To establish a privileged helper daemon from a command line app to handle actions requiring root privileges I still use the old way of SMJobBless. But this is deprecated since OSX 10.13 and I want to finally update it to the new way using SMAppService. As I'm concerned with securing it against malicious exploits, do you have a recommended up-to-date implementation in Objective-C establishing a privileged helper and verifying it is only used by my signed app? I've seen the suggestion in the documentation to use SMAppService, but couldn't find a good implementation covering security aspects. My old implementation in brief is as follows: bool runJobBless () { // check if already installed NSFileManager* filemgr = [NSFileManager defaultManager]; if ([filemgr fileExistsAtPath:@"/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.company.Helper"] && [filemgr fileExistsAtPath:@"/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.company.Helper.plist"]) { // check helper version to match the client // ... return true; } // create authorization reference AuthorizationRef authRef; OSStatus status = AuthorizationCreate (NULL, kAuthorizationEmptyEnvironment, kAuthorizationFlagDefaults, &authRef); if (status != errAuthorizationSuccess) return false; // obtain rights to install privileged helper AuthorizationItem authItem = { kSMRightBlessPrivilegedHelper, 0, NULL, 0 }; AuthorizationRights authRights = { 1, &authItem }; AuthorizationFlags flags = kAuthorizationFlagDefaults | kAuthorizationFlagInteractionAllowed | kAuthorizationFlagPreAuthorize | kAuthorizationFlagExtendRights; status = AuthorizationCopyRights (authRef, &authRights, kAuthorizationEmptyEnvironment, flags, NULL); if (status != errAuthorizationSuccess) return false; // SMJobBless does it all: verify helper against app and vice-versa, place and load embedded launchd.plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons, place executable in /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools CFErrorRef cfError; if (!SMJobBless (kSMDomainSystemLaunchd, (CFStringRef)@"com.company.Helper", authRef, &cfError)) { // check helper version to match the client // ... return true; } else { CFBridgingRelease (cfError); return false; } } void connectToHelper () { // connect to helper via XPC NSXPCConnection* c = [[NSXPCConnection alloc] initWithMachServiceName:@"com.company.Helper.mach" options:NSXPCConnectionPrivileged]; c.remoteObjectInterface = [NSXPCInterface interfaceWithProtocol:@protocol (SilentInstallHelperProtocol)]; [c resume]; // call function on helper and wait for completion dispatch_semaphore_t semaphore = dispatch_semaphore_create (0); [[c remoteObjectProxy] callFunction:^() { dispatch_semaphore_signal (semaphore); }]; dispatch_semaphore_wait (semaphore, dispatch_time (DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, 10 * NSEC_PER_SEC)); dispatch_release (semaphore); [c invalidate]; [c release]; }

I am trying to migrate a WatchConnectivity App to Swift6 and I found an Issue with my replyHandler callback for sendMessageData. I am wrapping sendMessageData in withCheckedThrowingContinuation, so that I can await the response of the reply. I then update a Main Actor ObservableObject that keeps track of the count of connections that have not replied yet, before returning the data using continuation.resume. ... @preconcurrency import WatchConnectivity actor ConnectivityManager: NSObject, WCSessionDelegate { private var session: WCSession = .default private let connectivityMetaInfoManager: ConnectivityMetaInfoManager ... private func sendMessageData(_ data: Data) async throws -> Data? { Logger.shared.debug("called on Thread \(Thread.current)") await connectivityMetaInfoManager.increaseOpenSendConnectionsCount() return try await withCheckedThrowingContinuation({ continuation in self.session.sendMessageData( data, replyHandler: { data in Task { await self.connectivityMetaInfoManager .decreaseOpenSendConnectionsCount() } continuation.resume(returning: data) }, errorHandler: { (error) in Task { await self.connectivityMetaInfoManager .decreaseOpenSendConnectionsCount() } continuation.resume(throwing: error) } ) }) } Calling sendMessageData somehow causing the app to crash and display the debug message: Incorrect actor executor assumption. The code runs on swift 5 with SWIFT_STRICT_CONCURRENCY = complete. However when I switch to swift 6 the code crashes. I rebuilt a simple version of the App. Adding bit by bit until I was able to cause the crash. See Broken App Awaiting sendMessageData and wrapping it in a task and adding the @Sendable attribute to continuation, solve the crash. See Fixed App But I do not understand why yet. Is this intended behaviour? Should the compiler warn you about this? Is it a WatchConnectivity issue? I initially posted on forums.swift.org, but was told to repost here.

