work if the entitlement and configuration are correct. If non-supervised devices are not supported, is there any supported path for enabling NEFilter on iOS without supervision/MDM (for example via the Screen Time / Family Controls child authorization pathway), or will the system always refuse to enable the filter on standard devices? TLDR: is NEFilterDataProvider supported on non-supervised devices for consumer App Store apps, or is this a platform restriction that cannot be worked around? Thanks, Matt

Description I am seeing a consistent crash in a NEDNSProxyProvider on iOS when migrating from completion handlers to the new Swift Concurrency async/await variants of readDatagrams() and writeDatagrams() on NEAppProxyUDPFlow. The crash occurs inside the Swift Concurrency runtime during task resumption. Specifically, it seems the Task attempts to return to the flow’s internal serial executor (NEFlow queue) after a suspension point, but fails if the flow was invalidated or deallocated by the kernel while the task was suspended. Error Signature Thread 4: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=1, address=0x28) Thread 4 Queue : NEFlow queue (serial) #0 0x000000018fe919cc in swift::AsyncTask::flagAsAndEnqueueOnExecutor () #9 0x00000001ee25c3b8 in _pthread_wqthread () Steps The crash is highly timing-dependent. To reproduce it reliably: Use an iOS device with Developer Settings enabled. Go to Developer > Network Link Conditioner -> High Latency DNS. Intercept a DNS query and perform a DoH (DNS-over-HTTPS) request using URLSession. The first few network requests should trigger the crash Minimum Working Example (MWE) class DNSProxyProvider: NEDNSProxyProvider { override func handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyFlow) -> Bool { guard let udpFlow = flow as? NEAppProxyUDPFlow else { return false } Task(priority: .userInitiated) { await handleUDPFlow(udpFlow) } return true } func handleUDPFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyUDPFlow) async { do { try await flow.open(withLocalFlowEndpoint: nil) while !Task.isCancelled { // Suspension point 1: Waiting for datagrams let (flowData, error) = await flow.readDatagrams() if let error { throw error } guard let flowData, !flowData.isEmpty else { return } var responses: [(Data, Network.NWEndpoint)] = [] for (data, endpoint) in flowData { // Suspension point 2: External DoH resolution let response = try await resolveViaDoH(data) responses.append((response, endpoint)) } // Suspension point 3: Writing back to the flow // Extension will crash here on task resumption try await flow.writeDatagrams(responses) } } catch { flow.closeReadWithError(error) flow.closeWriteWithError(error) } } private func handleFlowData(_ packet: Data, endpoint: Network.NWEndpoint, using parameters: NWParameters) async throws -> Data { let url = URL(string: "https://dns.google/dns-query")! var request = URLRequest(url: url) request.httpMethod = "POST" request.httpBody = packet request.setValue("application/dns-message", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type") let (data, _) = try await URLSession.shared.data(for: request) return data } } Crash Details & Analysis The disassembly at the crash point indicates a null dereference of an internal executor pointer (Voucher context): ldr x20, [TPIDRRO_EL0 + 0x340] ldr x0, [x20, #0x28] // x20 is NULL/0x0 here, resulting in address 0x28 It appears that NEAppProxyUDPFlow’s async methods bind the Task to a specific internal executor. When the kernel reclaims the flow memory, the pointer in x20 becomes invalid. Because the Swift runtime is unaware that the NEFlow queue executor has vanished, it attempts to resume on non-existing flow and then crashes. Checking !Task.isCancelled does not prevent this, as the crash happens during the transition into the task body before the cancellation check can even run. Questions Is this a known issue of the NetworkExtension async bridge? Why does Task.isCancelled not reflect the deallocation of the underlying NEAppProxyFlow? Is the only safe workaround? Please feel free to correct me if I misunderstood anything here. I'll be happy to hear any insights or suggestions :) Thank you!

I have an iOS app with a network extension that's using OSLog to log various bits of information that are useful for debugging. I'm currently trying to add a simple button that bundles up those logs with some other information and presents the user with a Share sheet so they can send it to support teams. I looked at OSLogStore but it only collects logs for the current process so the user clicking a button in my app wouldn't collect logs from my network extension. I would really like to avoid having to guide users through the process of creating and sharing a sysdiagnose but it seems like this might be the only option. How do other folks do this kind of thing? Is there a recommended way to do it?

