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Networking Resources
General: Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Networking TN3151 Choosing the right networking API Networking Overview document — Despite the fact that this is in the archive, this is still really useful. TLS for App Developers forums post Choosing a Network Debugging Tool documentation WWDC 2019 Session 712 Advances in Networking, Part 1 — This explains the concept of constrained networking, which is Apple’s preferred solution to questions like How do I check whether I’m on Wi-Fi? TN3135 Low-level networking on watchOS TN3179 Understanding local network privacy Adapt to changing network conditions tech talk Understanding Also-Ran Connections forums post Extra-ordinary Networking forums post Foundation networking: Forums tags: Foundation, CFNetwork URL Loading System documentation — NSURLSession, or URLSession in Swift, is the recommended API for HTTP[S] on Apple platforms. Moving to Fewer, Larger Transfers forums post Testing Background Session Code forums post Network framework: Forums tag: Network Network framework documentation — Network framework is the recommended API for TCP, UDP, and QUIC on Apple platforms. Building a custom peer-to-peer protocol sample code (aka TicTacToe) Implementing netcat with Network Framework sample code (aka nwcat) Configuring a Wi-Fi accessory to join a network sample code Moving from Multipeer Connectivity to Network Framework forums post NWEndpoint History and Advice forums post Wi-Fi (general): How to modernize your captive network developer news post Wi-Fi Fundamentals forums post Filing a Wi-Fi Bug Report forums post Working with a Wi-Fi Accessory forums post — This is part of the Extra-ordinary Networking series. Wi-Fi (iOS): TN3111 iOS Wi-Fi API overview technote Wi-Fi Aware framework documentation WirelessInsights framework documentation iOS Network Signal Strength forums post Network Extension Resources Wi-Fi on macOS: Forums tag: Core WLAN Core WLAN framework documentation Secure networking: Forums tags: Security Apple Platform Security support document Preventing Insecure Network Connections documentation — This is all about App Transport Security (ATS). WWDC 2017 Session 701 Your Apps and Evolving Network Security Standards [1] — This is generally interesting, but the section starting at 17:40 is, AFAIK, the best information from Apple about how certificate revocation works on modern systems. Available trusted root certificates for Apple operating systems support article Requirements for trusted certificates in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 support article About upcoming limits on trusted certificates support article Apple’s Certificate Transparency policy support article What’s new for enterprise in iOS 18 support article — This discusses new key usage requirements. Technote 2232 HTTPS Server Trust Evaluation Technote 2326 Creating Certificates for TLS Testing QA1948 HTTPS and Test Servers Miscellaneous: More network-related forums tags: 5G, QUIC, Bonjour On FTP forums post Using the Multicast Networking Additional Capability forums post Investigating Network Latency Problems forums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] This video is no longer available from Apple, but the URL should help you locate other sources of this info.
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Kernel panics on M5 devices with network extension
Hello, We have a security solution which intercepts network traffic for inspection using a combination of Transparent Proxy Provider and Content filter. Lately we are seeing reports from the market that on M5 Macbooks and A18 Neos the system will kernel panic using our solution, even though it never happens on M1-M4 and no significant code changes were made in the mean time. All crashes seem to be related to an internal double free in the kernel: panic(cpu 0 caller 0xfffffe003bb68224): skmem_slab_free_locked: attempt to free invalid or already-freed obj 0xf2fffe29e15f2400 on skm 0xf6fffe2518aaa200 @skmem_slab.c:646 Debugger message: panic Memory ID: 0xff OS release type: User OS version: 25D2128 Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Wed Jan 28 20:54:38 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.91.3~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6050 Additionally, from further log inspection, before panics we find some weird kernel messages which seem to be related to some DMA operations gone wrong in the network driver on some machines: 2026-03-30 14:11:21.779124+0300 0x30f2 Default 0x0 873 0 Arc: (Network) [com.apple.network:connection] [C9.1.1.1 IPv4#e5b4bb04:443 in_progress socket-flow (satisfied (Path is satisfied), interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi, flow divert agg: 1, LQM: good)] event: flow:start_connect @0.075s 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780015+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (402262746): No more valid control units, disabling flow divert 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780017+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (402262746): Skipped all flow divert services, disabling flow divert 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780102+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: SK[2]: flow_entry_alloc fe "0 proc kernel_task(0)Arc nx_port 1 flow_uuid D46E230E-B826-4E0A-8C59-4C4C8BF6AA60 flags 0x14120<CONNECTED,QOS_MARKING,EXT_PORT,EXT_FLOWID> ipver=4,src=<IPv4-redacted>.49703,dst=<IPv4-redacted>.443,proto=0x06 mask=0x0000003f,hash=0x04e0a750 tp_proto=0x06" 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780194+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: tcp connect outgoing: [<IPv4-redacted>:49703<-><IPv4-redacted>:443] interface: en0 (skipped: 0) so_gencnt: 14634 t_state: SYN_SENT process: Arc:873 SYN in/out: 0/1 bytes in/out: 0/0 pkts in/out: 0/0 rtt: 0.0 ms rttvar: 250.0 ms base_rtt: 0 ms error: 0 so_error: 0 svc/tc: 0 flow: 0x9878386f 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934431+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: Hit error condition (not panicking as we're in error handler): t8110dart <private> (dart-apcie0): invalid SID 2 TTBR access: level 1 table_index 0 page_offset 0x2 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934432+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.511690]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 6 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934441+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.511696]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 9 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934441+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.569033]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 6 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934441+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.569038]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 9 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.577453]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 7 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.586328]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 5 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.586332]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 8 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.621392]: (dart-apcie0) AppleT8110DART::_fatalException: dart-apcie0 (<ptr>): DART DART SID exception ERROR_SID_SUMMARY 0x00003000 ERROR_ADDRESS 0x0000000000009800 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934443+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.621397]: Hit error condition (not panicking as we're in error handler): 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934443+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: t8110dart <ptr> (dart-apcie0): invalid SID 2 TTBR access: level 1 table_index 0 page_offset 0x2Expect a `deadbeef` in the error messages below 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934452+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: Expect a `deadbeef` in the error messages below 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934456+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleEmbeddedPCIE) apcie[0:centauri-control]::_dartErrorHandler() InvalidPTE caused by read from address 0x9800 by SID 2 (RID 2:0:1/useCount 1/device <private>) 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934469+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleT8110DART) Ignored dart-apcie0 (0xfbfffe18820b0000): DART(DART) error: SID 2 PTE invalid exception on read of DVA 0x9800 (SEG 0 PTE 0x2) ERROR_SID_SUMMARY 0x00003000 TIME 0x11242d43fd TTE 0xffffffffffffffff AXI_ID 0 We do not have any correlation between machines, usage pattern or installed applications. Uninstalling the network protection features seem to largely fix the issues, even though we have heard of crashes happening even in safe mode or with our network extension disabled from system settings. We weren't able to reproduce internally and it seems to happen completely random on client machines, but often enough to be disrupting. Can you tell us please if this is a known problem and if there's a workaround or what can we do to narrow it down? Thanks.
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Regression / Feature Request: Jumbo Frame (MTU 9000) support missing in AppleUserECM for RTL8156 2.5G USB adapters
Hello, I am currently developing a headless macOS daemon (HarmonBridge) that requires extremely low-latency, high-bandwidth UDP video streaming between a Mac and a Linux host over a dedicated 2.5GbE/5GbE local network link. We are utilizing widely available Realtek RTL8156 / RTL8156B based USB 2.5G network adapters. Under macOS, these adapters default to the generic com.apple.DriverKit.AppleUserECM driver. The hardware itself natively supports Jumbo Frames (MTU 9000), but the DriverKit implementation artificially restricts the MTU cap to 1500 bytes. Because we are forced through MTU 1500, we are incurring significant performance penalties: Excessive IP fragmentation for our large UDP video payloads. Unnecessary CPU overhead due to increased hardware interrupts and header processing at 2.5Gbps speeds. For a latency-critical application like ours, reducing CPU interrupts and utilizing true hardware-level Jumbo Frames is essential. My Questions: Is there an undocumented boot-arg or network sysctl parameter that permits overriding the AppleUserECM 1500 MTU hard-limit for 2.5G USB adapters on Apple Silicon? Are there any roadmap plans from the DriverKit/Networking team to re-enable standard Jumbo Frame negotiation for RTL8156 hardware using the generic ECM driver? If the answer to both is no, does Apple grant NetworkingDriverKit Entitlements to independent developers specifically for the purpose of writing custom hardware overrides to patch missing MTU features in the default ECM stack? Because AppleUserECM effectively acts as a gatekeeper to the underlying MAC/PHY capabilities of these modern USB NICs, any guidance on achieving wire-native MTU 9000 under the current DriverKit paradigm would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!