TCC Permission Inheritance for Python Process Launched by Swift App in Enterprise Deployment We are developing an enterprise monitoring application that requires a hybrid Swift + Python architecture due to strict JAMF deployment restrictions. We must deploy a macOS application via ABM/App Store Connect, but our core monitoring logic is in a Python daemon. We need to understand the feasibility and best practices for TCC permission inheritance in this specific setup. Architecture Component Bundle ID Role Deployment Swift Launcher com.athena.AthenaSentry Requests TCC permissions, launches Python child process. Deployed via ABM/ASC. Python Daemon com.athena.AthenaSentry.Helper Core monitoring logic using sensitive APIs. Nested in Contents/Helpers/. Both bundles are signed with the same Developer ID and share the same Team ID. Required Permissions The Python daemon needs to access the following sensitive TCC-controlled services: Screen Recording (kTCCServiceScreenCapture) - for capturing screenshots. Input Monitoring (kTCCServiceListenEvent) - for keystroke/mouse monitoring. Accessibility (kTCCServiceAccessibility) - a prerequisite for Input Monitoring. Attempts & Workarounds We have attempted to resolve this using: Entitlement Inheritance: Added com.apple.security.inherit to the Helper's entitlements. Permission Proxy: Swift app maintains active event taps to try and "hold" the permissions for the child. Foreground Flow: Keeping the Swift app in the foreground during permission requests. Questions Is this architecture supported? Can a Swift parent app successfully request TCC permissions that a child process can then use? TCC Inheritance: What are the specific rules for TCC permission inheritance between parent/child processes in enterprise environment? What's the correct approach for this enterprise use case? Should we: Switch to a Single Swift App? (i.e., abandon the Python daemon and rewrite the core logic natively in Swift). Use XPC Services? (instead of launching the child process directly).

Hello, I have a question about a edge case scenario. Before that some info on my project- I have a launchdaemon that carries out some business logic, it also has XPC listener (built using C APIs). Question- Can there be a situation when the daemon is up and running but the XPC listener is down(due to some error or crash)? If yes then do I need to handle it in my code or launchd will handle it? when the daemon is stopped or shut down, how do I stop the XPC listener? After getting listener object from xpc_connection_create_mach_service should I just call xpc_connection_cancel followed by a call to xpc_release? Thanks! K

I would like to know whether BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest supports executing asynchronous tasks internally, or if it can only execute synchronous tasks within BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest? Our project is very complex, and we now need to use BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest to perform some long-running operations when the app enters the background (such as video encoding/decoding & export). However, our export interface is an asynchronous function, for example video.export(callback: FinishCallback). This export call returns immediately, and when the export completes internally, it calls back through the passed-in callback. So when I call BGTaskScheduler.shared.register to register a BGContinuedProcessingTask, what should be the correct approach? Should I directly call video.export(nil) without any waiting, or should I wait for the export function to complete in the callback? For example: BGTaskScheduler.shared.register(forTaskWithIdentifier: "com.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx", using: nil) { task in guard let continuedTask = task as? BGContinuedProcessingTask else { task.setTaskCompleted(success: false) return } let scanner = SmartAssetsManager.shared let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 0) continuedTask.expirationHandler = { logError(items: "xwxdebug finished.") semaphore.signal() } logInfo(items: "xwxdebug start！") video.export { _ in semaphore.signal() } semaphore.wait() logError(items: "xwxdebug finished！") }

I have several combine pipelines in my watch and iPhone app. While background tasks on the iPhone work correctly (the combine pipelines all activate), on the watch the pipelines do not get activated. I have an internal log reporting that data is being fed to the sources but is not propagating to the sinks. Thoughts?

