NWPathMonitor appears to retain itself (or is retained by some internal infrastructure) once it has been started until cancelled. This seems like it can lead to memory leaks if the references to to the monitor are dropped. Is this behavior documented anywhere? func nwpm_self_retain() { weak var weakRef: NWPathMonitor? autoreleasepool { let monitor: NWPathMonitor = NWPathMonitor() weakRef = monitor monitor.start(queue: .main) // monitor.cancel() // assertion fails unless this is called } assert(weakRef == nil) } nwpm_self_retain()

Hello, A customer has requested the development of a home assistance app to be published on the App Store. The app will connect to a server running locally at the end user's home, for example on a Raspberry Pi. Users would enter the IP address or hostname of their personal server into the app. A strict requirement is that, for data protection reasons, there must not be any proxy server. The app should only communicate directly with the local server (e.g., Raspberry Pi). We are able to solve technical challenges such as DNS, dynamic IP, and port forwarding, router configuration. However, I'm concerned about Apple's requirement that the endpoint – in this case, the Raspberry Pi at the user's home – must not use self-signed SSL certificates. While it may be technically possible to secure the home server with a certificate provider like Let's Encrypt, it is unrealistic to expect a typical user with no technical training to accomplish this setup independently. Is there a recommended solution to this problem, particularly in the context of IoT devices and apps? Any advice or experiences would be deeply appreciated.

Hi, I am building an app that depends on multiple iOS devices connecting to a designated "coordinator" iOS device. I am using MPC, and it works great when the devices are connected to the same WiFi AP, with virtually 100% connection success. My definition of success is a near instant detection of available devices, >95% connection success rate, and a stable ongoing connection with no unexpected disconnects. The issue arises when the devices are not connected to the same WiFi network (or connected to no network with WiFi and bluetooth still on). Devices detect each other immediately, but when initiating a connection, both devices initiate a handshake, but the connection is not successful. In the few times where the connection succeeds, the connection quality is high, stable, and doesn't drop. Is this a known limitation of the framework? Could I be doing something wrong in my implementation?

I want to configure one aspect of my networking configuration (the QUIC keepalive interval). This only seems to be configurable via Network.framework’s nw_quic_set_keepalive_interval. Is there any way to apply this to a URLSession? Or do I need to implement the whole connection management myself using Network.framework?

Hello! I develop transparent proxy based application, and I'm receiving a lot of crash reports from macOS 15.5 for crash in __88-[NEExtensionAppProxyProviderContext setInitialFlowDivertControlSocket:extraValidation:]_block_invoke.90 when stopping. Even very old versions of my software started crashing on macOS 15.5. I checked my extension that it correctly calls setTunnelNetworkSettings:nil on proxy stop, but crash is still here. Does anybody else have this problem? Do you know any workaround for it?

Hi, We are trying to use Apple Security API for KeyChain Services. Using the common App Group : Specifying the common app group in the "kSecAttrAccessGroup" field of the KeyChain query, allowed us to have a shared keychains for different apps (targets) in the app group, but this did not work for extensions. Enabling the KeyChain Sharing capability : We enabled the KeyChain Sharing Ability in the extensions and the app target as well, giving a common KeyChain Access group. Specifying this in the kSecAttrAccessGroup field also did not work. This was done in XCode as we were unable to locate it in the Developer portal in Indentifiers. We tried specifying "$AppIdentifier.KeyChainSharingGroup" in the kSecAttrAccessGroup field , but this did not work as well The error code which we get in all these 3 cases when trying to access the Keychain from the extension is error code 25291 (errSecNotAvailable). The Documentation says this error comes when "No Trust Results are available" and printing the error in xcode using the status says "No keychain is available. The online Documentation says that it is possible to share keychain with extensions, but by far we are unable to do it with the methods suggested. Do we need any special entitlement for this or is there something we are missing while using these APIs? We really appreciate any and all help in solving this issue! Thank you