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NWHotSpotConfiguration not providing a helpful error message
I have the following code that is attempting to set up Hotspot 2.0 using an EAP-TLS configuration. I am importing a pk12 file and using those certificates. I have tried all manner of permutations for the configuration, and have narrowed down all the errors I was getting and now I am just getting a generic: Error: invalid EAP settings. I have tried adding the identity separately and either get an entitlements issue which I can't figure out why since I have added the required network extension sharing groups, or a duplicate item error, meaning it was already correctly added. The certificate and configuration are correctly working through an Android app already. static let accessGroup: String? = { guard let prefix = Bundle.main.object(forInfoDictionaryKey: "AppIdentifierPrefix") as? String else { print("Could not load group") return nil } return "\(prefix)com.apple.networkextensionsharing" }() static func setupHotspot(data: CertificateData) { let h20 = NEHotspotHS20Settings(domainName: data.realm, roamingEnabled: false) h20.naiRealmNames = [data.realm] var result: CFArray? let options: [CFString: Any] = [ kSecImportExportPassphrase: "**********", kSecAttrLabel: "ident:\(data.user)", kSecAttrAccessGroup: accessGroup!, kSecReturnPersistentRef: true ] let status = SecPKCS12Import(data.p12 as CFData, options as CFDictionary, &result) guard status == errSecSuccess, let importResult = result as? [[String: Any]], let resultDict = importResult.first else { print("P12 Import failed: \(status)") return } let identity = resultDict[kSecImportItemIdentity as String] as! SecIdentity let eap = NEHotspotEAPSettings() eap.supportedEAPTypes = [NEHotspotEAPSettings.EAPType.EAPTLS.rawValue as NSNumber] eap.isTLSClientCertificateRequired = true eap.trustedServerNames = [ data.realm ] eap.outerIdentity = "anonymous" guard eap.setIdentity( identity ) else { print("setIdentity failed") return } let configuration = NEHotspotConfiguration(hs20Settings: h20, eapSettings: eap) NEHotspotConfigurationManager.shared.apply(configuration) { error in if let error = error { print("Error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } else { print("Success") } } }
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`NEProxySettings.matchDomains` / `exceptionList` not working as expected in `NEPacketTunnelProvider` (domain-scoped proxy not applied, and exceptions not bypassed)
I’m working on an iOS Network Extension where a NEPacketTunnelProviderconfigures a local HTTP/HTTPS proxy usingNEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings.proxySettings. Per NEProxySettings.exceptionList docs: If the destination host name of an HTTP connection matches one of these patterns then the proxy settings will not be used for the connection. However, I’m seeing two distinct issues: Issue A (exception bypass not working): HTTPS traffic to a host that matches exceptionList still reaches the proxy. Issue B (domain-scoped proxy not applied): When matchDomains is set to match a specific domain (example: ["googlevideo.com"]), I still observe its traffic in some apps is not proxied. If I remove the domain from matchDomains, the same traffic is proxied. Environment OS: iOS (reproduced with 26.4 and other versions) Devices: Reproduced with several iPhones (likely iPads as well) Xcode: 26.3 Extension: NEPacketTunnelProvider Minimal Repro (code) This is the minimal configuration. Toggle between CONFIG A / CONFIG B to reproduce each issue. import NetworkExtension final class PacketTunnelProvider: NEPacketTunnelProvider { override func startTunnel( options: [String : NSObject]? = nil, completionHandler: @escaping (Error?) -> Void ) { let proxyPort = 12345 // proxy listening port let settings = NEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings(tunnelRemoteAddress: "8.8.8.8") let proxySettings = NEProxySettings() proxySettings.httpEnabled = true proxySettings.httpsEnabled = true proxySettings.httpServer = NEProxyServer(address: "1.2.3.4", port: proxyPort) // proxy listening address proxySettings.httpsServer = NEProxyServer(address: "1.2.3.4", port: proxyPort) // proxy listening address // CONFIG A: proxy all domains, but exclude some domains // proxySettings.matchDomains can be set to match all domains // proxySettings.exceptionList = ["*.cdninstagram.com", "cdninstagram.com"] // CONFIG B: proxy only a specific domain // proxySettings.matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"] settings.proxySettings = proxySettings setTunnelNetworkSettings(settings) { error in completionHandler(error) } } } Repro steps Issue A (exceptionList bypass not working) Enable the VPN configuration and start the tunnel with CONFIG A (exceptionList = ["*.cdninstagram.com", "cdninstagram.com"]). Open the Instagram app to trigger HTTPS connections to *.cdninstagram.com Inspect proxy logs: cdninstagram.com traffic is still received by the proxy. Safari comparison: If I access URLs that trigger the same *.cdninstagram.com hosts from Safari, it can behave as expected. When the traffic is triggered from the Instagram app, the excluded host still reaches the proxy as CONNECT, which is unexpected. Issue B (matchDomains not applied for YouTube traffic) Start the tunnel with CONFIG B (matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"]). Open the YouTube app and start playing a video (traffic typically targets *.googlevideo.com). Inspect proxy logs: googlevideo.com traffic is not received by the proxy. Remove the host from matchDomains and observe that googlevideo.com traffic is received by the proxy. Safari comparison: If I access a googlevideo.com host from Safari while matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"], it behaves as expected (proxied). In contrast, the YouTube app’s googlevideo.com traffic is not proxied unless I match all domains. Expected Issue A Connections to *.cdninstagram.com in the Instagram app should not use the proxy and should not reach the local proxy server. Issue B With matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"], traffic to *.googlevideo.com (YouTube video traffic) should be proxied and therefore reach the local proxy. Actual Issue A The local proxy still receives the request as: CONNECT scontent-mad1-1.cdninstagram.com:443 HTTP/1.1 So the bypass does not happen. Issue B With matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"], I still observe googlevideo.com traffic in the YouTube app that is not delivered to the proxy. When all traffic is proxied, the same traffic is delivered to the proxy.
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No internet after reboot for 90s
Development environment: Xcode 26.4, macOS 26.3.1 Run-time configuration: iOS 18.7.6 and higher We have an application running on supervised devices, with an MDM profile typically deployed via jamf. The profile enables a Content Filter, with the two flags "Socket Filter" and "Browser Filter" set to true. On the device side, we implement the content filter as a network extension via: a class FilterDataProvider extending NEFilterDataProvider, a class FilterControlProvider extending NEFilerControlProvider. For the record, the FilterDataProvider overrides the handle*() methods to allow all traffic; the handleNewFlow() simply reports the new connection to FilterControlProvider for analysis. Problem: some customers reported that after a reboot of their device, they would not get access to the internet for up to 60s/90s. We have not been able to reproduce the problem on our own devices. What we see is that, even with our app uninstalled, without any Content Filter, it takes roughly 20s to 25s for a device to have internet access, so we can probably consider this 20s delay as a baseline. But would you be aware of a reason that would explain the delay observed by these customers? More details: We have conducted some tests on our devices, with extended logging. In particular: we have added an internet probe in the app that is triggered when the app starts up: it will try to connect to apple.com every 2s and report success or failure, we also have a network monitor (nw_path_monitor_set_update_handler) that reacts to network stack status updates and logs the said status. A typical boot up sequence shows the following: the boot time is 7:59:05, the app starts up at 7:59:30 (manually launched when the device is ready), the probe fails and keeps failing, the content filter is initialized/started up 7:59:53 and is ready at 7:59:55, the network monitor shows that the network stack is connected (status = nw_path_status_satisfied) right after that, and the probe succeeds in connecting 2s later. In other words, internet is available about 50s after boot time, 25s after app startup (i.e. after the device is actually ready). For some customers, this 25s delay can go up to 60/90s.