I’m working with apple dispatch queue in C with the following design: multiple dispatch queues enqueue tasks into a shared context, and a dedicated dispatch queue (let’s call it dispatch queue A) processes these tasks. However, it seems this design has a memory visibility issue. Here’s a simplified version of my setup: I have a shared_context struct that holds: task_lis: a list that stores tasks to be prioritized and run — this list is only modified/processed by dispatch queue A (a serially dispatch queue), so I don't lock around it. cross_thread_tasks: a list that other queues push tasks into, protected by a lock. Other dispatch queues call a function schedule_task that locks and appends a new task to cross_thread_tasks call dispatch_after_f() to schedule a process_task() on dispatch queue A process_task() that processes the task_list and is repeatedly scheduled on dispatch queue A : Swaps cross_thread_tasks into a local list (with locking). Pushes the tasks into task_list. Runs tasks from task_list. Reschedules itself via dispatch_after_f(). Problem: Sometimes the tasks pushed from other threads don’t seem to show up in task_list when process_task() runs. The task_list appears to be missing them, as if the cross-thread tasks aren’t visible. However, if the process_task() is dispatched from the same thread the tasks originate, everything works fine. It seems to be a memory visibility or synchronization issue. Since I only lock around cross_thread_tasks, could it be that changes to task_list (even though modified on dispatch queue A only) are not being properly synchronized or visible across threads? My questions What’s the best practice to ensure shared context is consistently visible across threads when using dispatch queues? Is it mandatory to lock around all tasks? I would love to minimize/avoid lock if possible. Any guidance, debugging tips, or architectural suggestions would be appreciated! =============================== And here is pseudocode of my setup if it helps: struct shared_data { struct linked_list* task_list; } struct shared_context { struct shared_data *data; struct linked_list* cross_thread_tasks; struct thread_mutex* lock; // lock is used to protect cross_thread_tasks } static void s_process_task(void* shared_context){ struct linked_list* local_tasks; // lock and swap the cross_thread_tasks into a local linked list lock(shared_context->lock) swap(shared_context->cross_thread_tasks, local_tasks) unlock(shared_context->lock) // I didnt use lock to protect `shared_context->data` as they are only touched within dispatch queue A in this function. for (task : local_tasks) { linked_list_push(shared_context->data->task_list) } // If the `process_task()` block is dispatched from `schedule_task()` where the task is created, the `shared_context` will be able to access the task properly otherwise not. for (task : shared_context->data->task_list) { run_task_if_timestamp_is_now(task) } timestamp = get_next_timestamp(shared_context->data->task_list) dispatch_after_f(timestamp, dispatch_queueA, shared_context, process_task); } // On dispatch queue B static void schedule_task(struct task* task, void* shared_context) { lock(shared_context->lock) push(shared_context->cross_thread_tasks, task) unlock(shared_context->lock) timestamp = get_timestamp(task) // we only dispatch the task if the timestamp < 1 second. We did this to avoid the dispatch queue schedule the task too far ahead and prevent the shutdown process. Therefore, not all task will be dispatched from the thread it created. if(timestamp < 1 second) dispatch_after_f(timestamp, dispatch_queueA, shared_context, process_task); }

Hi everyone, I’m trying to register fonts system-wide using CTFontManagerRegisterFontURLs with the .persistent scope. The fonts are delivered through Apple-Hosted Background Assets (since On-Demand Resources are deprecated). Process-level registration works perfectly, but persistent registration triggers a system “Install Fonts” prompt, and tapping Install causes the app to crash immediately. I’m wondering if anyone has successfully used Apple-Hosted Background Assets to provide persistent, system-wide installable fonts, or if this is a current OS limitation/bug. What I Expect Fonts delivered through Apple-Hosted Background Assets should be eligible for system-wide installation Tap “Install” should install fonts into Settings → Fonts just like app-bundled or ODR fonts App should not crash Why This Matters According to: WWDC 2019: Font Management and Text Scaling Developers can build font provider apps that install fonts system-wide, using bundled or On-Demand Resources. WWDC 2025: Discover Apple-Hosted Background Assets On-Demand Resources are deprecated, and AHBAs are the modern replacement. Therefore, persistent font installation via Apple-Hosted Background Assets appears to be the intended path moving forward. Question Is this a known limitation or bug in iOS? Should .persistent font installation work with Apple-Hosted Background Assets? Do we need additional entitlement, manifest configuration, or packaging rules? Any guidance or confirmation from Apple engineers would be greatly appreciated. Additional Info I submitted a Feedback including a minimal reproducible sample project: FB21109320