Summary NetworkConnection<WebSocket> in iOS 26 Network framework throws POSIXErrorCode(rawValue: 22): Invalid argument when receiving WebSocket ping (opcode 9) or pong (opcode 10) control frames. This prevents proper WebSocket keep-alive functionality. Environment iOS 26.0 (Simulator) macOS 26.1 Xcode 26.0 Note: This issue was initially discovered on iOS 26 Simulator. The same behavior was confirmed on macOS 26, suggesting a shared bug in the Network framework. The attached sample code is for macOS for easier reproduction. Description When using the new NetworkConnection<WebSocket> API introduced in iOS 26 or macOS 26, the receive() method throws EINVAL error whenever a ping or pong control frame is received from the server. This is a critical issue because: WebSocket servers commonly send ping frames to keep connections alive Clients send ping frames to verify connection health The receive callback never receives the ping/pong frame - the error occurs before the frame reaches user code Steps to Reproduce Create a WebSocket connection to any server that supports ping/pong (e.g., wss://echo.websocket.org): import Foundation import Network // MARK: - WebSocket Ping/Pong EINVAL Bug Reproduction // This sample demonstrates that NetworkConnection<WebSocket> throws EINVAL // when receiving ping or pong control frames. @main struct WebSocketPingPongBug { static func main() async { print("=== WebSocket Ping/Pong EINVAL Bug Reproduction ===\n") do { try await testPingPong() } catch { print("Test failed with error: \(error)") } } static func testPingPong() async throws { let host = "echo.websocket.org" let port: UInt16 = 443 print("Connecting to wss://\(host)...") let endpoint = NWEndpoint.hostPort( host: NWEndpoint.Host(host), port: NWEndpoint.Port(rawValue: port)! ) try await withNetworkConnection(to: endpoint, using: { WebSocket { TLS { TCP() } } }) { connection in print("Connected!\n") // Start receive loop in background let receiveTask = Task { var messageCount = 0 while !Task.isCancelled { do { let (data, metadata) = try await connection.receive() messageCount += 1 print("[\(messageCount)] Received frame - opcode: \(metadata.opcode)") if let text = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) { print("[\(messageCount)] Content: \(text)") } else { print("[\(messageCount)] Binary data: \(data.count) bytes") } } catch let error as NWError { if case .posix(let code) = error, code == .EINVAL { print("❌ EINVAL error occurred! (POSIXErrorCode 22: Invalid argument)") print(" This is the bug - ping/pong frame caused EINVAL") // Continue to demonstrate workaround continue } print("Receive error: \(error)") break } catch { print("Receive error: \(error)") break } } } // Wait for initial message from server try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(2)) // Test 1: Send text message (should work) print("\n--- Test 1: Sending text message ---") try await connection.send("Hello, WebSocket!") print("✅ Text message sent") try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(1)) // Test 2: Send ping (pong response will cause EINVAL) print("\n--- Test 2: Sending ping frame ---") print("Expecting EINVAL when pong is received...") let pingMetadata = NWProtocolWebSocket.Metadata(opcode: .ping) try await connection.ping(Data()) { pingMetadata } print("✅ Ping sent, waiting for pong...") // Wait for pong response try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(2)) // Cleanup receiveTask.cancel() print("\n=== Test Complete ===") print("If you saw 'EINVAL error occurred!' above, the bug is reproduced.") } } } The receive() call fails with error when pong arrives: ❌ EINVAL error occurred! (POSIXErrorCode 22: Invalid argument) Test Results Scenario Result Send/receive text (opcode 1) ✅ OK Client sends ping, receives pong ❌ EINVAL on pong receive Expected Behavior The receive() method should successfully return ping and pong frames, or at minimum, handle them internally without throwing an error. The autoReplyPing option should allow automatic pong responses without disrupting the receive loop. Actual Behavior When a ping or pong control frame is received: The receive() method throws NWError.posix(.EINVAL) The frame never reaches user code (no opcode check is possible) The connection remains valid, but the receive loop is interrupted Workaround Catch the EINVAL error and restart the receive loop: while !Task.isCancelled { do { let received = try await connection.receive() // Process message } catch let error as NWError { if case .posix(let code) = error, code == .EINVAL { // Control frame caused EINVAL, continue receiving continue } throw error } } This workaround allows continued operation but: Cannot distinguish between ping-related EINVAL and other EINVAL errors Cannot access the ping/pong frame content Cannot implement custom ping/pong handling Impact WebSocket connections to servers that send periodic pings will experience repeated EINVAL errors Applications must implement workarounds that may mask other legitimate errors Additional Information Packet capture confirms ping/pong frames are correctly transmitted at the network level The error occurs in the Network framework's internal processing, before reaching user code

