Connect to saved wifi network without user auth

Hi! I'm trying to prototype a macOS app related to wifi features. The main hiccup I've encountered is "Connect to a saved network without re-entering the network password".

So far I've been unsuccessful in this without

  1. entering the password manually each time
  2. asking the user for authentication to access the saved network in keychain

I read somewhere on the internet that CWInterface.associate would use saved credentials automatically if you gave a nil password, but my attempts have proven that to be false.

Is this not currently available because it raises security concerns, or it just hasn't been considered? Or am I missing a way to do this? I don't need access to the credentials, just for the system to connect for me.

Answered by strangecanadian in 857861022

What would we do without you Quinn! Thanks for the explanation, it sounds like the most plausible scenario. Filed FB20224875. Might have to change focus to a different project for now or get really crafty for a workaround...

Is this not currently available because it raises security concerns … ?

Kinda. But it’s not that this has been specifically blocked for security reasons, rather that macOS’s Wi-Fi infrastructure has changed a lot over the years, partly to deal with security concerns, and Core WLAN hasn’t kept up.

Unfortunately I don’t have a good answer for you here. You could file a bug requesting that Core WLAN support this, but that won’t help you in the short term.

If you do file a bug, please post your bug number, just for the record.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

What would we do without you Quinn! Thanks for the explanation, it sounds like the most plausible scenario. Filed FB20224875. Might have to change focus to a different project for now or get really crafty for a workaround...

Connect to saved wifi network without user auth
 
 
Q