I’m building a macOS app with a DNS Proxy system extension for Developer ID + notarization, deployed via MDM, and Xcode fails the Developer ID Release build with a provisioning profile mismatch for com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension. Environment macOS: Sequoia (15.7.2) Xcode: 26.2 Distribution: Developer ID + notarization, deployed via MDM Host bundle ID: com.mydns.agent.MyDNSMacProxy DNS Proxy system extension bundle ID: com.mydns.agent.MyDNSMacProxy.dnsProxy Host entitlements (Release): File: MyDNSMacProxy/MyDNSMacProxyRelease.entitlements: "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>com.apple.application-identifier</key> <string>B234657989.com.mydns.agent.MyDNSMacProxy</string> <key>com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension</key> <array> <string>dns-proxy</string> </array> <key>com.apple.developer.system-extension.install</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.developer.team-identifier</key> <string>B234657989</string> <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.application-groups</key> <array> <string>group.com.mydns.MyDNSmac</string> </array> <key>keychain-access-groups</key> <array> <string>B234657989.*</string> </array> </dict> </plist> xcodebuild -showBuildSettings -scheme MyDNSMacProxy -configuration Release : PROVISIONING_PROFILE_SPECIFIER = main MyDNSMacProxy5 CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = Developer ID Application Host Developer ID profile main_MyDNSMacProxy5.provisionprofile (via security cms -D): "Entitlements" => { "com.apple.application-identifier" => "B234657989.com.mydns.agent.MyDNSMacProxy" "com.apple.developer.team-identifier" => "B234657989" "com.apple.security.application-groups" => [ "group.com.mydns.MyDNSmac", ..., "B234657989.*" ] "keychain-access-groups" => [ "B234657989.*" ] "com.apple.developer.system-extension.install" => 1 "com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension" => [ "packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension", "app-proxy-provider-systemextension", "content-filter-provider-systemextension", "dns-proxy-systemextension", "dns-settings", "relay", "url-filter-provider", "hotspot-provider" ] } So: App ID, team ID, keychain and system‑extension.install match. The profile’s com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension is a superset of what I request in the host entitlements (dns-proxy only). System extension (for context) DNS Proxy system extension target: NSExtensionPointIdentifier = com.apple.dns-proxy NetworkExtension → NEProviderClasses → com.apple.networkextension.dns-proxy → my provider class Entitlements: com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension = ["dns-proxy-systemextension"] This target uses a separate Developer ID profile and builds successfully. Xcode error Release build of the host fails with: …MyDNSMacProxy.xcodeproj: error: Provisioning profile "main MyDNSMacProxy5" doesn't match the entitlements file's value for the com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension entitlement. (in target 'MyDNSMacProxy' from project 'MyDNSMacProxy') Xcode UI also says: Entitlements: 6 Included, 1 Missing Includes com.apple.developer.team-identifier, com.apple.application-identifier, keychain-access-groups, com.apple.developer.system-extension.install, and com.apple.security.application-groups. Doesn’t match entitlements file value for com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension. Because of this, the app bundle isn’t produced and I can’t inspect the final signed entitlements. Questions: For com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension, should Xcode accept a subset of values in the entitlements (here just dns-proxy) as long as that value is allowed by the Developer ID profile, or does it currently require a stricter match? Is the following configuration valid for Developer ID + MDM with a DNS Proxy system extension: Host entitlements: ["dns-proxy"] System extension entitlements: ["dns-proxy-systemextension"] Host profile’s NE array includes the DNS Proxy system extension types. If this is a known limitation or bug in how Xcode validates NE entitlements for Developer ID, is there a recommended workaround? Thanks for any guidance.