We’re implementing VPN application using the WireGuard protocol and aiming to support both split-tunnel and per-app VPN configurations. Each mode works correctly on its own: per-app VPN functions well when configured with a full tunnel and split-tunnel works as expected when per-app is disabled. However, combining both configurations leads to issues. Specifically, the routing table is not set up properly, resulting in traffic that should not be routed through the tunnel is routed through the tunnel. Detailed description: Through our backend, we are pushing these two plist files to the iPad one after the other: VPN config with allowed IPs 1.1.1.1/32 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Inc//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>3fd861df-c917-4716-97e5-f5e96452436a</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>PayloadOrganization</key> <string>someorganization</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>config.11ff5059-369f-4a71-afea-d5fdbfa99c91</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>Configuration</string> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string> test</string> <key>PayloadDescription</key> <string>(Version 13) </string> <key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key> <true /> <key>PayloadContent</key> <array> <dict> <key>VPN</key> <dict> <key>AuthenticationMethod</key> <string>Password</string> <key>ProviderType</key> <string>packet-tunnel</string> <key>OnDemandUserOverrideDisabled</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>RemoteAddress</key> <string>172.17.28.1:51820</string> <key>OnDemandEnabled</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>OnDemandRules</key> <array> <dict> <key>Action</key> <string>Connect</string> </dict> </array> <key>ProviderBundleIdentifier</key> <string>some.bundle.id.network-extension</string> </dict> <key>VPNSubType</key> <string>some.bundle.id</string> <key>VPNType</key> <string>VPN</string> <key>VPNUUID</key> <string>d2773557-b535-414f-968a-5447d9c02d52</string> <key>OnDemandMatchAppEnabled</key> <true /> <key>VendorConfig</key> <dict> <key>VPNConfig</key> <string> Some custom configuration here </string> </dict> <key>UserDefinedName</key> <string>TestVPNServerrra</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>com.apple.vpn.managed.applayer</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>vpn.5e6b56be-a4bb-41a5-949e-4e8195a83f0f</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>9bebe6e2-dbef-4849-a1fb-3cca37221116</string> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>Vpn</string> <key>PayloadDescription</key> <string>Configures VPN settings</string> <key>PayloadOrganization</key> <string>someorganization</string> </dict> </array> </dict> </plist> Command to set up per-app with Chrome browser <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Inc//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Command</key> <dict> <key>Settings</key> <array> <dict> <key>Identifier</key> <string>com.google.chrome.ios</string> <key>Attributes</key> <dict> <key>VPNUUID</key> <string>d2773557-b535-414f-968a-5447d9c02d52</string> <key>TapToPayScreenLock</key> <false /> <key>Removable</key> <true /> </dict> <key>Item</key> <string>ApplicationAttributes</string> </dict> </array> <key>RequestType</key> <string>Settings</string> </dict> <key>CommandUUID</key> <string>17ce3e19-35ef-4dbc-83d9-4ca2735ac430</string> </dict> </plist> From the log we see that our VPN application set up allowed IP 1.1.1.1 via NEIPv4Settings.includedRoutes but system routing all of the Chrome browser traffic through our application. Is this expected Apple iOS behavior, or are we misconfiguring the profiles?

TL;DR: How does one use DNSServiceReconfirmRecord() to invalidate mDNS state of a device that's gone offline? I'm using the DNSServiceDiscovery API (dns_sd.h) for a local P2P service. The problem I'm trying to solve is how to deal with a peer that abruptly loses connectivity, i.e. by turning off WiFi or simply by moving out of range or otherwise losing connectivity. In this situation there is of course no notification that the peer device has gone offline; it simply stops sending any packets. After my own timeout mechanism determines the peer is not responding, I mark it as offline in my own data structures. The problem is how to discover when/if it comes back online later. My DNSServiceBrowse callback won't be invoked because mDNS doesn't know the device went offline in the first place. I am trying to use DNSServiceReconfirmRecord, which appears to be for exactly this use case -- "Instruct the daemon to verify the validity of a resource record that appears to be out of date (e.g. because TCP connection to a service's target failed.)" However my attempts always return a BadReference error (-65541). The function requires me to pass a DNS record, and the only one I know is the TXT record; perhaps it needs a different one? Which, and how would I get it? Thanks!

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,

We are developing an enterprise app that connects to a local server. It uses simple URLSessions. There is a view in the app where you enter the server url (IP address) and a connection check is made. iOS asks for permission to access the local network. Everything works. If the server is reachable, the connection info is saved. Recently we encountered a very strange issue: We also have a beta version of this app. If we first install the normal version on a device, enter the server IP, save, and then install the beta version and do the same there: It does not get a connection (it waits for the timeout). The strange part is: If I try to configure the connection in the normal version again, it also does not work, it just waits for the timeout. The really strange part: When I delete the beta version, while the normal version is waiting for its connection, the connection succeeds immediately. Both versions have a different display name, bundle id. I also tried using a device that is not in our MDM: same problem. Even the iOS version seems to have no impact: I tried on iOS 15, 18 and 26. Is there an explanation and hopefully also a solution to this problem?

