Hi,
I am developing the browser based on Chromium, which initially relies on the nw_browser stack for discovering locally available network resources.
We have observed an issue where, after each software update—specifically, whenever additional files are written into the application bundle—a popup appears requesting the user to allow local network access, even if this permission was already granted.
The behavior is reproducible: simply overwriting files in the app bundle (we are using rsync as Chromium), even while the application is already running, causes the prompt to reappear.
We have also noticed that Chromium itself exhibits the same behavior.
Also I found the mess in system settings, it has several Google Chrome for example: https://www.loom.com/share/da401f39ab134628807d77f1ca3185f5?from_recorder=1&focus_title=1
We would like to provide a smoother experience for our users and avoid confusing them with repeated permission prompts.
Could you please advise on possible approaches or best practices to improve our update mechanism in this regard?
Networking
RSS for tagExplore the networking protocols and technologies used by the device to connect to Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices, and cellular data services.
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We've received several reports of a new bug while setting up our products with WAC. The Accessory Setup UI appears with a blank network selected and the message 'This accessory will be set up to join "(null)".' at top. The user can tap "Show Other Networks..." to select another network, but this experience is very confusing. Why does this UI present a choice that is known to be invalid when other valid choices exist?
I've captured a screenshot and sysdiagnose from this case. In most cases this problem happens only intermittently, but I can reproduce it consistently by disconnecting my iPhone from any WiFi network (WiFi remains enabled).
My suggestion for a better user experience is that this UI should select the default network according to these rules:
The network to which iPhone is currently connected.
Any network which is in the known/my list for this iPhone
Any valid network
I believe rule #1 is the existing behavior, but applying rules #2 and #3 as fallbacks would be an improvement.
Is there anything I can change in my iOS code or in my accessory's WAC server to improve this experience?
send a request and it returns with timeout
Integration Team are Using Fortigate as a firewall and NGINX for some reasons
so we use VPN TO Access , requests always succeed but at once it failed with timeout in randomize request not specific one
we are using URLSession as a network layer
when I retry the same failed request again, it success
the request cannot connect apigee
Sec Team concern {
app session hits the security gateway with lots of SYN step to try to initiate a new session and doesn’t wait for (SYN-ACK / ACK) steps to happen to make sure the connection initiated correctly and gateway consider it flooding attack
}
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
We have an application which is written in Swift, which activates Transparent Proxy network extension. Our Transparent Proxy module is a system extension, which is exposing an app proxy provider interface (We are using NETransparentProxyProvider class and in extension’s Info.plist we use com.apple.networkextension.app-proxy key.)
Sometimes we have observed that on starting the transparent proxy extension, the startProxy overridden delegate method(override func startProxy(options: [String : Any]?, completionHandler: @escaping (Error?) -> Void) {) in our AppProxyProvider class which is derived from NETransparentProxyProvider being called more than once for the same extension(pid). This leads to Over-resume of an object crash as we invoke setTunnelNetworkSettings inside the startProxy delegate.
As this is controlled by the system, we are not sure why this delegate being called more than once sometimes even if we call the start TransparentProxy only once.
Note that, this issue is seen only in Mac OS Tahoe.
Apple Feedback ticket: FB21464147 (startProxy delegate for NETransparentProxyProvider class is being called twice for the same pid extension sometimes)
This is a major issue. After my iPhone 12 Pro was upgraded to iOS 26 beta 6, Apple's official Wi-Fi Aware Sample APP crashed immediately and couldn't be opened. It just force closes.
Has any developer encountered this problem?
I need to run multiple, slightly different copies of a modeling tool, which all need access to a model repository on a different machine. Security Settings -> Network tends to pick one modeling tool (and unfortunately the wrong one) for permission, but the dialog offers no way to add the other copies manually. Where can I configure the permission on low level.
[macOS Sequoia 15.6.1]
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Hello team,
I am developing a security app where I am denying certain flows/packets if the are communicating with known malicious endpoints. Therefore I want to make use of NetworkExtensions such as the new URLFilter or ContentFilter (NEURLFilterManager, NEFilterDataProvider, NEFilterControlProvider).