I have been playing with application bundled LaunchAgents: I downloaded Apple sample code, Run the sample code as is, Tweaked the sample code a lot and changed the LaunchAgents IDs and Mach ports IDs, Created new projects with the learnings, etc. After deleting all the Xcode projects and related project products and rebooting my machine several times, I noticed the LaunchAgent are still hanging around in launchctl. If I write launchctl print-disabled gui/$UID (or user/$UID) I can see all my testing service-ids: disabled services = { "com.xpc.example.agent" => disabled "io.dehesa.apple.app.agent" => disabled "io.dehesa.sample.app.agent" => disabled "io.dehesa.example.agent" => disabled "io.dehesa.swift.xpc.updater" => disabled "io.dehesa.swift.agent" => disabled } (there are more service-ids in that list, but I removed them for brevity purposes). I can enable or disable them with launchctl enable/disable service-target, but I cannot really do anything else because their app bundle and therefore PLIST definition are not there anymore. How can I completely remove them from my system? More worryingly, I noticed that if I try to create new projects with bundled LaunchAgents and try to reuse one of those service-ids, then the LaunchAgent will refuse to run (when it was running ok previously). The calls to SMAppService APIs such .agent(plistName:) and register() would work, though.

When I install my application, it installs fine and everything works alongwith all the system level daemons but when I reboot the system, none of my daemons are getting launched and this happens only on MacOS 15x, on older version it is working fine. In the system logs, I see that my daemons have been detected as legacy daemons by backgroundtaskmanagementd with Disposition [enabled, allowed, visible, notified] 2025-01-13 21:17:04.919128+0530 0x60e Default 0x0 205 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] Type: legacy daemon (0x10010) 2025-01-13 21:17:04.919128+0530 0x60e Default 0x0 205 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] Flags: [ legacy ] (0x1) 2025-01-13 21:17:04.919129+0530 0x60e Default 0x0 205 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] Disposition: [enabled, allowed, visible, notified] (0xb) But later, it backgroundtaskmanagementd decides to disallow it. 2025-01-13 21:17:05.013202+0530 0x32d Default 0x4d6 89 0 smd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] getEffectiveDisposition: disposition=[enabled, disallowed, visible, notified], have LWCR=true 2025-01-13 21:17:05.013214+0530 0x32d Error 0x0 89 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:all] Legacy job is not allowed to launch: &lt;private&gt; status: 2 Is there anything changed in latest Mac OS which is causing this issue? Also what does this status 2 means. Can someone please help with this error? The plist has is true

For this code: let status = try await container.accountStatus() Seeing this error: 2025-05-08 15:32:00.945731-0500 localhost myAgent[2661]: (myDaemon.debug.dylib) [com.myDaemon.cli:networking] Error Domain=CKErrorDomain Code=6 "Error connecting to CloudKit daemon. This could happen for many reasons, for example a daemon exit, a device reboot, a race with the connection inactivity monitor, invalid entitlements, and more. Check the logs around this time to investigate the cause of this error." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Error connecting to CloudKit daemon. This could happen for many reasons, for example a daemon exit, a device reboot, a race with the connection inactivity monitor, invalid entitlements, and more. Check the logs around this time to investigate the cause of this error., CKRetryAfter=5, CKErrorDescription=Error connecting to CloudKit daemon. This could happen for many reasons, for example a daemon exit, a device reboot, a race with the connection inactivity monitor, invalid entitlements, and more. Check the logs around this time to investigate the cause of this error., NSUnderlyingError=0x600001bfc270 {Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 UserInfo={NSDebugDescription= I initially started the this process as System Daemon to see what would happen (which obviously does not have CloudKit features). Then moved it back to /Library/LaunchAgents/ and can't get rid of that error. I see also following message from CloudKit daemon: Ignoring failed attempt to get container proxy for &lt;private&gt;: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=&lt;private&gt;} Automatically retrying getting container proxy due to error for &lt;private&gt;: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=&lt;private&gt;} XPC connection interrupted for &lt;private&gt; And this error for xpc service: [0x130e074b0] failed to do a bootstrap look-up: xpc_error=[3: No such process] If I start the same cli process directly from XCode, then it works just fine.

