General:
Forums topic: Privacy & Security
Apple Platform Security support document
Developer > Security
Security Audit Thoughts forums post
Cryptography:
Forums tags: Security, Apple CryptoKit
Security framework documentation
Apple CryptoKit framework documentation
Common Crypto man pages — For the full list of pages, run:
% man -k 3cc
For more information about man pages, see Reading UNIX Manual Pages.
On Cryptographic Key Formats forums post
SecItem attributes for keys forums post
CryptoCompatibility sample code
Keychain:
Forums tags: Security
Security > Keychain Items documentation
TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations
SecItem Fundamentals forums post
SecItem Pitfalls and Best Practices forums post
Investigating hard-to-reproduce keychain problems forums post
App ID Prefix Change and Keychain Access forums post
Smart cards and other secure tokens:
Forums tag: CryptoTokenKit
CryptoTokenKit framework documentation
Mac-specific resources:
Forums tags: Security Foundation, Security Interface
Security Foundation framework documentation
Security Interface framework documentation
BSD Privilege Escalation on macOS
Related:
Networking Resources — This covers high-level network security, including HTTPS and TLS.
Network Extension Resources — This covers low-level network security, including VPN and content filters.
Code Signing Resources
Notarisation Resources
Trusted Execution Resources — This includes Gatekeeper.
App Sandbox Resources
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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
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General:
Forums topic: Privacy & Security
Privacy Resources
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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
I've come across strange behavior with the userID property on the returned credential from a passkey attestation.
When performing a cross-device passkey assertion between iOS and Android by scanning the generated QR code on my iPhone with an Android device the returned credential object contains an empty userID.
This does not happen when performing an on device or cross-device assertion using two iPhones.
Is this expected behavior, or is there something I'm missing here? I couldn't find any more information on this in the documentation.
iOS Version: 26.0.1, Android Version: 13
I have a project with a single app target that serves two environments, and two schemes, one for each env, using xcconfig files for defining environment-specific stuff.
I'm trying to figure this out for months, so I've tried multiple approaches throughout this period:
Have a single domain in "Associated domains" in Xcode, defined as webcredentials:X where X gets replaced using a value from xcconfig.
Have two domain entries in "Associated domains" webcredentials:PROD_DOMAIN and webcredentials:STAGING_DOMAIN.
Have a different order of domains
Results are very interesting: whatever I do, whatever approach I take, password autofill works on staging, but doesn't work on production. I'm aware that we need to test production on Test Flight and AppStore builds. That's how we're testing it, and it's not working. Tested on multiple devices, on multiple networks (wifi + mobile data), in multiple countries.. you name it.
The server side team has checked their implementation a dozen times; it's all configured properly, in the exact same way across environments (except bundle ID, ofc).
We tried a couple websites for validating the apple-app-site-association file, and while all of those are focused on testing universal links, they all reported that the file is configured properly. Still, password autofill doesn't work.
I prefer not to share my app's domains publicly here. Ideally I would contact Apple Developer Support directly, but they now require a test project for that, and since 'a test project' is not applicable to my issue, I'm posting here instead.
The header documentation for the (deprecated) LAContext.evaluatedPolicyDomainState property contains the following:
@warning Please note that the value returned by this property can change exceptionally between major OS versions even if the state of biometry has not changed.
I noticed that the documentation for the new LAContext.domainState property does not contain a similar warning. I also found this related thread from 2016/17.
Is the domainState property not susceptible to changes between major OS versions? Or is this generally not an issue anymore?
Hi Apple team,
For our iPhone app (App Store build), a small subset of devices report DCAppAttestService.isSupported == false, preventing App Attest from being enabled.
Approx. impact: 0.23% (352/153,791)
iOS observed: Broadly 15.x–18.7 (also saw a few anomalous entries ios/26.0, likely client logging noise)
Device models: Multiple generations (iPhone8–iPhone17); a few iPad7 entries present although the app targets iPhone
Questions
In iPhone main app context, what conditions can make isSupported return false on iOS 14+?
Are there known device/iOS cases where temporary false can occur (SEP/TrustChain related)? Any recommended remediation (e.g., DFU restore)?
Could you share logging guidance (Console.app subsystem/keywords) to investigate such cases?
What fallback policy do you recommend when isSupported == false (e.g., SE-backed signature + DeviceCheck + risk rules), and any limitations?
We can provide sysdiagnose/Console logs and more case details upon request.
Thank you,
—
Hello,
I’m storing some values in the Keychain with the attribute ‘ksecattraccessibleafterfirstunlockthisdeviceonly’ (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/ksecattraccessibleafterfirstunlockthisdeviceonly).