Hi, I tried to follow this guide: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/filtering-traffic-by-url And this: https://github.com/apple/pir-service-example I already deploy the pir service on my server. And set the configuration on the app like this: { name = SimpleURLFilter identifier = xxxxx applicationName = SimpleURLFilter application = com.xxxx.SimpleURLFilter grade = 2 urlFilter = { Enabled = YES FailClosed = NO AppBundleIdentifier = com.mastersystem.SimpleURLFilter ControlProviderBundleIdentifier = com.xxxx.SimpleURLFilter.SimpleURLFilterExtension PrefilterFetchFrequency = 2700 pirServerURL = https://xxxxx/pir pirPrivacyPassIssuerURL = https://xxxxx/pir AuthenticationToken = AAAA pirPrivacyProxyFailOpen = NO pirSkipRegistration = NO } } But I got this error when I tried to enable the service on the app: Received filter status change: <FilterStatus: 'stopped' errorMessage: 'The operation couldn’t be completed. (NetworkExtension.NEURLFilterManager.Error error 9.)'> What does that error mean? And how to fix it?

I have a network extension that hosts a NEFilterDataProvider & NETransparentProxyProvider. One of the use case that this caters to is : Proxy some flows (depending on originating app) while Content filter is also filtering flows based on business logic. The issue I am running into happens when FilterDataProvider sees a flow & responds with filterDataVerdict(withFilterInbound: false, peekInboundBytes: 0, filterOutbound: true, peekOutboundBytes:1024 to handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEFilterFlow) [wants to peek more bytes on outbound connection before making a decision] TransparentProxyProvider sees the flow & responds with NO to handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyFlow) as it is not interested in in proxying that flow. When this occurs, we see connection being dropped by kernel. I wanted to know if this is expected behavior. Logs when this occurs: 2026-02-06 14:57:09.725854-0600 0x17c918f Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (NetworkExtension) [com.apple.networkextension:] [Extension com.test.network]: provider rejected new flow TCP headless_shell[{length = 20, bytes = 0xe69023e655b6065e1a2f94fa508807fa43f6ac8a}] remote: 100.72.0.3:443 interface utun9 2026-02-06 14:57:09.725874-0600 0x17ca166 Debug 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (NetworkExtension) [com.apple.networkextension:] New flow verdict for D89B5B5D-793C-4940-D955-37BE33F18005: drop = NO remediate = NO needRules = NO shouldReport = YES pause = NO urlAppendString = NO filterInbound = NO peekInboundBytes = 0 filterOutbound = YES peekOutboundBytes = 1024 statisticsReportFrequency = low 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726009-0600 0x17ca24a Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Closing reads (sending SHUT_WR), closed by plugin (flow error: 0) 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726028-0600 0x17ca24a Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Closing writes, sending SHUT_RD 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726040-0600 0x17ca24a Debug 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Dropping the director 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726047-0600 0x17ca24a Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Destroying, client tx 0, client rx 0, kernel rx 0, kernel tx 0 I wanted to know how neagent is handling this when for a flow, filterDataProvider wants to look at the traffic while transparentProxy is not interested in handling that flow

I added a Content Filter to my app, and when running it in Xcode (Debug/Release), I get the expected permission prompt: "Would like to filter network content (Allow / Don't Allow)". However, when I install the app via TestFlight, this prompt doesn’t appear at all, and the feature doesn’t work. Is there a special configuration required for TestFlight? Has anyone encountered this issue before? Thanks!

Based on https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/nednssettings/searchdomains , we expect the values mentioned in searchDomains to be appended to a single label DNS query. However, we are not seeing this behavior. We have a packetTunnelProvider VPN, where we set searchDomains to a dns suffix (for ex: test.com) and we set matchDomains to applications and suffix (for ex: abc.com and test.com) . When a user tries to access https://myapp , we expect to see a DNS query packet for myapp.test.com . However, this is not happening when matchDomainsNoSearch is set to true. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/nednssettings/matchdomainsnosearch When matchDomainsNoSearch is set to false, we see dns queries for myapp.test.com and myapp.abc.com. What is the expected behavior of searchDomains?

I have been toying around with the URL filter API, and now a few installed configurations have piled up. I can't seem to remove them. I swear a few betas ago I could tap on one and then delete it. But now no tap, swipe, or long press does anything. Is this a bug?