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IPhone fails to connect with Xcode in presence of multiple WebContentFilters
I am facing an intermittent problem where iPhones are failing to pair/connect with Xcode under Xcode -> Windows -> Devices and Simulators. This happens when more than one web content filters are present, for instance, I have my web content filter (FilterSockets true, FilterGrade Firewall) and there is also Sentinel One web content filter with same configuration. Note: We are not blocking any flow from remoted / remotepairingd / core device service / MDRemoteServiceSupport etc processes. But they do get paused and resumed at times for our internal traffic verification logic. So, we are trying to understand what impact our content filter may be having on this iPhone Pairing?? If we stop either one of the filters the problem goes away. I have tracked the network traffic to the phone, and it seems to be using a ethernet interface (en5/en10) over the USB-C cable. I can see endpoints like this: localEndpoint = fe80::7:afff:fea1:edb8%en5.54442 remoteEndpoint = fe80::7:afff:fea1:ed47%en5.49813 I also see remoted process has the below ports open : sudo lsof -nP -iTCP -iUDP | grep remoted remoted 376 root 4u IPv6 0xce4a89bddba37bce 0t0 TCP [fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:edb8]:57395->[fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:ed47]:58783 (ESTABLISHED) remoted 376 root 6u IPv6 0xf20811f6922613c7 0t0 TCP [fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:edb8]:57396 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 7u IPv6 0x2c393a52251fcc56 0t0 TCP [fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:edb8]:57397 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 8u IPv6 0xcb9c311b0ec1d6a0 0t0 TCP [fd6e:8a96:a57d::2]:57398 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 9u IPv6 0xc582859e0623fe4e 0t0 TCP [fd6e:8a96:a57d::2]:57399 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 10u IPv6 0x2f7d9cee24a44c5b 0t0 TCP [fd6e:8a96:a57d::2]:57400->[fd6e:8a96:a57d::1]:60448 (ESTABLISHED) remoted 376 root 11u IPv6 0xbdb7003643659de 0t0 TCP [fd07:2e7e:2a83::2]:57419 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 12u IPv6 0x569a5b649ff8f957 0t0 TCP [fd07:2e7e:2a83::2]:57420 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 13u IPv6 0xa034657978a7da29 0t0 TCP [fd07:2e7e:2a83::2]:57421->[fd07:2e7e:2a83::1]:61729 (ESTABLISHED) But due to the dynamic nature of port and IPs used we are not able to decide on an effective early bypass NEFilterRule. We don't want to use a very broad bypass criteria like all link local IPs etc. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
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Crash in NetConnection::dequeue When Spawning URLSessionTasks in Loop
I'm encountering a null pointer dereference crash pointing to the internals of CFNetwork library code on iOS. I'm spawning URLSessionTasks at a decently fast rate (~1-5 per second), with the goal being to generate application layer network traffic. I can reliably encounter this crash pointing to NetConnection::dequeue right after a new task has been spawned and had the resume method called. I suspect that this is perhaps a race condition or some delegate/session object lifecycle bug. The crash appears to be more easily reproduced with a higher rate of spawning URLSessionTasks. I've included the JSON crash file, the lldb stack trace, and the source code of my URLSession(Task) usage. urlsession_stuff_stacktrace.txt urlsession_stuff_source.txt urlsession_crash_report.txt
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Inquiry Regarding USB Network Connectivity Between an iPad (Wi‑Fi Model) and an Embedded Linux Device
Inquiry) Inquiry Regarding USB Network Connectivity Between an iPad (Wi‑Fi Model) and an Embedded Linux Device An embedded device (OS: Linux) is connected to an iPad (Wi‑Fi model) using a USB‑C cable. The ipheth driver is installed on the embedded device, and the iPad is recognized correctly. A web server is running on the embedded device. To launch a browser on the iPad and access the web server running on the embedded device via a USB network connection. Based on our verification, the iPad is not assigned an IP address, and therefore communication with the web server on the embedded device is not possible. We would appreciate it if you could provide guidance on the following questions. We would like to assign an IP address to the iPad (Wi‑Fi Model) so that it can communicate with the embedded device over a USB network connection. Is there a way to achieve this through the standard settings on the iPad? If this cannot be achieved through settings alone, are there any existing applications that provide this functionality? If no such application currently exists, is it technically possible to develop an application that enables this capability on iPadOS? Information) The USB‑C port on the embedded device is fixed in HOST mode. The embedded device operates as the USB host, and the iPad operates as a USB device. When a cellular model iPad is connected and “Personal Hotspot” is enabled, an IP address is assigned via DHCP, and we have confirmed that the web server can be accessed from the iPad’s browser. We are investigating whether a similar solution is possible with a Wi‑Fi model iPad.
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Understanding '.waiting' state in NWConnection.State for UDP
While going through the documentation for NWConnection, there seems to be state known as .waiting which means that the connection is waiting for a path change. For TCP, the state is understandable and can occur under some scenarios. But for the case of UDP, I have following queries: Why do we need .waiting state for the case of UDP? Even if we do need .waiting state for UDP, when all does this state occurs?
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WiFi WPA3 Cypher Problem
I've submitted a couple of pieces of feedback regarding broken WPA3 support on iOS 26 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I've seen various access point vendors report that the GCMP256 cypher is not working. If you use WPA2, there is no issue. The problem I'm running into comes down to WPA3 being mandatory on 6 GHz. Some vendors have reported that disabling GCMP256 on Cisco Meraki hardware solves the problem. No other major vendor exposes this level of options. Does anyone know if it's possible to get more verbose diagnostic information out of the WiFi stack? I need actual information about why the negotiation fails, the technician-level stuff.
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DHCP broken when device wakeup
Many times the device totally lost connectivity, WIFI is completely down, no ip was assigned after device wakeup. From system log I can see BPF socket for DHCP was closed and detached right after attached to en0 in DHCP INIT phase, as result even the DHCP server sent back OFFER(I see server sent OFFER back from packet capture), but there is no persistent BPF socket since it is closed reception during the entire INIT phase. It is definitely an OS issue, is it a known issue? Please help understand Why BPF socket was close right after sending DISCOVER? Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: bpf26 attached to en0 by configd:331 2026-03-25 14:06:33.625851+0100 0x31dea Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: bpf26 closed and detached from en0 fcount 0 dcount 0 by configd:331 System log and packet capture attach, please check.
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TN3134 clarification: DNS Proxy Provider unusable without MDM on iOS?
Hi, I’m looking for clarification on TN3134: Network Extension provider deployment, specifically iOS deployment requirements for: packet tunnel provider DNS proxy provider From the documentation: Packet Tunnel Provider App extension (min iOS 9.0): per-app mode requires a managed device DNS Proxy Provider App extension (min iOS 11.0): supervised devices only App extension (min iOS 11.0): per-app mode requires managed devices Issue I implemented a DNS proxy using NEDNSProxyManager. Works as expected in debug builds on a local device Fails to configure when distributed via TestFlight Console Output (TestFlight build) error 10:05:39.872258-0500 nehelper The production version of *** is not allowed to create DNS proxy configurations. Use MDM to create DNS Proxy configurations for the production version of ***. Question Is it possible to distribute a DNS proxy provider for use on non-MDM / non-supervised devices? If not: Is the limitation strictly enforced at distribution/runtime? Is a packet tunnel provider the only viable alternative for App Store distribution? There is a lot of different VPN apps on the App Store that appear to work out of the box without MDM or supervision, which suggests they are using a different deployment model. Thank you for any clarification or guidance!
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iPad Pro Wi-Fi ping spikes with Bluetooth (iPadOS 26
Device Info: Device: iPad Pro 2022 (M2) OS: iPadOS 26.4 Network: 5GHz Wi-Fi Accessory: Apple Pencil (2nd Generation) Issue Description: Since updating to iPadOS 26, I experience periodic ping spikes during online gaming whenever Bluetooth is enabled. Since I use an Apple Pencil which requires Bluetooth, the issue affects me constantly during gaming sessions. Simply turning off Bluetooth in Settings does not fix the problem — the only way to temporarily restore normal ping is to turn off Bluetooth and then fully reboot the device. My Wi-Fi connection itself is fine, and other devices on the same 5GHz network have no issues. What I've Already Tried: Confirmed Wi-Fi is on 5GHz band (not 2.4GHz) Turning off Bluetooth + rebooting the device (temporary fix only, not a permanent solution) Reset network settings Updated to the latest iPadOS version (26.4) Important Background: When iPadOS 26 first launched, Apple Support provided a Configuration Profile that resolved the issue upon installation. However, the profile expired after approximately one week, and the problem has persisted ever since — never fixed by any subsequent update. I am currently on iPadOS 26.4 and the issue remains. My Questions: Has anyone else experienced this? Are there any known workarounds? Has Apple released an updated Configuration Profile or announced a fix for this specific issue?