I am building a Mac app that launch a GUI helper app and use XPC to communicate between them. Main app start a XPC Listener using NSXPCListener(machServiceName: "group.com.mycompany.myapp.xpc") Launch the helper app Helper app connect to the XPC service and listen command from main app. What I observe is the app seems can start XPC listener while I run it via Xcode. If I run the app using TestFlight build, or via the compiled debug binary (same one that I use on Xcode), it cannot start the XPC service. Here is what I see in the Console: [0x600000ef7570] activating connection: mach=true listener=true peer=false name=group.com.mycompany.myapp.xpc [0x600000ef7570] listener failed to activate: xpc_error=[1: Operation not permitted] Both main app and helper app are sandboxed and in the same App Group - if they were not, I cannot connect the helper app to main app. I can confirm the entitlement profiles did contain the app group. If I start the main app via xcode, and then launch the helper app manually via Finder, the helper app can connect to the XPC and everything work. It is not related to Release configuration, as the same binary work while I am debugging, but not when I open the binary manually. For context, the main app is a Catalyst app, and helper app is an AppKit app. To start a XPC listener on Catalyst, I had do it in a AppKit bridge via bundle. Given the app worked on Xcode, I believe this approach can work. I just cannot figure out why it only work while I am debugging. Any pointer to debug this issue is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, My team has developed a DNS proxy for macOS. We have this set up with a system extension that interacts with the OS, and an always-running daemon that does all the heavy lifting. Communication between the two is DNS request and response packet traffic. With this architecture what are best practices for how the system extension communicates with a daemon? We tried making the daemon a socket server, but the system extension could not connect to it. We tried using XPC but it did not work and we could not understand the errors that were returned. So what is the best way to do this sort of thing?

I am developing a macOS non-interactive macOS application which does not show any ui. i want to block main thread and do all the work on worker thread . Once done with work in worker thread, want to unblock main thread by exiting event loop to terminate application. Because i dont want to show any UI or use any Foundation/Cocoa functionality, i am thinking of using CFRunLoop to block main thread from exiting until i finish my work in worker thread. When i tried this in a project, I am able to finish work in worker thread after block main thread using CFRunLoop. I also want this application to be a bundled application, which can be launched by double clicking on application bundle . But when i tried it in my xcode project by launching it using double clicking on application bundle, application keeps on toggling/bouncing in the dock menu with a status "Not responding". Although i am able to complete my work in worker thread. import Foundation let runLoop = CFRunLoopGetCurrent() func workerTask() { DispatchQueue.global().async { print("do its work") sleep(5) // do some work print("calling exit event loop") CFRunLoopStop(runLoop) print ("unblocking main thread") } } workerTask () // blocking main thread print ("blocked main thread") CFRunLoopRun() print ("exit") Why i am getting this application bouncing in doc menu behavior ? I tried by using NSApplicationMain instead of CFRunLoop in my project, in that case i didnt get this behavior . Does NSApplicationMain does some extra work before starting NSRunLoop which i am not doing while using CFRunLoop, which is showing this toggling/Bouncing application icon in Dock menu ? or Is this bouncing app icon issue is related to run loop i am using which is CFRunLoop ? Note : If i dont use a bundled application and use a commandline application then i am able to do all steps in worker thread and exit main thread as i wanted after finishing my work . But i need to do all this in application which can be launched using double clicking (bundled applcation). If not by using CFRunLoop, then how can i achive this ? - Create a application which shows no UI and do all work in worker thread while main thread is blocked. Once work is done unblock main thread and exit. And user should be able to launch application using double click the application icon.

