Hi everyone,
I'm encountering a behaviour related to Secure Event Input on macOS and wanted to understand if it's expected or if there's a recommended approach to handle it.
Scenario:
App A enables secure input using EnableSecureEventInput().
While secure input is active, App A launches App B using NSWorkspace or similar.
App B launches successfully, but it does not receive foreground focus — it starts in the background.
The system retains focus on App A, seemingly to preserve the secure input session.
Observed Behavior:
From what I understand, macOS prevents app switching during Secure Event Input to avoid accidental or malicious focus stealing (e.g., to prevent UI spoofing during password entry). So:
Input focus remains locked to App A.
App B runs but cannot become frontmost unless the secure input session ends or App B is brought to the frontmost by manual intervention or by running a terminal script.
This is consistent with system security behaviour, but it presents a challenge when App A needs to launch and hand off control to another app.
Questions:
Is this behaviour officially documented anywhere?
Is there a recommended pattern for safely transferring focus to another app while Secure Event Input is active?
Would calling DisableSecureEventInput() just before launching App B be the appropriate (and safe) solution? Or is there a better way to defer the transition?
Thanks in advance for any clarification or advice.