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NEAppProxyUDPFlow.writeDatagrams fails with "The datagram was too large" on macOS 15.x, macOS 26.x
I'm implementing a NEDNSProxyProvider on macOS 15.x and macOS 26.x. The flow works correctly up to the last step — returning the DNS response to the client via writeDatagrams. Environment: macOS 15.x, 26.x Xcode 26.x NEDNSProxyProvider with NEAppProxyUDPFlow What I'm doing: override func handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyFlow) -> Bool { guard let udpFlow = flow as? NEAppProxyUDPFlow else { return false } udpFlow.readDatagrams { datagrams, endpoints, error in // 1. Read DNS request from client // 2. Forward to upstream DNS server via TCP // 3. Receive response from upstream // 4. Try to return response to client: udpFlow.writeDatagrams([responseData], sentBy: [endpoints.first!]) { error in // Always fails: "The datagram was too large" // responseData is 50-200 bytes — well within UDP limits } } return true } Investigation: I added logging to check the type of endpoints.first : // On macOS 15.0 and 26.3.1: // type(of: endpoints.first) → NWAddressEndpoint // Not NWHostEndpoint as expected On both macOS 15.4 and 26.3.1, readDatagrams returns [NWEndpoint] where each endpoint appears to be NWAddressEndpoint — a type that is not publicly documented. When I try to create NWHostEndpoint manually from hostname and port, and pass it to writeDatagrams, the error "The datagram was too large" still occurs in some cases. Questions: What is the correct endpoint type to pass to writeDatagrams on macOS 15.x, 26.x? Should we pass the exact same NWEndpoint objects returned by readDatagrams, or create new ones? NWEndpoint, NWHostEndpoint, and writeDatagrams are all deprecated in macOS 15. Is there a replacement API for NEAppProxyUDPFlow that works with nw_endpoint_t from the Network framework? Is the error "The datagram was too large" actually about the endpoint type rather than the data size? Any guidance would be appreciated. :-))
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Filtering traffic by URL with OHTTP Gateway
Hello, I am developing a URL traffic filtering system. I’ve set up a PIR server following this guide: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/setting-up-a-pir-server-for-url-filtering According to this WWDC25 video, it appears that I need to use an OHTTP Gateway: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/234/ So, I developed an OHTTP Gateway and verified it using a test client. Following that, I built the app and installed it on a test iPhone based on this sample: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/filtering-traffic-by-url However, I cannot find any settings related to the OHTTP URL within this sample. How should I proceed with the OHTTP configuration in this case? Thank you.
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Memory Leak in new structured concurrency Network Framework API's
After implementing the new structured concurrency API's for Network framework, we are noticing a few memory leaks in the Network framework when using API's like onViabilityUpdate and onBetterPathUpdate. Whenever a previously established connection is disconnected, the NWConnection object is never released by the Network framework when we use the 2 API's mentioned. Irrespective of what goes inside these handlers(or leave it empty), the connection object is leaking. If I comment out the handlers, there is no memory leak. Posting this here in the forum to understand if others have encountered similar issues and found a workaround? Raised a feedback assistant request with all the details and a sample app here: FB22339653
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Network Extension "Signature check failed" after archive with Developer ID — works in Xcode debug
I have a macOS VPN app with a Network Extension (packet tunnel provider) distributed outside the App Store via Developer ID. Everything works perfectly when running from Xcode. After archiving and exporting for Developer ID distribution, the extension launches but immediately gets killed by nesessionmanager. The error: Signature check failed: code failed to satisfy specified code requirement(s) followed by: started with PID 0 status changed to disconnected, last stop reason Plugin failed What makes this interesting: the extension process does launch. AMFI approves it, taskgated-helper validates the provisioning profile and says allowing entitlement(s) due to provisioning profile, the sandbox is applied, PacketTunnelProvider is created — but then Apple's Security framework internally fails the designated requirement check and nesessionmanager kills the session. Key log sequence: taskgated-helper: Checking profile: Developer ID - MacOS WireGuardExtension taskgated-helper: allowing entitlement(s) for com.xx.xx.WireGuardNetworkExtension due to provisioning profile (isUPP: 1) WireGuardNetworkExtensionMac: AppSandbox request successful WireGuardNetworkExtensionMac: creating principle object: PacketTunnelProvider WireGuardNetworkExtensionMac: Signature check failed: code failed to satisfy specified code requirement(s) nesessionmanager: started with PID 0 error (null) nesessionmanager: status changed to disconnected, last stop reason Plugin failed Setup: macOS 15, Xcode 16 Developer ID Application certificate Manual code signing, Developer ID provisioning profiles with Network Extensions capability Extension in Contents/PlugIns/ (standard appex, not System Extension) Extension entitlement: packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension NSExtensionPointIdentifier: com.apple.networkextension.packet-tunnel codesign --verify --deep --strict PASSES on the exported app Hardened runtime enabled on all targets What I've verified: Both app and extension have matching TeamIdentifier Both are signed with the same Developer ID Application certificate The designated requirement correctly references the cert's OIDs The provisioning profiles are valid and taskgated-helper explicitly approves them No custom signature validation code exists in the extension — the "Signature check failed" comes from Apple's Security framework What I've tried (all produce the same error): Normal Xcode archive + export (Direct Distribution) Manual build + sign script (bypassing Xcode export entirely) Stripping all signatures and re-signing from scratch Different provisioning profiles (freshly generated) Comparison with official WireGuard app: I noticed the official WireGuard macOS app (which works with Developer ID) uses packet-tunnel-provider (without -systemextension suffix) in its entitlements. My app uses packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension. However, I cannot switch to the non-systemextension variant because the provisioning profiles from Apple Developer portal always include the -systemextension variants when "Network Extensions" capability is enabled, and AMFI rejects the mismatch. Questions: Is there a known issue with packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension entitlement + PlugIn-based Network Extension + Developer ID signing? Should the extension be using packet-tunnel-provider (without -systemextension) for Developer ID distribution? If so, how do I get a provisioning profile that allows it? The "Signature check failed" happens after taskgated-helper approves the profile — what additional code requirement check is the NE framework performing, and how can I satisfy it? Any guidance would be appreciated. I've exhausted all signing approaches I can think of.
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NETransparentProxyProvider stops intercepting flows after sleep/wake cycle on macOS intermittently
I am seeing an issue with NETransparentProxyProvider where the extension successfully transitions from sleep to wake, but stops receiving handleNewFlow(_:) calls. Only below two methods gets called, We don't apply rules in these methods: override func wake() override func sleep(completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void) This breaking complete proxy workflow as it stops intercepting traffics. We are not observing this issues always. FYI: com.apple.developer.endpoint-security.client is not present in .entitlement file. I am not sure adding this will help. Any possibilities nesessionmanager might fail to re-bind the traffic rules for this extensions? Any thing we can do to avoid this issues?
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test NEAppProxyProvider without MDM?
This discussion is for iOS/iPadOS. I've written an NEAppProxyProvider network extension. I'd like to test it. I thought that using the "NETestAppMapping" dictionary was a way to get there, but when I try to instantiate an NEAppProxyProviderManager to try to install stuff, the console tells me "must be MDM managed" and I get nowhere. So can someone tell me, can I at least test the idea without needing to first get MDM going? I'd like to know if how I'm approaching the core problem even makes sense. My custom application needs to stream video, via the SRT protocol, to some place like youtube or castr. The problem is that in the environment we are in (big convention centers), our devices are on a LAN, but the connection from the LAN out to the rest of the world just sucks. Surprisingly, cellular has better performance. So I am trying to do the perverse thing of forcing traffix that is NOT local to go out over cellular. And traffic that is completely local (i.e. talking to a purely local server/other devices on the LAN) happens over ethernet. [To simplify things, wifi is not connected.] Is an app proxy the right tool for this? Is there any other tool? Unfortunately, I cannot rewrite the code to force everything through Apple's Network framework, which is the one place I know we can say "use cellular." [E.g. URLSession() has absolutely no way of forcing cellular, and even so, the low level streaming library I use is written with raw sockets, and its not feasible for me to rewrite it.] Any other suggestions of how to accomplish this "send non-local traffic to cellular, all local traffic out over ethernet" gratefully welcomed!