Does NEURLFilterManager require the user's device to be at a minimun of ios 26?
Does any of these APIs/Extensions require the device to be managed/supervised or can it be released to all consumers?
Thanks,
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Hi all,
We've been exploring the capabilities of the Network.framework for peer-to-peer communication and have run into some behavior that we haven't been able to fully explain with the existing documentation.
In our tests, we’re working with 12 iOS devices, all disconnected from Wi-Fi to force communication over Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL). While using the Network.framework to create peer-to-peer connections, we observed that the number of connected peers never exceeded 8, despite all 12 devices being active and configured identically.
Some questions we’re hoping to get clarification or discussion on:
Is there a known upper limit to the number of peer-to-peer connections supported via AWDL?
Are there conditions under which the framework or system limits or throttles visible peers?
Does AWDL behavior vary by hardware model, iOS version, or backgrounding state of the app?
Is there any official documentation or guidance around peer discovery or connection limits when using NWBrowser and NWConnection in a peer-to-peer context?
We’d appreciate any insights from the Apple engineering team or other developers who have worked with larger peer groups using Network.framework in peer-to-peer mode.
Hello there,
Starting from iOS 18.4, support was included for QWAC Validation and QCStatements.
Using the official QWAC Validator at: https://eidas.ec.europa.eu/efda/qwac-validation-tool
I was able to check that the domain "eidas.ec.europa.eu" has a valid QWAC certificate. However, when trying to obtain the same result using the new API, I do not obtain the same result.
Here is my sample playground code:
import Foundation
import Security
import PlaygroundSupport
PlaygroundPage.current.needsIndefiniteExecution = true
@MainActor
class CertificateFetcher: NSObject, URLSessionDelegate {
private let url: URL
init(url: URL) {
self.url = url
super.init()
}
func start() {
let session = URLSession(configuration: .ephemeral, delegate: self, delegateQueue: nil)
let task = session.dataTask(with: url) { data, response, error in
if let error = error {
print("Error during request: \(error)")
} else {
print("Request completed.")
}
}
task.resume()
}
nonisolated func urlSession(_ session: URLSession, didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge, completionHandler: @escaping (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) -> Void) {
guard let trust = challenge.protectionSpace.serverTrust else {
completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil)
return
}
if let certificates = SecTrustCopyCertificateChain(trust) as? [SecCertificate] {
self.checkQWAC(certificates: certificates)
}
let credential = URLCredential(trust: trust)
completionHandler(.useCredential, credential)
}
nonisolated func checkQWAC(certificates: [SecCertificate]) {
let policy = SecPolicyCreateSSL(true, nil)
var trust: SecTrust?
guard SecTrustCreateWithCertificates(certificates as CFArray, policy, &trust) == noErr, let trust else {
print("Unable to create SecTrust")
return
}
var error: CFError?
guard SecTrustEvaluateWithError(trust, &error) else {
print("Trust evaluation failed")
return
}
guard let result = SecTrustCopyResult(trust) as? [String : Any] else {
print("No result dictionary")
return
}
let qwacStatus = result[kSecTrustQWACValidation as String]
let qcStatements = result[kSecTrustQCStatements as String]
print("QWAC Status: \(String(describing: qwacStatus))")
print("QC Statements: \(String(describing: qcStatements))")
}
}
let url = URL(string: "https://eidas.ec.europa.eu/")!
let fetcher = CertificateFetcher(url: url)
fetcher.start()
Which prints:
QWAC Status: nil
QC Statements: nil
Request completed.
Am I making a mistake while using the Security framework? I would greatly appreciate any help or guidance you can provide.
I'm having a lot of trouble just getting a basic network extension startup, I have a main application that creates the configuration and requests the app extension based network extension to launch.