Hello, I am developing an internal phone application using CallKit. I am experiencing an issue with the behavior of remoteHandle settings in iOS 26 and would appreciate any insights you can provide towards a solution. 1. Problem Description When an iPhone running iOS 26 is in a sleep state and receives a VoIP incoming call where remoteHandle is set to nil or an empty string (@""), we are unable to transition to our application (the UIExtension provided by the provider) from the CallKit UI's "More" (…) button after answering the call. 2. Conditions and Symptoms OS Version: iOS 26 Initial State: iPhone is in a sleep state Call Type: An unsolicited(unknown number) VoIP incoming call where the CXCallUpdate's remoteHandle is set to either nil or [[CXHandle alloc] initWithType:CXHandleTypePhoneNumber value:@""] Symptoms: After answering the VoIP call by sliding the button, selecting the "More" (…) button displayed on the CallKit screen does not launch our application's UIExtension (custom UI), and the iPhone instead stay to the CallKit screen. 3. Previous Behavior (Up to iOS 18) Up to iOS 18, even when remoteHandle was set to an empty string using the following code, the application would transition normally from "More" after answering an incoming call from a sleep state. CXCallUpdate *update = [[CXCallUpdate alloc] init]; update.remoteHandle = [[CXHandle alloc] initWithType:CXHandleTypePhoneNumber value:@""]; [provider reportNewIncomingCallWithUUID:uuid update:update completion:completion]; 4. Unsuccessful Attempts to Resolve The issue remained unresolved after changing the handling for unsolicited(unknown number) incoming calls as follows: CXCallUpdate *update = [[CXCallUpdate alloc] init]; update.remoteHandle = nil; // Set remoteHandle to nil [provider reportNewIncomingCallWithUUID:uuid update:update completion:completion]; 5. Workaround (Temporary) The problem can be resolved, and the application can transition successfully, by setting a dummy numerical value (e.g., "0") for the value in remoteHandle using the following code: CXCallUpdate *update = [[CXCallUpdate alloc] init]; update.remoteHandle = [[CXHandle alloc] initWithType:CXHandleTypePhoneNumber value:@"0"]; // Set a dummy numerical value [provider reportNewIncomingCallWithUUID:uuid update:update completion:completion]; 6. Additional Information If remoteHandle is correctly set with the caller's number (i.e., not an unsolicited(unknown number) call; e.g., value:@"1234567890"), the application transitions normally from the "More" button after answering an incoming call from a sleep state, even in iOS 26. The above issue does not occur when answering incoming calls while the iPhone is in an active state (not sleeping). 7. Questions Have there been any other reports of similar behavior? Should this be considered a bug in CallKit for iOS 26? Should I make file a new Feedback report? Is there a suitable method to resolve this issue when the caller ID is unsolicited (nil or an empty string)? This problem significantly impacts user operations as end-users are unable to perform essential in-app actions such as hold or transfer after answering an unsolicited(unknown number) call from a sleep state. We are eager to find an urgent solution and would appreciate any information or advice you can provide. Thank you for your assistance.

I haven’t been able to get this to work at any level! I’m running into multiple issues, any light shed on any of these would be nice: I can’t implement a bloom filter that produces the same output as can be found in the SimpleURLFilter sample project, after following the textual description of it that’s available in the documentation. No clue what my implementation is doing wrong, and because of the nature of hashing, there is no way to know. Specifically: The web is full of implementations of FNV-1a and MurmurHash3, and they all produce different hashes for the same input. Can we get the proper hashes for some sample strings, so we know which is the “correct” one? Similarly, different implementations use different encodings for the strings to hash. Which should we use here? The formulas for numberOfBits and numberOfHashes give Doubles and assign them to Ints. It seems we should do this conversing by rounding them, is this correct? Can we get a sample correct value for the combined hash, so we can verify our implementations against it? Or ignoring all of the above, can we have the actual code instead of a textual description of it? 😓 I managed to get Settings to register my first attempt at this extension in beta 1. Now, in beta 2, any other project (including the sample code) will redirect to Settings, show the Allow/Deny message box, I tap Allow, and then nothing happens. This must be a bug, right? Whenever I try to enable the only extension that Settings accepted (by setting its isEnabled to true), its status goes to .stopped and the error is, of course, .unknown. How do I debug this? While the extension is .stopped, ALL URL LOADS are blocked on the device. Is this to be expected? (shouldFailClosed is set to false) Is there any way to manually reload the bloom filter? My app ships blocklist updates with background push, so it would be wasteful to fetch the filter at a fixed interval. If so, can we opt out of the periodic fetch altogether? I initially believed the API to be near useless because I didn’t know of its “fuzzy matching” capabilities, which I’ve discovered by accident in a forum post. It’d be nice if those were documented somewhere! Thanks!!