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Networking Resources
General: Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Networking TN3151 Choosing the right networking API Networking Overview document — Despite the fact that this is in the archive, this is still really useful. TLS for App Developers forums post Choosing a Network Debugging Tool documentation WWDC 2019 Session 712 Advances in Networking, Part 1 — This explains the concept of constrained networking, which is Apple’s preferred solution to questions like How do I check whether I’m on Wi-Fi? TN3135 Low-level networking on watchOS TN3179 Understanding local network privacy Adapt to changing network conditions tech talk Understanding Also-Ran Connections forums post Extra-ordinary Networking forums post Foundation networking: Forums tags: Foundation, CFNetwork URL Loading System documentation — NSURLSession, or URLSession in Swift, is the recommended API for HTTP[S] on Apple platforms. Moving to Fewer, Larger Transfers forums post Testing Background Session Code forums post Network framework: Forums tag: Network Network framework documentation — Network framework is the recommended API for TCP, UDP, and QUIC on Apple platforms. Building a custom peer-to-peer protocol sample code (aka TicTacToe) Implementing netcat with Network Framework sample code (aka nwcat) Configuring a Wi-Fi accessory to join a network sample code Moving from Multipeer Connectivity to Network Framework forums post NWEndpoint History and Advice forums post Wi-Fi (general): How to modernize your captive network developer news post Wi-Fi Fundamentals forums post Filing a Wi-Fi Bug Report forums post Working with a Wi-Fi Accessory forums post — This is part of the Extra-ordinary Networking series. Wi-Fi (iOS): TN3111 iOS Wi-Fi API overview technote Wi-Fi Aware framework documentation WirelessInsights framework documentation iOS Network Signal Strength forums post Network Extension Resources Wi-Fi on macOS: Forums tag: Core WLAN Core WLAN framework documentation Secure networking: Forums tags: Security Apple Platform Security support document Preventing Insecure Network Connections documentation — This is all about App Transport Security (ATS). WWDC 2017 Session 701 Your Apps and Evolving Network Security Standards [1] — This is generally interesting, but the section starting at 17:40 is, AFAIK, the best information from Apple about how certificate revocation works on modern systems. Available trusted root certificates for Apple operating systems support article Requirements for trusted certificates in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 support article About upcoming limits on trusted certificates support article Apple’s Certificate Transparency policy support article What’s new for enterprise in iOS 18 support article — This discusses new key usage requirements. Technote 2232 HTTPS Server Trust Evaluation Technote 2326 Creating Certificates for TLS Testing QA1948 HTTPS and Test Servers Miscellaneous: More network-related forums tags: 5G, QUIC, Bonjour On FTP forums post Using the Multicast Networking Additional Capability forums post Investigating Network Latency Problems forums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] This video is no longer available from Apple, but the URL should help you locate other sources of this info.
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2w
Kernel panics on M5 devices with network extension
Hello, We have a security solution which intercepts network traffic for inspection using a combination of Transparent Proxy Provider and Content filter. Lately we are seeing reports from the market that on M5 Macbooks and A18 Neos the system will kernel panic using our solution, even though it never happens on M1-M4 and no significant code changes were made in the mean time. All crashes seem to be related to an internal double free in the kernel: panic(cpu 0 caller 0xfffffe003bb68224): skmem_slab_free_locked: attempt to free invalid or already-freed obj 0xf2fffe29e15f2400 on skm 0xf6fffe2518aaa200 @skmem_slab.c:646 Debugger message: panic Memory ID: 0xff OS release type: User OS version: 25D2128 Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Wed Jan 28 20:54:38 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.91.3~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6050 Additionally, from further log inspection, before panics we find some weird kernel messages which seem to be related to some DMA operations gone wrong in the network driver on some machines: 2026-03-30 14:11:21.779124+0300 0x30f2 Default 0x0 873 0 Arc: (Network) [com.apple.network:connection] [C9.1.1.1 IPv4#e5b4bb04:443 in_progress socket-flow (satisfied (Path is satisfied), interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi, flow divert agg: 1, LQM: good)] event: flow:start_connect @0.075s 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780015+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (402262746): No more valid control units, disabling flow divert 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780017+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (402262746): Skipped all flow divert services, disabling flow divert 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780102+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: SK[2]: flow_entry_alloc fe "0 proc kernel_task(0)Arc nx_port 1 flow_uuid D46E230E-B826-4E0A-8C59-4C4C8BF6AA60 flags 0x14120<CONNECTED,QOS_MARKING,EXT_PORT,EXT_FLOWID> ipver=4,src=<IPv4-redacted>.49703,dst=<IPv4-redacted>.443,proto=0x06 mask=0x0000003f,hash=0x04e0a750 tp_proto=0x06" 2026-03-30 14:11:21.780194+0300 0x1894 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: tcp connect outgoing: [<IPv4-redacted>:49703<-><IPv4-redacted>:443] interface: en0 (skipped: 0) so_gencnt: 14634 t_state: SYN_SENT process: Arc:873 SYN in/out: 0/1 bytes in/out: 0/0 pkts in/out: 0/0 rtt: 0.0 ms rttvar: 250.0 ms base_rtt: 0 ms error: 0 so_error: 0 svc/tc: 0 flow: 0x9878386f 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934431+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: Hit error condition (not panicking as we're in error handler): t8110dart <private> (dart-apcie0): invalid SID 2 TTBR access: level 1 table_index 0 page_offset 0x2 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934432+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.511690]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 6 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934441+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.511696]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 9 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934441+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.569033]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 6 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934441+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.569038]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 9 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.577453]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 7 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.586328]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 5 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.586332]: arm_cpu_init(): cpu 8 online 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934442+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.621392]: (dart-apcie0) AppleT8110DART::_fatalException: dart-apcie0 (<ptr>): DART DART SID exception ERROR_SID_SUMMARY 0x00003000 ERROR_ADDRESS 0x0000000000009800 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934443+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: [ 73.621397]: Hit error condition (not panicking as we're in error handler): 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934443+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: t8110dart <ptr> (dart-apcie0): invalid SID 2 TTBR access: level 1 table_index 0 page_offset 0x2Expect a `deadbeef` in the error messages below 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934452+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: Expect a `deadbeef` in the error messages below 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934456+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleEmbeddedPCIE) apcie[0:centauri-control]::_dartErrorHandler() InvalidPTE caused by read from address 0x9800 by SID 2 (RID 2:0:1/useCount 1/device <private>) 2026-03-30 14:11:21.934469+0300 0xed Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleT8110DART) Ignored dart-apcie0 (0xfbfffe18820b0000): DART(DART) error: SID 2 PTE invalid exception on read of DVA 0x9800 (SEG 0 PTE 0x2) ERROR_SID_SUMMARY 0x00003000 TIME 0x11242d43fd TTE 0xffffffffffffffff AXI_ID 0 We do not have any correlation between machines, usage pattern or installed applications. Uninstalling the network protection features seem to largely fix the issues, even though we have heard of crashes happening even in safe mode or with our network extension disabled from system settings. We weren't able to reproduce internally and it seems to happen completely random on client machines, but often enough to be disrupting. Can you tell us please if this is a known problem and if there's a workaround or what can we do to narrow it down? Thanks.
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31
Activity
10h
Regression / Feature Request: Jumbo Frame (MTU 9000) support missing in AppleUserECM for RTL8156 2.5G USB adapters
Hello, I am currently developing a headless macOS daemon (HarmonBridge) that requires extremely low-latency, high-bandwidth UDP video streaming between a Mac and a Linux host over a dedicated 2.5GbE/5GbE local network link. We are utilizing widely available Realtek RTL8156 / RTL8156B based USB 2.5G network adapters. Under macOS, these adapters default to the generic com.apple.DriverKit.AppleUserECM driver. The hardware itself natively supports Jumbo Frames (MTU 9000), but the DriverKit implementation artificially restricts the MTU cap to 1500 bytes. Because we are forced through MTU 1500, we are incurring significant performance penalties: Excessive IP fragmentation for our large UDP video payloads. Unnecessary CPU overhead due to increased hardware interrupts and header processing at 2.5Gbps speeds. For a latency-critical application like ours, reducing CPU interrupts and utilizing true hardware-level Jumbo Frames is essential. My Questions: Is there an undocumented boot-arg or network sysctl parameter that permits overriding the AppleUserECM 1500 MTU hard-limit for 2.5G USB adapters on Apple Silicon? Are there any roadmap plans from the DriverKit/Networking team to re-enable standard Jumbo Frame negotiation for RTL8156 hardware using the generic ECM driver? If the answer to both is no, does Apple grant NetworkingDriverKit Entitlements to independent developers specifically for the purpose of writing custom hardware overrides to patch missing MTU features in the default ECM stack? Because AppleUserECM effectively acts as a gatekeeper to the underlying MAC/PHY capabilities of these modern USB NICs, any guidance on achieving wire-native MTU 9000 under the current DriverKit paradigm would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!