we use the api as NEHotspotConfigurationManager.shared.apply(hotspotConfig) to join a wifi, but we find that in in iphone 17+, some user report the time to join wifi is very slow the full code as let hotspotConfig = NEHotspotConfiguration(ssid: sSSID, passphrase: sPassword, isWEP: false) hotspotConfig.joinOnce = bJoinOnce if #available(iOS 13.0, *) { hotspotConfig.hidden = true } NEHotspotConfigurationManager.shared.apply(hotspotConfig) { [weak self] (error) in guard let self else { return } if let error = error { log.i("connectSSID Error while configuring WiFi: \(error.localizedDescription)") if error.localizedDescription.contains("already associated") { log.i("connectSSID Already connected to this WiFi.") result(["status": 0]) } else { result(["status": 0]) } } else { log.i("connectSSID Successfully connected to WiFi network \(sSSID)") result(["status": 1]) } } Normally it might only take 5-10 seconds, but on the iPhone 17+ it might take 20-30 seconds.

I haven’t been able to get this to work at any level! I’m running into multiple issues, any light shed on any of these would be nice: I can’t implement a bloom filter that produces the same output as can be found in the SimpleURLFilter sample project, after following the textual description of it that’s available in the documentation. No clue what my implementation is doing wrong, and because of the nature of hashing, there is no way to know. Specifically: The web is full of implementations of FNV-1a and MurmurHash3, and they all produce different hashes for the same input. Can we get the proper hashes for some sample strings, so we know which is the “correct” one? Similarly, different implementations use different encodings for the strings to hash. Which should we use here? The formulas for numberOfBits and numberOfHashes give Doubles and assign them to Ints. It seems we should do this conversing by rounding them, is this correct? Can we get a sample correct value for the combined hash, so we can verify our implementations against it? Or ignoring all of the above, can we have the actual code instead of a textual description of it? 😓 I managed to get Settings to register my first attempt at this extension in beta 1. Now, in beta 2, any other project (including the sample code) will redirect to Settings, show the Allow/Deny message box, I tap Allow, and then nothing happens. This must be a bug, right? Whenever I try to enable the only extension that Settings accepted (by setting its isEnabled to true), its status goes to .stopped and the error is, of course, .unknown. How do I debug this? While the extension is .stopped, ALL URL LOADS are blocked on the device. Is this to be expected? (shouldFailClosed is set to false) Is there any way to manually reload the bloom filter? My app ships blocklist updates with background push, so it would be wasteful to fetch the filter at a fixed interval. If so, can we opt out of the periodic fetch altogether? I initially believed the API to be near useless because I didn’t know of its “fuzzy matching” capabilities, which I’ve discovered by accident in a forum post. It’d be nice if those were documented somewhere! Thanks!!

Hi, I've encountered a strange behavior in the DNS Proxy Provider extension. Our app implements both DNS Proxy Provider and Content Filter Providers extensions, configured via MDM. When the app is uninstalled, the behavior of the providers differs: For Content Filter Providers (both Filter Control and Filter Data Providers), the providers stop as expected with the stop reason: /** @const NEProviderStopReasonProviderDisabled The provider was disabled. */ case providerDisabled = 5 However, for the DNS Proxy Provider, the provider remains in the "Running" state, even though there is no app available to match the provider's bundle ID in the uploaded configuration profile. When the app is reinstalled: The Content Filter Providers start as expected. The DNS Proxy Provider stops with the stop reason: /** @const NEProviderStopReasonAppUpdate The NEProvider is being updated */ @available(iOS 13.0, *) case appUpdate = 16 At this point, the DNS Proxy Provider remains in an 'Invalid' state. Reinstalling the app a second time seems to resolve the issue, with both the DNS Proxy Provider and Content Filter Providers starting as expected. This issue seems to occur only if some time has passed after the DNS Proxy Provider entered the 'Running' state. It appears as though the system retains a stale configuration for the DNS Proxy Provider, even after the app has been removed. Steps to reproduce: Install the app and configure both DNS Proxy Provider and Content Filter Providers using MDM. Uninstall the app. Content Filter Providers are stopped as expected (NEProviderStopReason.providerDisabled = 5). DNS Proxy Provider remains in the 'Running' state. Reinstall the app. Content Filter Providers start as expected. DNS Proxy Provider stops with NEProviderStopReason.appUpdate (16) and remains 'Invalid'. Reinstall the app again. DNS Proxy Provider now starts as expected. This behavior raises concerns about how the system manages the lifecycle of DNS Proxy Provider, because DNS Proxy Provider is matched with provider bundle id in .mobileconfig file. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Any suggestions on how to address or debug this behavior would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

fetchCurrent(completionHandler:) https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/nehotspotnetwork/fetchcurrent(completionhandler:) The same code works fine in Xcode 16, but when I run the same project in Xcode 26, it doesn't work

