Why is CoreNFC unavailable from App Extensions (appex)? Any supported workarounds for authenticators?

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Hi everyone — I’m developing an iOS passkey/password manager where the private key material must be stored on a physical device (NFC card / USB token). I’m hitting a hard limitation: CoreNFC is not available for use from app extensions, which prevents an appex (e.g. password/credential provider or other extension) from talking directly to an NFC card during an authentication flow.

My questions: 1. Is there any plan to make CoreNFC (or some limited NFC-API) available to app extensions in a future iOS version? If not, could Apple clarify why (security/entitlements/architecture reasons)? 2. Are there any recommended/approved workarounds for a passkey manager extension that needs to access a physical NFC token during authentication? (For example: background tag reading that launches the containing app, or some entitlement for secure NFC card sessions.) I’ve read about background tag reading, but that seems to be about system/OS handling of tags rather than giving extensions direct NFC access. 3. Is the only supported pattern for my use case to have the containing app perform NFC operations and then share secrets with the extension via App Groups / Keychain Sharing / custom URL flow? (I’m already evaluating App Groups / Keychain access groups for secure sharing, but I’d like official guidance.)

Implementation details that may help responders: • Target: iOS (latest SDK), building a Credential Provider / password manager extension (appex). • Intended physical token: NFC smartcard / ISO7816 contactless (so CoreNFC APIs like NFCISO7816Tag would be ideal). • Security goals: private key never leaves the physical token; extension should be able to trigger/sign during a browser/app AutoFill flow.

Possible alternatives I’m considering (open to feedback): designing the UX so that the extension opens the main app (only possible for Today widget in a supported way) which runs the NFC flow and stores/returns a short-lived assertion to the extension. Are any of these patterns sanctioned / recommended by Apple for credential providers?

Thanks — any pointers to docs, entitlement names, or example apps/samples would be extremely helpful.

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Engineer OP

Apple

2d

We cannot discuss why CoreNFC is not available from app extensions. It just isn't. We cannot discuss future plans either.

If this is important for your use case, we always welcome feature requests via the Feedback Assistant

There are no ticks, workaround, or entitlements to make CoreNFC work from an extension. Nor it is possible to launch the main app form an extension.

Your option 3 of the main app performing the NFC functions and then sharing the data with the extension is about the only way this would seem to work for your use case if I understand it correctly.

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