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99
Activity
5h
NWHotSpotConfiguration not providing a helpful error message
I have the following code that is attempting to set up Hotspot 2.0 using an EAP-TLS configuration. I am importing a pk12 file and using those certificates. I have tried all manner of permutations for the configuration, and have narrowed down all the errors I was getting and now I am just getting a generic: Error: invalid EAP settings. I have tried adding the identity separately and either get an entitlements issue which I can't figure out why since I have added the required network extension sharing groups, or a duplicate item error, meaning it was already correctly added. The certificate and configuration are correctly working through an Android app already. static let accessGroup: String? = { guard let prefix = Bundle.main.object(forInfoDictionaryKey: "AppIdentifierPrefix") as? String else { print("Could not load group") return nil } return "\(prefix)com.apple.networkextensionsharing" }() static func setupHotspot(data: CertificateData) { let h20 = NEHotspotHS20Settings(domainName: data.realm, roamingEnabled: false) h20.naiRealmNames = [data.realm] var result: CFArray? let options: [CFString: Any] = [ kSecImportExportPassphrase: "**********", kSecAttrLabel: "ident:\(data.user)", kSecAttrAccessGroup: accessGroup!, kSecReturnPersistentRef: true ] let status = SecPKCS12Import(data.p12 as CFData, options as CFDictionary, &result) guard status == errSecSuccess, let importResult = result as? [[String: Any]], let resultDict = importResult.first else { print("P12 Import failed: \(status)") return } let identity = resultDict[kSecImportItemIdentity as String] as! SecIdentity let eap = NEHotspotEAPSettings() eap.supportedEAPTypes = [NEHotspotEAPSettings.EAPType.EAPTLS.rawValue as NSNumber] eap.isTLSClientCertificateRequired = true eap.trustedServerNames = [ data.realm ] eap.outerIdentity = "anonymous" guard eap.setIdentity( identity ) else { print("setIdentity failed") return } let configuration = NEHotspotConfiguration(hs20Settings: h20, eapSettings: eap) NEHotspotConfigurationManager.shared.apply(configuration) { error in if let error = error { print("Error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } else { print("Success") } } }
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41
Activity
16h
`NEProxySettings.matchDomains` / `exceptionList` not working as expected in `NEPacketTunnelProvider` (domain-scoped proxy not applied, and exceptions not bypassed)
I’m working on an iOS Network Extension where a NEPacketTunnelProviderconfigures a local HTTP/HTTPS proxy usingNEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings.proxySettings. Per NEProxySettings.exceptionList docs: If the destination host name of an HTTP connection matches one of these patterns then the proxy settings will not be used for the connection. However, I’m seeing two distinct issues: Issue A (exception bypass not working): HTTPS traffic to a host that matches exceptionList still reaches the proxy. Issue B (domain-scoped proxy not applied): When matchDomains is set to match a specific domain (example: ["googlevideo.com"]), I still observe its traffic in some apps is not proxied. If I remove the domain from matchDomains, the same traffic is proxied. Environment OS: iOS (reproduced with 26.4 and other versions) Devices: Reproduced with several iPhones (likely iPads as well) Xcode: 26.3 Extension: NEPacketTunnelProvider Minimal Repro (code) This is the minimal configuration. Toggle between CONFIG A / CONFIG B to reproduce each issue. import NetworkExtension final class PacketTunnelProvider: NEPacketTunnelProvider { override func startTunnel( options: [String : NSObject]? = nil, completionHandler: @escaping (Error?) -> Void ) { let proxyPort = 12345 // proxy listening port let settings = NEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings(tunnelRemoteAddress: "8.8.8.8") let proxySettings = NEProxySettings() proxySettings.httpEnabled = true proxySettings.httpsEnabled = true proxySettings.httpServer = NEProxyServer(address: "1.2.3.4", port: proxyPort) // proxy listening address proxySettings.httpsServer = NEProxyServer(address: "1.2.3.4", port: proxyPort) // proxy listening address // CONFIG A: proxy all domains, but exclude some domains // proxySettings.matchDomains can be set to match all domains // proxySettings.exceptionList = ["*.cdninstagram.com", "cdninstagram.com"] // CONFIG B: proxy only a specific domain // proxySettings.matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"] settings.proxySettings = proxySettings setTunnelNetworkSettings(settings) { error in completionHandler(error) } } } Repro steps Issue A (exceptionList bypass not working) Enable the VPN configuration and start the tunnel with CONFIG A (exceptionList = ["*.cdninstagram.com", "cdninstagram.com"]). Open the Instagram app to trigger HTTPS connections to *.cdninstagram.com Inspect proxy logs: cdninstagram.com traffic is still received by the proxy. Safari comparison: If I access URLs that trigger the same *.cdninstagram.com hosts from Safari, it can behave as expected. When the traffic is triggered from the Instagram app, the excluded host still reaches the proxy as CONNECT, which is unexpected. Issue B (matchDomains not applied for YouTube traffic) Start the tunnel with CONFIG B (matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"]). Open the YouTube app and start playing a video (traffic typically targets *.googlevideo.com). Inspect proxy logs: googlevideo.com traffic is not received by the proxy. Remove the host from matchDomains and observe that googlevideo.com traffic is received by the proxy. Safari comparison: If I access a googlevideo.com host from Safari while matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"], it behaves as expected (proxied). In contrast, the YouTube app’s googlevideo.com traffic is not proxied unless I match all domains. Expected Issue A Connections to *.cdninstagram.com in the Instagram app should not use the proxy and should not reach the local proxy server. Issue B With matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"], traffic to *.googlevideo.com (YouTube video traffic) should be proxied and therefore reach the local proxy. Actual Issue A The local proxy still receives the request as: CONNECT scontent-mad1-1.cdninstagram.com:443 HTTP/1.1 So the bypass does not happen. Issue B With matchDomains = ["googlevideo.com"], I still observe googlevideo.com traffic in the YouTube app that is not delivered to the proxy. When all traffic is proxied, the same traffic is delivered to the proxy.
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53
Activity
22h
No internet after reboot for 90s
Development environment: Xcode 26.4, macOS 26.3.1 Run-time configuration: iOS 18.7.6 and higher We have an application running on supervised devices, with an MDM profile typically deployed via jamf. The profile enables a Content Filter, with the two flags "Socket Filter" and "Browser Filter" set to true. On the device side, we implement the content filter as a network extension via: a class FilterDataProvider extending NEFilterDataProvider, a class FilterControlProvider extending NEFilerControlProvider. For the record, the FilterDataProvider overrides the handle*() methods to allow all traffic; the handleNewFlow() simply reports the new connection to FilterControlProvider for analysis. Problem: some customers reported that after a reboot of their device, they would not get access to the internet for up to 60s/90s. We have not been able to reproduce the problem on our own devices. What we see is that, even with our app uninstalled, without any Content Filter, it takes roughly 20s to 25s for a device to have internet access, so we can probably consider this 20s delay as a baseline. But would you be aware of a reason that would explain the delay observed by these customers? More details: We have conducted some tests on our devices, with extended logging. In particular: we have added an internet probe in the app that is triggered when the app starts up: it will try to connect to apple.com every 2s and report success or failure, we also have a network monitor (nw_path_monitor_set_update_handler) that reacts to network stack status updates and logs the said status. A typical boot up sequence shows the following: the boot time is 7:59:05, the app starts up at 7:59:30 (manually launched when the device is ready), the probe fails and keeps failing, the content filter is initialized/started up 7:59:53 and is ready at 7:59:55, the network monitor shows that the network stack is connected (status = nw_path_status_satisfied) right after that, and the probe succeeds in connecting 2s later. In other words, internet is available about 50s after boot time, 25s after app startup (i.e. after the device is actually ready). For some customers, this 25s delay can go up to 60/90s.