I've been experimenting with the new low-level Swift API for XPC (XPCSession and XPCListener). The ability to send and receive Codable messages is an appealing alternative to making an @objc protocol in order to use NSXPCConnection from Swift — I can easily create an enum type whose cases map onto the protocol's methods. But our current XPC code validates the incoming connection using techniques similar to those described in Quinn's "Apple Recommended" response to the "Validating Signature Of XPC Process" thread. I haven't been able to determine how to do this with XPCListener; neither the documentation nor the Swift interface have yielded any insight. The Creating XPC Services article suggests using Xcode's XPC Service template, which contains this code: let listener = try XPCListener(service: serviceName) { request in request.accept { message in performCalculation(with: message) } } The apparent intent is to inspect the incoming request and decide whether to accept it or reject it, but there aren't any properties on IncomingSessionRequest that would allow the service to make that decision. Ideally, there would be a way to evaluate a code signing requirement, or at least obtain the audit token of the requesting process. (I did notice that a function xpc_listener_set_peer_code_signing_requirement was added in macOS 14.4, but it takes an xpc_listener_t argument and I can't tell whether XPCListener is bridged to that type.) Am I missing something obvious, or is there a gap in the functionality of XPCListener and IncomingSessionRequest?

We are currently developing a VoIP application that supports Local Push extention. I would like to ask for your advice on how the extension works when the iPhone goes into sleep mode. Our App are using GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) to perform periodic processing within the extension, creating a cycle by it. [sample of an our source] class LocalPushProvider: NEAppPushProvider { let activeQueue: DispatchQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "com.myapp.LocalPushProvider.ActiveQueue", autoreleaseFrequency: .workItem) var activeSchecule: Cancellable? override func start(completionHandler: @escaping (Error?) -&gt; Void) { : self.activeSchecule = self.activeQueue.schedule( after: .init(.now() + .seconds(10)), // start schedule after 10sec interval: .seconds(10) // interval 10sec ) { self.activeTimerProc() } completionHandler(nil) } } However In this App that we are confirming that when the iPhone goes into sleep mode, self.activeTimerProc() is not called at 10-second intervals, but is significantly delayed (approximately 30 to 180 seconds). What factors could be causing the timer processing using GCD not to be executed at the specified interval when the iPhone is in sleep mode? Also, please let us know if there are any implementation errors or points to note. I apologize for bothering you during your busy schedule, but I would appreciate your response.

On macOS 15.7.1 I'm trying to install an XPC service outside the app (Developer ID). It mostly seems to go ok, but when I set Launch Constraints on Responsible, AMFI complains of a violation, saying the service is responsible for itself, and fails to launch. Removing that constraint (or adding the service itself to the constraint) works fine. The service is an optional download, and installed to /Users/Shared with a LaunchAgent specifying the MachService. The service is correctly launched and seems to pass all codesigning, notarization, and other checks, but the Responsible isn't set to the "calling" app. Is this broken, or working as intended?

Hi Team, We intend to create a custom serial dispatch queue targetting a global queue. let serialQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "corecomm.tallyworld.serial", target: DispatchQueue.global(qos: .default)) The documentation for DispatchQueue init does not show any minimum OS versions. BUT DispatchSerialQueue init does show iOS 17.0+ iPadOS 17.0+ Mac Catalyst macOS 14.0+ tvOS 17.0+ visionOS watchOS 10.0+. Does that mean - I will not be able to create a custom serial dispatch queue below iOS 17?

I’m trying to enable Background Modes (specifically for audio, background fetch, remote notifications) in my iOS SwiftUI app, but I’m getting this error: Provisioning profile “iOS Team Provisioning Profile: [my app]” doesn’t include the UIBackgroundModes entitlement. On the developer website when I make the provision profile It doesnt give me the option to allow background modes. I added it to the sign in capabilities seccion in X code and matched the bundle ID to the provision profile and certificate etc but it still runs this error because the provision profile doesnt have the entitlements..