The network extension implements a NEPacketTunnelProvider and the application doesn't receive an error when starting the tunnel but when I inspect the networkextension system logs, I keep getting errors and the network extension itself doesn't appear to start nor does it log anything.
log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.networkextension"'
neagent: (NetworkExtension) [com.apple.networkextension:] Extension request with extension $(BUNDLE_ID) started with identifier (null)
neagent: (NetworkExtension) [com.apple.networkextension:] Failed to start extension $(BUNDLE_ID): Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "connection to service named $(BUNDLE_ID)" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=connection to service named $(BUNDLE_ID)}
nesessionmanager: [com.apple.networkextension:] Validation failed - no audit tokens
nesessionmanager: [com.apple.networkextension:] NEVPNTunnelPlugin($(BUNDLE_ID)[inactive]): Validation of the extension failed
The network extension is written in Objective-C as it needs to integrate with another language. It's not entirely clear what kind of executable the network extension is meant to be, is it meant to have a main entrypoint, or is it supposed to be a shared library / bundle?
Is there any way to forcibly disable using QUIC? I've noticed this ends up causing issues with our ISP / router, and noticed for many of our customers as well.
Creating an ephemeral session doesn't change things, and setting the request to "assumeHttp3Capable" to false doesn't fix things either.
We are using Cloudflare Workers as the URL we are hitting, and thus aren't able to disable this server-side.
Hi! When starting my app which is loading a Content Filter Network Extension I am getting the following error :
sysextd: <bundle_id> : extension failed category property check: extensions belonging to the com.apple.system_extension.endpoint_security category require a later version of operating system to launch
...
OSSystemExtensionRequest didFailWithError for <bundle_id> : The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSSystemExtensionErrorDomain error 9.)
This is happening on a VM running Sonoma 14.7.8. I upgraded the VM to the latest available OS and the system extension is loading just fine.
My question is : reading the documentation, I understand that the Network Extensions are supported starting with macOS 10.10+. Why is this not working on my Sonoma 14.7.8 VM?
If the includeAllNetworks flag to true, we cannot update our app via Xcode, TestFlight or the AppStore. In the AppStore and TestFlight cases, it seems that the packet tunnel process is stopped before the new app is downloaded - once the packet tunnel process is stopped, it can’t be started again via Settings/VPN profiles, nor can it be started via the app.
I’m working on an iOS parental-control app that needs to block specific network traffic (e.g. certain domains or URLs). We’ve already obtained the Family Controls entitlement (since our app is explicitly a parental-control solution), but we do not use MDM to supervise devices. In testing, our NEFilterDataProvider extension only activates when the device is enrolled under a managed Family Controls profile. I am aware that we can use a PacketTunnel to achieve this but i was wondering if there is any simpler solution to this?
Thanks for you time!
Hi, after upgrading to MacOS Sequoia, my connection to my local IP address does not work. The issue is with the PF (MacOS advanced firewall), as I confirmed that my local application works disabling it temporarily.
Does anyone know how can I do to solve this problem? As APP developer, this is a big problem for me.
Thanks in advance.
I'm establishing a connection with NWListener and NWConnection which is working great. However, if the listener disappears, a lot of logs are appearing:
Is there a way to hide these logs?
I'm aware of OS_ACTIVITY_MODE=disabled, but that will also hide a lot of other logs.
I also know you can hide these using Xcode's filtering. I'm looking for a programmatically way to hide these completely. I'm not interested in seeing these at all, or, at least, I want to be in control.
Thanks!
I am trying to activate an application which sends my serial number to a server. The send is being blocked. The app is signed but not sandboxed.
I am running Sequoia on a recent iMac. My network firewall is off and I do not have any third party virus software. I have selected Allow Applications from App Store & Known Developers.
My local network is wifi using the eero product. There is no firewall or virus scanning installed with this product.
Under what circumstances will Mac OS block outgoing internet connections from a non-sandboxed app? How else could the outgoing connection be blocked?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
I've built a VPN app that is based on wireguard on macOS (I have both AppStore ver. and Developer ID ver). I want to achieve split tunneling function without changing the system route table.