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28
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22h
URL Filter Network Extension
Hello team, I have implemented sample project for URL Filtering as well as setup PIR server at backend but currently I am facing a major issue, If PIR server is re started then the app shows error code 9 every time until. and unless I disconnect and connect it back to internet
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40
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IPhone fails to connect with Xcode in presence of multiple WebContentFilters
I am facing an intermittent problem where iPhones are failing to pair/connect with Xcode under Xcode -> Windows -> Devices and Simulators. This happens when more than one web content filters are present, for instance, I have my web content filter (FilterSockets true, FilterGrade Firewall) and there is also Sentinel One web content filter with same configuration. Note: We are not blocking any flow from remoted / remotepairingd / core device service / MDRemoteServiceSupport etc processes. But they do get paused and resumed at times for our internal traffic verification logic. So, we are trying to understand what impact our content filter may be having on this iPhone Pairing?? If we stop either one of the filters the problem goes away. I have tracked the network traffic to the phone, and it seems to be using a ethernet interface (en5/en10) over the USB-C cable. I can see endpoints like this: localEndpoint = fe80::7:afff:fea1:edb8%en5.54442 remoteEndpoint = fe80::7:afff:fea1:ed47%en5.49813 I also see remoted process has the below ports open : sudo lsof -nP -iTCP -iUDP | grep remoted remoted 376 root 4u IPv6 0xce4a89bddba37bce 0t0 TCP [fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:edb8]:57395->[fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:ed47]:58783 (ESTABLISHED) remoted 376 root 6u IPv6 0xf20811f6922613c7 0t0 TCP [fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:edb8]:57396 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 7u IPv6 0x2c393a52251fcc56 0t0 TCP [fe80:15::7:afff:fea1:edb8]:57397 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 8u IPv6 0xcb9c311b0ec1d6a0 0t0 TCP [fd6e:8a96:a57d::2]:57398 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 9u IPv6 0xc582859e0623fe4e 0t0 TCP [fd6e:8a96:a57d::2]:57399 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 10u IPv6 0x2f7d9cee24a44c5b 0t0 TCP [fd6e:8a96:a57d::2]:57400->[fd6e:8a96:a57d::1]:60448 (ESTABLISHED) remoted 376 root 11u IPv6 0xbdb7003643659de 0t0 TCP [fd07:2e7e:2a83::2]:57419 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 12u IPv6 0x569a5b649ff8f957 0t0 TCP [fd07:2e7e:2a83::2]:57420 (LISTEN) remoted 376 root 13u IPv6 0xa034657978a7da29 0t0 TCP [fd07:2e7e:2a83::2]:57421->[fd07:2e7e:2a83::1]:61729 (ESTABLISHED) But due to the dynamic nature of port and IPs used we are not able to decide on an effective early bypass NEFilterRule. We don't want to use a very broad bypass criteria like all link local IPs etc. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
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Crash in NetConnection::dequeue When Spawning URLSessionTasks in Loop
I'm encountering a null pointer dereference crash pointing to the internals of CFNetwork library code on iOS. I'm spawning URLSessionTasks at a decently fast rate (~1-5 per second), with the goal being to generate application layer network traffic. I can reliably encounter this crash pointing to NetConnection::dequeue right after a new task has been spawned and had the resume method called. I suspect that this is perhaps a race condition or some delegate/session object lifecycle bug. The crash appears to be more easily reproduced with a higher rate of spawning URLSessionTasks. I've included the JSON crash file, the lldb stack trace, and the source code of my URLSession(Task) usage. urlsession_stuff_stacktrace.txt urlsession_stuff_source.txt urlsession_crash_report.txt
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43
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Inquiry Regarding USB Network Connectivity Between an iPad (Wi‑Fi Model) and an Embedded Linux Device
Inquiry) Inquiry Regarding USB Network Connectivity Between an iPad (Wi‑Fi Model) and an Embedded Linux Device An embedded device (OS: Linux) is connected to an iPad (Wi‑Fi model) using a USB‑C cable. The ipheth driver is installed on the embedded device, and the iPad is recognized correctly. A web server is running on the embedded device. To launch a browser on the iPad and access the web server running on the embedded device via a USB network connection. Based on our verification, the iPad is not assigned an IP address, and therefore communication with the web server on the embedded device is not possible. We would appreciate it if you could provide guidance on the following questions. We would like to assign an IP address to the iPad (Wi‑Fi Model) so that it can communicate with the embedded device over a USB network connection. Is there a way to achieve this through the standard settings on the iPad? If this cannot be achieved through settings alone, are there any existing applications that provide this functionality? If no such application currently exists, is it technically possible to develop an application that enables this capability on iPadOS? Information) The USB‑C port on the embedded device is fixed in HOST mode. The embedded device operates as the USB host, and the iPad operates as a USB device. When a cellular model iPad is connected and “Personal Hotspot” is enabled, an IP address is assigned via DHCP, and we have confirmed that the web server can be accessed from the iPad’s browser. We are investigating whether a similar solution is possible with a Wi‑Fi model iPad.
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Understanding '.waiting' state in NWConnection.State for UDP
While going through the documentation for NWConnection, there seems to be state known as .waiting which means that the connection is waiting for a path change. For TCP, the state is understandable and can occur under some scenarios. But for the case of UDP, I have following queries: Why do we need .waiting state for the case of UDP? Even if we do need .waiting state for UDP, when all does this state occurs?
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WiFi WPA3 Cypher Problem
I've submitted a couple of pieces of feedback regarding broken WPA3 support on iOS 26 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I've seen various access point vendors report that the GCMP256 cypher is not working. If you use WPA2, there is no issue. The problem I'm running into comes down to WPA3 being mandatory on 6 GHz. Some vendors have reported that disabling GCMP256 on Cisco Meraki hardware solves the problem. No other major vendor exposes this level of options. Does anyone know if it's possible to get more verbose diagnostic information out of the WiFi stack? I need actual information about why the negotiation fails, the technician-level stuff.
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DHCP broken when device wakeup
Many times the device totally lost connectivity, WIFI is completely down, no ip was assigned after device wakeup. From system log I can see BPF socket for DHCP was closed and detached right after attached to en0 in DHCP INIT phase, as result even the DHCP server sent back OFFER(I see server sent OFFER back from packet capture), but there is no persistent BPF socket since it is closed reception during the entire INIT phase. It is definitely an OS issue, is it a known issue? Please help understand Why BPF socket was close right after sending DISCOVER? Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: bpf26 attached to en0 by configd:331 2026-03-25 14:06:33.625851+0100 0x31dea Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: bpf26 closed and detached from en0 fcount 0 dcount 0 by configd:331 System log and packet capture attach, please check.
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TN3134 clarification: DNS Proxy Provider unusable without MDM on iOS?
Hi, I’m looking for clarification on TN3134: Network Extension provider deployment, specifically iOS deployment requirements for: packet tunnel provider DNS proxy provider From the documentation: Packet Tunnel Provider App extension (min iOS 9.0): per-app mode requires a managed device DNS Proxy Provider App extension (min iOS 11.0): supervised devices only App extension (min iOS 11.0): per-app mode requires managed devices Issue I implemented a DNS proxy using NEDNSProxyManager. Works as expected in debug builds on a local device Fails to configure when distributed via TestFlight Console Output (TestFlight build) error 10:05:39.872258-0500 nehelper The production version of *** is not allowed to create DNS proxy configurations. Use MDM to create DNS Proxy configurations for the production version of ***. Question Is it possible to distribute a DNS proxy provider for use on non-MDM / non-supervised devices? If not: Is the limitation strictly enforced at distribution/runtime? Is a packet tunnel provider the only viable alternative for App Store distribution? There is a lot of different VPN apps on the App Store that appear to work out of the box without MDM or supervision, which suggests they are using a different deployment model. Thank you for any clarification or guidance!
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iPad Pro Wi-Fi ping spikes with Bluetooth (iPadOS 26
Device Info: Device: iPad Pro 2022 (M2) OS: iPadOS 26.4 Network: 5GHz Wi-Fi Accessory: Apple Pencil (2nd Generation) Issue Description: Since updating to iPadOS 26, I experience periodic ping spikes during online gaming whenever Bluetooth is enabled. Since I use an Apple Pencil which requires Bluetooth, the issue affects me constantly during gaming sessions. Simply turning off Bluetooth in Settings does not fix the problem — the only way to temporarily restore normal ping is to turn off Bluetooth and then fully reboot the device. My Wi-Fi connection itself is fine, and other devices on the same 5GHz network have no issues. What I've Already Tried: Confirmed Wi-Fi is on 5GHz band (not 2.4GHz) Turning off Bluetooth + rebooting the device (temporary fix only, not a permanent solution) Reset network settings Updated to the latest iPadOS version (26.4) Important Background: When iPadOS 26 first launched, Apple Support provided a Configuration Profile that resolved the issue upon installation. However, the profile expired after approximately one week, and the problem has persisted ever since — never fixed by any subsequent update. I am currently on iPadOS 26.4 and the issue remains. My Questions: Has anyone else experienced this? Are there any known workarounds? Has Apple released an updated Configuration Profile or announced a fix for this specific issue?