We are experiencing a crash in our application that only occurs on devices running iOS beta 26. It looks like a Beta problem. The crash appears to be caused by an excessive number of open File Descriptors. We identified this after noticing a series of crashes in different parts of the code each time the app was launched. Sometimes it would crash right at the beginning, when trying to load the Firebase plist file. That’s when we noticed a log message saying “too many open files,” and upon further investigation, we found that an excessive number of File Descriptors were open in our app, right after the didFinishLaunching method of the AppDelegate. We used the native Darwin library to log information about the FDs and collected the following: func logFDs() { var rlim = rlimit() if getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlim) == 0 { print("FD LIMIT: soft: \(rlim.rlim_cur), hard: \(rlim.rlim_max)") } // Count open FDs before Firebase let openFDsBefore = countOpenFileDescriptors() print("Open file descriptors BEFORE Firebase.configure(): \(openFDsBefore)") } private func countOpenFileDescriptors() -> Int { var count = 0 let maxFD = getdtablesize() for fd in 0..<maxFD { if fcntl(fd, F_GETFD) != -1 { count += 1 } } return count } With this code, we obtained the following data: On a device with iOS 26 Beta 1, 2, or 3: FD LIMIT: soft: 256, hard: 9223372036854775807 Open file descriptors BEFORE Firebase.configure(): 256 On a device with iOS 18: FD LIMIT: soft: 256, hard: 9223372036854775807 Open file descriptors BEFORE Firebase.configure(): 57 In the case of the device running iOS 26 beta, the app crashes when executing Firebase.configure() because it cannot open the plist file, even though it can be found at the correct path — meaning the OS locates it. To confirm this was indeed the issue, we used the following code to close FDs before proceeding with Firebase configuration. By placing a breakpoint just before Firebase.configure() and running the following LLDB command: expr -l c -- for (int fd = 180; fd < 256; fd++) { (int)close(fd); } This released the FDs, allowing Firebase to proceed with its configuration as expected. However, the app would later crash again after hitting the soft limit of file descriptors once more. Digging deeper, we used this code to try to identify which FDs were being opened and causing the soft limit to be exceeded: func checkFDPath() { var r = rlimit() if getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &r) == 0 { print("FD LIMIT: soft: \(r.rlim_cur), hard: \(r.rlim_max)") for fd in 0..<Int32(r.rlim_cur) { var path = [CChar](repeating: 0, count: Int(PATH_MAX)) if fcntl(fd, F_GETPATH, &path) != -1 { print(String(cString: path)) } } } } We ran this command at the very beginning of the didFinishLaunching method in the AppDelegate. On iOS 26, the log repeatedly showed Cryptexes creating a massive number of FDs, such as: /dev/null /dev/ttys000 /dev/ttys000 /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/AEE414F2-7D6F-44DF-A6D9-92EDD1D2B014/Library/Application Support/DTX_8.191.1.1003.sqlite /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/AEE414F2-7D6F-44DF-A6D9-92EDD1D2B014/Library/Caches/KSCrash/MyAppScheme/Data/ConsoleLog.txt /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/AEE414F2-7D6F-44DF-A6D9-92EDD1D2B014/Library/HTTPStorages/mybundleId/httpstorages.sqlite /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/AEE414F2-7D6F-44DF-A6D9-92EDD1D2B014/Library/HTTPStorages/mybundleId/httpstorages.sqlite-wal /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/AEE414F2-7D6F-44DF-A6D9-92EDD1D2B014/Library/HTTPStorages/mybundleId/httpstorages.sqlite-shm /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.01 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.11 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.12 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.13 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.14 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.15 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.16 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.17 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.18 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.19 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.20 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.21 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.22 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.23 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.24 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.25 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.26 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.29 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.30 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.31 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.32 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.36 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.37 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.38 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.39 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.40 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e … This repeats itself a lot of times. … /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.36 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.37 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.38 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.39 /private/preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e.40