Description Our NETransparentProxyProvider system extension maintains a persistent TLS/DTLS control channel to a security gateway. To maintain this stateful connection the extension sends application-level "Keep Alive" packets every few seconds (example : 20 seconds). The Issue: When the macOS device enters a sleep state, the Network Extension process is suspended, causing our application-level heartbeat to cease. Consequently, our backend gateway—detecting no activity—terminates the session via Dead Peer Detection (DPD). The problem is exacerbated by macOS Dark Wake cycles. We observe the extension's wake() callback being triggered periodically (approx. every 15 minutes) while the device remains in a sleep state (lid closed). During these brief windows: The extension attempts to use the existing socket, finds it terminated by the backend, and initiates a full re-handshake. Shortly after the connection is re-established, the OS triggers the sleep() callback and suspends the process again. This creates a "connection churn" cycle that generates excessive telemetry noise and misleading "Session Disconnected" alerts for our enterprise customers. Steps to Reproduce Activate Proxy: Start the NETransparentProxyProvider and establish a TLS session to a gateway. Apply Settings: Configure NETransparentProxyNetworkSettings to intercept outbound TCP/UDP traffic. Initialize Heartbeat: Start a 20-second timer (DispatchSourceTimer) to log and send keep-alive packets. Induce Sleep: Put the Mac to sleep (Apple Menu > Sleep). Observe Logs: Monitor the system via sysdiagnose or the macOS Console. Observation: Logs stop entirely during sleep, indicating process suspension. Observation: wake() and sleep() callbacks are triggered repeatedly during Dark Wake intervals, causing a cycle of re-connections. Expected Behavior We seek to minimize connection turnover during maintenance wakes and maintain session stability while the device is technically in a sleep state. Questions for Apple Is it possible to suppress the sleep and wake callback methods of NETransparentProxyProvider when the device is performing a maintenance/Dark Wake, only triggering them for a full user-initiated wake? Is it possible to prevent the NETransparentProxyProvider process from being suspended during sleep, or at least grant it a high-priority background execution slot to maintain the heartbeat? If suspension is mandatory, is there a recommended way to utilize TCP_KEEPALIVE socket options that the kernel can handle on behalf of the suspended extension? How can the extension programmatically identify if a wake() call is a "Dark Wake" versus a "Full User Wake" to avoid unnecessary re-connection logic?

We have an application which is written in Swift, which activates Transparent Proxy network extension. Our Transparent Proxy module is a system extension, which is exposing an app proxy provider interface (We are using NETransparentProxyProvider class and in extension’s Info.plist we use com.apple.networkextension.app-proxy key.) We are using JamF MDM profile with VPN payload for deployment. With this MDM profile, we are observing an issue, ie TransparentProxy extension is not enabled when user performs logout and login and only in Sonoma. By analyzing it further we are noticing that in Sonoma some times, the system invokes NETransparentProxyProvider's stopProxy delegate once or twice with NEProviderStopReason as 12 ie userLogout. Due to this after login the system extension is not activated.

Hi, After the release of macOS Tahoe 26.2. We are seeing memory leaks if our Network Protection Extension is used alongside the Apple Built In Firewall, a second Security Solution that does Network Protection and a VPN. Our NEXT, socketfilterfw and the other security solution consume instead of a few MB of Memory now multiple Gigabytes of Memory. This issue started with the public release of macOS Tahoe 26.2, this issue was not present in earlier versions of macOS and the same set of Software. Just testing our solution by itself will not show this behavior. I unfortunately can't try to reproduce the issue on my test device that runs the latest 26.3 beta as I do not have the third party software installed there and I can't get it. Our Network extension implements depending on the license and enabled features: NEFilterDataProvider NEDNSProxyProvider NETransparentProxyProvider For all man in the middle Use Cases we are using Network Framework, to communicate with the peers. And leaks suggest that the there is a memory leak within internals of the Network Framework. Here is a shortened sample of the leaks output of our Network extension. However, the third party NEXT does show the same leaks. More details can be found on the Feedback with the ID FB21649104 snippet is blocking post? sensitive language Does anyone see similar issues or has an idea what could cause this issue, except a regression of the Network.framework introduced with macOS Tahoe 26.2? Best Regards, Timo