On my iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max devices, running iOS 26.0, 26.0.1, and 26.1, Wi-Fi raw socket communication works flawlessly. Even after keeping the connection active for over 40 minutes, there are no disconnections during data transmission. However, on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro, the raw socket connection drops within 20 seconds. Once it disconnects, the socket cannot reconnect unless the Wi-Fi module itself is reset. I believe this issue is caused by a bug in the iPhone 17 series’ communication module. I have looked into many cases, and it appears to be related to a bug in the N1 chipset. Are there any possible solutions or workarounds for this issue?

Hi! My project has the Local Push Connectivity entitlement for a feature we have requiring us to send low-latency critical notifications over a local, private Wi-Fi network. We have our NEAppPushProvider creating a SSE connection using the Network framework with our hardware running a server. The server sends a keep-alive message every second. On an iPhone 16 with iOS 18+, the connection is reliable and remains stable for hours, regardless of whether the iOS app is in the foreground, background, or killed. One of our QA engineers has been testing on an iPhone 13 running iOS 16, and has notice shortly after locking the phone, specifically when not connected to power the device seems to turn off the Wi-Fi radio. So when the server sends a notification, it is not received. About 30s later, it seems to be back on. This happens on regular intervals. When looking at our log data, the provider does seem to be getting stopped, then restarted shortly after. The reason code is NEProviderStopReasonNoNetworkAvailable, which further validates that the network is getting dropped by the device in regular intervals. My questions are: Were there possibly silent changes to the framework between iOS versions that could be the reason we're seeing inconsistent behavior? Is there a connection type we could use, instead of SSE, that would prevent the device from disconnecting and reconnecting to the Wi-Fi network? Is there an alternative approach to allow us to maintain a persistent network connection with the extension or app?

We have a content filter system extension as part of our macOS app. The filter normally works correctly, activation and deactivation works as expected but occasionally we see an issue when the content filter is activated. When this issues occurs, the filter activation appears to behave correctly, no errors are reported. Using "systemextensionsctl list" we see the filter is labelled as "[activated enabled]". However, the installed content filter executable does not run. We have seen this issue on macOS 15.3 and later and on the beta macOS 26.1 RC. It happens only occasionally but when it does there is no indication as to why the executable is not running. There are no crash logs or errors in launchd logs. Both rebooting and deactivating/activating the filter do not resolve the issue. The only fix appears to be completely uninstalling the app (including content filter) and reinstalling. I have raised a FB ticket, FB20866080. Does anyone have any idea what could cause this?

I'm developing an application using the accessory setup kit (BLE) on iOS 18+. An important aspect of the connection process is being able to find and choose the correct device. I noticed on iOS 18.2 that I was able to both scroll through the discovered accessories as well as view the advertised name. However, after upgrading to 18.7.2, only a single device is viewable and the advertised name is no longer available. Is there a trigger for this feature that I need to enable or was this "multiple discovery" feature removed? If so, why?

Hey everyone, I’m developing an app for visionOS where I need to display the Apple Vision Pro’s current IP address. For this I’m using the following code, which works for iOS, macOS, and visionOS in the simulator. Only on a real Apple Vision Pro it’s unable to extract an IP. Could it be that visionOS currently doesn’t allow this? Have any of you had the same experience and found a workaround? var address: String = "no ip" var ifaddr: UnsafeMutablePointer<ifaddrs>? = nil if getifaddrs(&ifaddr) == 0 { var ptr = ifaddr while ptr != nil { defer { ptr = ptr?.pointee.ifa_next } let interface = ptr?.pointee let addrFamily = interface?.ifa_addr.pointee.sa_family if addrFamily == UInt8(AF_INET) { if let name: Optional<String> = String(cString: (interface?.ifa_name)!), name == "en0" { var hostname = [CChar](repeating: 0, count: Int(NI_MAXHOST)) getnameinfo(interface?.ifa_addr, socklen_t((interface?.ifa_addr.pointee.sa_len)!), &hostname, socklen_t(hostname.count), nil, socklen_t(0), NI_NUMERICHOST) address = String(cString: hostname) } } } freeifaddrs(ifaddr) } return address } Thanks in advance for any insights or tips! Best Regards, David