Hey!
We are investigating a problem pf rules being ignored by some processes. Despite blocking all traffic, some outgoing unicast packets can be seen in tcpdump. Issue is present in MacOS 15.0.0 - 15.3.1 (Newest at the time of writing). I tested MacOS 14.7.4 and pf rules there behaved as expected. Steps to reproduce the issue:
$ cat pf.conf block all
$ sudo pfctl -e -F all -f ./pf.conf Password: pfctl: Use of -f option, could result in flushing of rules present in the main ruleset added by the system at startup. See /etc/pf.conf for further details. No ALTQ support in kernel ALTQ related functions disabled rules cleared nat cleared dummynet cleared 0 tables deleted. 196 states cleared source tracking entries cleared pf: statistics cleared pf: interface flags reset pfctl: pf already enabled
After executing these commands MacOS 14 will block all outgoing unicast traffic, and on MacOS 15 data can be sent to arbitrary addresses:
$ ifconfig en0 en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=6460<TSO4,TSO6,CHANNEL_IO,PARTIAL_CSUM,ZEROINVERT_CSUM> ether b6:5e:a5:c5:1e:db inet6 fe80::1090:9c8:4325:329a%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0xe inet 192.168.50.144 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.50.255 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: autoselect status: active
$ sudo tcpdump -k A -i any -n src 192.168.50.144 tcpdump: data link type PKTAP tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v[v]... for full protocol decode listening on any, link-type PKTAP (Apple DLT_PKTAP), snapshot length 524288 bytes 12:05:12.673472 (en0, proc com.apple.geod:1286:, svc BE, out, ch, flowid 0x0, ttag 0x0, dlt 0x1, cmpgc 0x0) IP 192.168.50.144.52012 > 17.253.15.196.443: Flags [P.], seq 1888882378:1888882402, ack 3554898220, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 2752050055 ecr 1291585385], length 24 12:05:13.793937 (en0, proc com.apple.WebKit:974:, eproc Safari:804:, svc BE, out, ch, flowid 0x0, ttag 0x0, dlt 0x1, cmpgc 0x0) IP 192.168.50.144.52024 > 3.65.102.105.443: Flags [P.], seq 2011312019:2011312073, ack 673002582, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 777228223 ecr 484269939], length 54
Was there any change in the way pfctl is used or is this a bug? This issue affects negatively privacy features of our product.
I recommend that you read my answer on this thread. It doesn’t address your specific technical issue, but it should at least get you on the right track.
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—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"