We are developing a macOS VPN application using NEPacketTunnelProvider with a custom encryption protocol. We are using standard On-Demand VPN rules with Wi-Fi SSID matching but we want to add some additional feature to the native behaviour.  We want to control the 'conenect/disconnect' button status and allow the user to interact with the tunnel even when the on demand rule conditions are satisfied, is there a native way to do it? In case we need to implement our custom on-demand behaviour we need to access to this information: connected interface type ssid name and being informed when it changes so to trigger our logic, how to do it from the app side? we try to use CWWiFiClient along with ssidDidChangeForWiFiInterface monitoring, it returns just the interface name en0 and not the wifi ssid name. Is location access mandatory to access wifi SSID on macOS even if we have a NEPacketTunnelProvider? Please note that we bundle our Network Extension as an App Extension (not SystemExtension).

I’m working on an iOS VPN app and looking into using NETunnelProvider (Packet Tunnel) for the VPN implementation. From the documentation it seems that Packet Tunnel is required for VPN protocols like OpenVPN, but the Packet Tunnel capability doesn’t appear to be available by default. Does using NETunnelProvider / Packet Tunnel require a special entitlement to be enabled by Apple for App Store apps? If so, what is the general process for requesting or enabling that entitlement?

Case-ID: 17935956 In the NetworkExtension framework, for the NETransparentProxyProvider and NEDNSProxyProvider classes: when calling the open func writeDatagrams(_ datagrams: [Data], sentBy remoteEndpoints: [NWEndpoint]) async throwsin the NEDNSProxyProvider class, and the open func write(_ data: Data, withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping @Sendable ((any Error)?) -> Void)in the NETransparentProxyProvider class, errors such as "The operation could not be completed because the flow is not connected" and "Error Domain=NEAppProxyFlowErrorDomain Code=1 "The operation could not be completed because the flow is not connected"" occur. Once this issue arises, if it occurs in the NEDNSProxyProvider, the entire system's DNS will fail to function properly; if it occurs in the NETransparentProxyProvider, the entire network will become unavailable.

Hi Apple engineers! We are making an iOS browser and are planing to deliver a feature that allows enterprise customers to use a MAM key to set a PAC file for proxy. It's designed to support unmanaged device so the MDM based solutions like 'Global HTTP Proxy MDM payload' or 'Per-App VPN' simply don't work. After doing some research we found that with WKWebView, the only framework allowed on iOS for web browsing, there's no API for programmatically setting proxy. The closes API is the WKURLSchemeHandler, but it's for data management not network request interception, in other word it can not be used to handle HTTP/HTTPS request well. When we go from the web-view level to the app level, it seems there's no API to let an app set proxy for itself at an app-level, the closest API is Per-App VPN but as mentioned above, Per-App VPN is only available for managed device so we can't use that as well. Eventually we go to the system level, and try to use Network Extension, but there's still obstacles. It seems Network Extension doesn't directly provide a way to write system proxy. In order to archive that, we may have to use Packet Tunnel Provider in destination IP mode and create a local VPN server to loop back the network traffic and do the proxy stuff in that server. In other word, the custom VPN protocol is 'forward directly without encryption'. This approach looks viable as we see some of the network analysis tools use this approach, but still I'd like to ask is this against App Store Review Guidelines? If the above approach with Network Extension is not against App Store Review Guidelines, I have a further question that, what is the NEProxySettings of NETunnelNetworkSettings for? Is it the proxy which proxies the VPN traffic (in order to hide source IP from VPN provider) or it is the proxy to use after network traffic goes into the virtual private network? If none of the above is considered recommended, what is the recommended way to programmatically set proxy on WKWebView on an unmanaged device (regardless of where the proxy runs, web-view/app/system)?