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NEAppProxyUDPFlow.writeDatagrams fails with "The datagram was too large" on macOS 15.x, macOS 26.x
I'm implementing a NEDNSProxyProvider on macOS 15.x and macOS 26.x. The flow works correctly up to the last step — returning the DNS response to the client via writeDatagrams. Environment: macOS 15.x, 26.x Xcode 26.x NEDNSProxyProvider with NEAppProxyUDPFlow What I'm doing: override func handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyFlow) -> Bool { guard let udpFlow = flow as? NEAppProxyUDPFlow else { return false } udpFlow.readDatagrams { datagrams, endpoints, error in // 1. Read DNS request from client // 2. Forward to upstream DNS server via TCP // 3. Receive response from upstream // 4. Try to return response to client: udpFlow.writeDatagrams([responseData], sentBy: [endpoints.first!]) { error in // Always fails: "The datagram was too large" // responseData is 50-200 bytes — well within UDP limits } } return true } Investigation: I added logging to check the type of endpoints.first : // On macOS 15.0 and 26.3.1: // type(of: endpoints.first) → NWAddressEndpoint // Not NWHostEndpoint as expected On both macOS 15.4 and 26.3.1, readDatagrams returns [NWEndpoint] where each endpoint appears to be NWAddressEndpoint — a type that is not publicly documented. When I try to create NWHostEndpoint manually from hostname and port, and pass it to writeDatagrams, the error "The datagram was too large" still occurs in some cases. Questions: What is the correct endpoint type to pass to writeDatagrams on macOS 15.x, 26.x? Should we pass the exact same NWEndpoint objects returned by readDatagrams, or create new ones? NWEndpoint, NWHostEndpoint, and writeDatagrams are all deprecated in macOS 15. Is there a replacement API for NEAppProxyUDPFlow that works with nw_endpoint_t from the Network framework? Is the error "The datagram was too large" actually about the endpoint type rather than the data size? Any guidance would be appreciated. :-))
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21h
Filtering traffic by URL with OHTTP Gateway
Hello, I am developing a URL traffic filtering system. I’ve set up a PIR server following this guide: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/setting-up-a-pir-server-for-url-filtering According to this WWDC25 video, it appears that I need to use an OHTTP Gateway: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/234/ So, I developed an OHTTP Gateway and verified it using a test client. Following that, I built the app and installed it on a test iPhone based on this sample: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/filtering-traffic-by-url However, I cannot find any settings related to the OHTTP URL within this sample. How should I proceed with the OHTTP configuration in this case? Thank you.
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Memory Leak in new structured concurrency Network Framework API's
After implementing the new structured concurrency API's for Network framework, we are noticing a few memory leaks in the Network framework when using API's like onViabilityUpdate and onBetterPathUpdate. Whenever a previously established connection is disconnected, the NWConnection object is never released by the Network framework when we use the 2 API's mentioned. Irrespective of what goes inside these handlers(or leave it empty), the connection object is leaking. If I comment out the handlers, there is no memory leak. Posting this here in the forum to understand if others have encountered similar issues and found a workaround? Raised a feedback assistant request with all the details and a sample app here: FB22339653
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Network Extension "Signature check failed" after archive with Developer ID — works in Xcode debug
I have a macOS VPN app with a Network Extension (packet tunnel provider) distributed outside the App Store via Developer ID. Everything works perfectly when running from Xcode. After archiving and exporting for Developer ID distribution, the extension launches but immediately gets killed by nesessionmanager. The error: Signature check failed: code failed to satisfy specified code requirement(s) followed by: started with PID 0 status changed to disconnected, last stop reason Plugin failed What makes this interesting: the extension process does launch. AMFI approves it, taskgated-helper validates the provisioning profile and says allowing entitlement(s) due to provisioning profile, the sandbox is applied, PacketTunnelProvider is created — but then Apple's Security framework internally fails the designated requirement check and nesessionmanager kills the session. Key log sequence: taskgated-helper: Checking profile: Developer ID - MacOS WireGuardExtension taskgated-helper: allowing entitlement(s) for com.xx.xx.WireGuardNetworkExtension due to provisioning profile (isUPP: 1) WireGuardNetworkExtensionMac: AppSandbox request successful WireGuardNetworkExtensionMac: creating principle object: PacketTunnelProvider WireGuardNetworkExtensionMac: Signature check failed: code failed to satisfy specified code requirement(s) nesessionmanager: started with PID 0 error (null) nesessionmanager: status changed to disconnected, last stop reason Plugin failed Setup: macOS 15, Xcode 16 Developer ID Application certificate Manual code signing, Developer ID provisioning profiles with Network Extensions capability Extension in Contents/PlugIns/ (standard appex, not System Extension) Extension entitlement: packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension NSExtensionPointIdentifier: com.apple.networkextension.packet-tunnel codesign --verify --deep --strict PASSES on the exported app Hardened runtime enabled on all targets What I've verified: Both app and extension have matching TeamIdentifier Both are signed with the same Developer ID Application certificate The designated requirement correctly references the cert's OIDs The provisioning profiles are valid and taskgated-helper explicitly approves them No custom signature validation code exists in the extension — the "Signature check failed" comes from Apple's Security framework What I've tried (all produce the same error): Normal Xcode archive + export (Direct Distribution) Manual build + sign script (bypassing Xcode export entirely) Stripping all signatures and re-signing from scratch Different provisioning profiles (freshly generated) Comparison with official WireGuard app: I noticed the official WireGuard macOS app (which works with Developer ID) uses packet-tunnel-provider (without -systemextension suffix) in its entitlements. My app uses packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension. However, I cannot switch to the non-systemextension variant because the provisioning profiles from Apple Developer portal always include the -systemextension variants when "Network Extensions" capability is enabled, and AMFI rejects the mismatch. Questions: Is there a known issue with packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension entitlement + PlugIn-based Network Extension + Developer ID signing? Should the extension be using packet-tunnel-provider (without -systemextension) for Developer ID distribution? If so, how do I get a provisioning profile that allows it? The "Signature check failed" happens after taskgated-helper approves the profile — what additional code requirement check is the NE framework performing, and how can I satisfy it? Any guidance would be appreciated. I've exhausted all signing approaches I can think of.
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NETransparentProxyProvider stops intercepting flows after sleep/wake cycle on macOS intermittently
I am seeing an issue with NETransparentProxyProvider where the extension successfully transitions from sleep to wake, but stops receiving handleNewFlow(_:) calls. Only below two methods gets called, We don't apply rules in these methods: override func wake() override func sleep(completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void) This breaking complete proxy workflow as it stops intercepting traffics. We are not observing this issues always. FYI: com.apple.developer.endpoint-security.client is not present in .entitlement file. I am not sure adding this will help. Any possibilities nesessionmanager might fail to re-bind the traffic rules for this extensions? Any thing we can do to avoid this issues?
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test NEAppProxyProvider without MDM?
This discussion is for iOS/iPadOS. I've written an NEAppProxyProvider network extension. I'd like to test it. I thought that using the "NETestAppMapping" dictionary was a way to get there, but when I try to instantiate an NEAppProxyProviderManager to try to install stuff, the console tells me "must be MDM managed" and I get nowhere. So can someone tell me, can I at least test the idea without needing to first get MDM going? I'd like to know if how I'm approaching the core problem even makes sense. My custom application needs to stream video, via the SRT protocol, to some place like youtube or castr. The problem is that in the environment we are in (big convention centers), our devices are on a LAN, but the connection from the LAN out to the rest of the world just sucks. Surprisingly, cellular has better performance. So I am trying to do the perverse thing of forcing traffix that is NOT local to go out over cellular. And traffic that is completely local (i.e. talking to a purely local server/other devices on the LAN) happens over ethernet. [To simplify things, wifi is not connected.] Is an app proxy the right tool for this? Is there any other tool? Unfortunately, I cannot rewrite the code to force everything through Apple's Network framework, which is the one place I know we can say "use cellular." [E.g. URLSession() has absolutely no way of forcing cellular, and even so, the low level streaming library I use is written with raw sockets, and its not feasible for me to rewrite it.] Any other suggestions of how to accomplish this "send non-local traffic to cellular, all local traffic out over ethernet" gratefully welcomed!
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