I’m building a Developer ID app (distributed outside the Mac App Store) that ships a packet-tunnel system extension. The extension fails at activation with:
Extension not found in App bundle. Unable to find any matched extension with identifier: com.hawksnestsoftware.securityhawkvpn.tunnel
App: com.hawksnestsoftware.securityhawkvpn, Developer ID Application, team A5WW6PA8WT, hardened runtime, notarized and stapled, installed at /Applications/SecurityHawk VPN.app
Extension: Contents/Library/SystemExtensions/PacketTunnel.systemextension, identifier com.hawksnestsoftware.securityhawkvpn.tunnel, CFBundlePackageType = SYSX. codesign --verify --strict passes, and the signature matches its designated requirement.
Entitlements: the app has com.apple.developer.system-extension.install, and its embedded provisioning profile grants it. The extension has com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension = packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension.
The app calls OSSystemExtensionRequest.activationRequest(forExtensionWithIdentifier:queue:) and the request fails with the error above.
Machine: MacBookPro15,3, macOS 15.8.2 (24H232), Xcode 16.4.
What I’ve ruled out
Sandbox on and off (the error is the same either way)
Signing and strict verification
The embedded profile’s system-extension entitlement
A duplicate Debug copy of the app elsewhere on disk (Spotlight finds only the /Applications copy)
A restart before retesting
Observed
systemextensionsctl list shows no registration for the extension after the failed request.
log show and log stream filtered on sysextd show no entries for the request.
Question: What causes sysextd to report that it cannot find an extension in the app bundle when the bundle, identifier, and signature all look correct? Is there a required build setting or Info.plist key for a Developer ID system extension that I may be missing?
Error: “Extension not found in App bundle. Unable to find any matched extension with identifier: com.hawksnestsoftware.securityhawkvpn.tunnel”
App: com.hawksnestsoftware.securityhawkvpn, Developer ID, team A5WW6PA8WT, notarized and stapled, installed at /Applications/SecurityHawk VPN.app
Extension: Contents/Library/SystemExtensions/PacketTunnel.systemextension, identifier com.hawksnestsoftware.securityhawkvpn.tunnel, CFBundlePackageType SYSX, valid and matching its designated requirement
Entitlements: app has com.apple.developer.system-extension.install and the embedded profile grants it; the extension has packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension
Machine: MacBookPro15,3, macOS 15.8.2 (24H232), Xcode 16.4
Observed: systemextensionsctl list shows no registration; sysextd logs show nothing for the request
denisarsenault@Deniss-MacBook-Pro-2 ~ % codesign -d --entitlements :- "/Applications/SecurityHawk VPN.app/Contents/Library/SystemExtensions/PacketTunnel.systemextension"
Executable=/Applications/SecurityHawk VPN.app/Contents/Library/SystemExtensions/PacketTunnel.systemextension/Contents/MacOS/PacketTunnel
warning: Specifying ':' in the path is deprecated and will not work in a future release
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "https://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><dict><key>com.apple.application-identifier</key><string>A5WW6PA8WT.com.hawksnestsoftware.securityhawkvpn.tunnel</string><key>com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension</key><array><string>packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension</string></array><key>com.apple.developer.team-identifier</key><string>A5WW6PA8WT</string><key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key><true/><key>com.apple.security.network.client</key><true/><key>com.apple.security.network.server</key><true/></dict></plist>
denisarsenault@Deniss-MacBook-Pro-2 ~ %