Currently, I'm making changes in PacketTunnelProvider: NEPacketTunnelProvider. It has included/excluded routes that function as a split tunnel, just that all changes are immediately reflected on the route table: if I run
netstat -rn
in terminal, I would see all rules/CIDRs I added, displayed all at once. Since I have a CIDR list of ~800 entries, I'd like to avoid changing the route table directly.
I've asked ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, .etc. An idea was to implement an 'interceptor' to
intercept all packets in packetFlow(_:readPacketsWithCompletionHandler:), extract the destination IP from each packet, check if it matches your CIDR list, and either reinject it back to the system interface (for local routing) or process it through your tunnel.
Well, LLMs could have hallucinations and I've pretty new to macOS programming. I'm asking to make sure I'm on the right track, not going delusional with those LLMs :) So the question is, does the above method sounds feasible? If not, is it possible to achieve split tunneling without changing the route table?
NEAppProxyUDPFlow contains below property:
open var localEndpoint: NWEndpoint? { get }
Why is localEndpoint not available for NEAppProxyTCPFlow?
Is there a way to determine the source port of a flow of type NEAppProxyTCPFlow within the following method of NETransparentProxyProvider?
override func handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyFlow) -> Bool {
I'm using NWBrowser to search for a server that I hosted. The browser does find my service but when it tries to connect to it, it gets stuck in the preparing phase in NWConnection.stateUpdateHandler. When I hardcode the local IP address of my computer (where the server is hosted) into NWConnection it works perfectly fine and is able to connect.
When it gets stuck in the preparing phase, it gives me the warnings and error messages in the image below. You can also see that the service name is correct and it is found.
I have tried _http._tcp and _ssh._tcp types and neither work.
This is what my code looks like:
func findServerAndConnect(port: UInt16) {
print("Searching for server...")
let browser = NWBrowser(for: .bonjour(type: "_ssh._tcp", domain: "local."), using: .tcp)
browser.browseResultsChangedHandler = { results, _ in
print("Found results: \(results)")
for result in results {
if case let NWEndpoint.service(name, type_, domain, interface) = result.endpoint {
if name == "PocketPadServer" {
print("Found service: \(name) of type \(type_) in domain \(domain) on interface \(interface)")
// Construct the full service name, including type and domain
let fullServiceName = "\(name).\(type_).\(domain)"
print("Full service name: \(fullServiceName), \(result.endpoint)")
self.connect(to: result.endpoint, port: port)
browser.cancel()
break
}
}
}
}
browser.start(queue: .main)
}
func connect(to endpoint: NWEndpoint, port: UInt16) {
print("Connecting to \(endpoint) on port \(port)...")
// endpoint = NWEndpoint(
let tcpParams = NWProtocolTCP.Options()
tcpParams.enableFastOpen = true
tcpParams.keepaliveIdle = 2
let params = NWParameters(tls: nil, tcp: tcpParams)
params.includePeerToPeer = true
// connection = NWConnection(host: NWEndpoint.Host("xx.xxx.xxx.xxx"), port: NWEndpoint.Port(3000), using: params)
connection = NWConnection(to: endpoint, using: params)
connection?.pathUpdateHandler = { path in
print("Connection path update: \(path)")
if path.status == .satisfied {
print("Connection path is satisfied")
} else {
print("Connection path is not satisfied: \(path.status)")
}
}
connection?.stateUpdateHandler = { newState in
DispatchQueue.main.async {
switch newState {
case .ready:
print("Connected to server")
self.pairing = true
self.receiveMessage()
case .failed(let error):
print("Connection failed: \(error)")
self.isConnected = false
case .waiting(let error):
print("Waiting for connection... \(error)")
self.isConnected = false
case .cancelled:
print("Connection cancelled")
self.isConnected = false
case .preparing:
print("Preparing connection...")
self.isConnected = false
default:
print("Connection state changed: \(newState)")
break
}
}
}
connection?.start(queue: .main)
}