When I migrate user data between iPhones via iCloud, this behaves as expected and the keys are not preserved.
However, when I migrate using a direct connection between two devices, the keys are preserved, which seems to contradict the attribute’s intent.
Is this a known behavior, and if so, is there a workaround?
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
For testing purposes we have code that calls SecTrustEvaluateAsyncWithError() with a trust object containing a hardcoded leaf certificate and the corresponding intermediate certificate required to form a valid chain. Because the leaf certificate has since expired we pass a date in the past via SecTrustSetVerifyDate() at wich the certificate was still valid, but trust evaluation fails:
Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67825 "“<redacted>” certificate is not standards compliant" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=“<redacted>” certificate is not standards compliant, NSUnderlyingError=0x600000c282a0 {Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67825 "Certificate 0 “<redacted>” has errors: Certificate Transparency validation required for this use;" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Certificate 0 “<redacted>” has errors: Certificate Transparency validation required for this use;}}}
I know that App Transport Security enforces Certificate Transparency by default, but is there a way around that here?
Hello,
We received a rejection on one of our IOS applications because we were doing Microsoft MSAL login through the user's browser. The representative recommended that we use Webview to do in-app logins. However when we tried to handle the custom app uri redirection (looking like myapp://auth/), Webview does not seem to send the user back to the application. Does anyone have a fix for this?
Thanks!
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Safari and Web
UI Frameworks
Authentication Services
WebKit
Hi Team,
We are trying to understand deep sleep behaviour, can you please help us clarifying on the below questions:
When will we configure Hibernate 25, is it valid for M series MacBooks?
Is Hibernate 25 called deep sleep mode?
What are the settings I need to do on Mac, to make my Mac go in to deep sleep?
When awakening from deep sleep , what would be macOS system behaviour?
If we have custom SFAuthorization plug in at system.login.screensaver, what would be the behaviour with deep sleep?
Hi all, I've on high alert after hearing about the security concerns with npm. Full disclosure, I'm new to computer and network architecture, however, as someone who is on high alert for aplications exfiltrating data or poisioning my on-device machine learning models — I've seen some things I can't fully explain and I'm hoping the community can help.
I ran the code odutil show all and I was wondering why certain node names are hidden in my system and when I use the directory utility, I can't use my computer login and password to authenticate to see the users? Am I being locked out of seeing my own system? I'm trying to dig to see if a root kit was installed on my device.
Does anyone know what the users and groups in the directory utility are? Who is "nobody" and who is "Unknown user"? I'll probably have a lot more questions about this suspicious files I've seen on my device. Does anyone else's device download machine learning model payloads from the internet without notifying the user (even through a firewall, no startup applications?). I've also tried deleting applications I no longer need anymore and my "system" makes them re-appear.... what?
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
My application is supporting hybrid transport on FIDO2 webAuthn specs to create credential and assertion. And it support legacy passkeys which only mean to save to 1 device and not eligible to backup.
However In my case, if i set the Backup Eligibility and Backup State flag to false, it fails on the completion of the registrationRequest to save the passkey credential within credential extension, the status is false instead of true.
self.extension.completeRegistrationRequest(using: passkeyRegistrationCredential)
The attestation and assertion flow only works when both flags set to true.
Can advice why its must have to set both to true in this case?
Hi,
A user logs in to the file vault, and DisableFDEAutoLogin is false. The file vault login succeeds, but the login to the selected user fails. The user gets the login screen again. If the user puts an invalid password to try and login again, the loginwindow:FDESupport plugin will change the user's password to the invalid one.
Hi,
I have a set of plugins which are registered for login.
One of them is a custom ui view for the login screen.
The scenario:
1.DisableFDEAutoLogin is false.
2.The User logs in to the file vault login screen.
3.The security plugins are activated, and working.
4.We get any kind of an error from the plugins, and therefore the login fails.
5.We get a native login screen, after the denial of authorization.
6.In case that DisableFDEAutoLogin is true, I do get the custom login screen, after the file vault login.
My question:
Why dont I see the custom login screen, after the auto login fails?
Cheers
Sivan
Hi ,
I have a requirement like,
Develop an app for iPad and app uses .net core apis.
App will be in kiosk mode, and app doesn't have any type of authentication even OTP also.
As the apis will be publishing to all over internet, how can we achieve security to apis?
Kindly provide suggestions for this implementation
I keep getting the following error when trying to run Passkey sign in on macOS.
Told not to present authorization sheet: Error Domain=com.apple.AuthenticationServicesCore.AuthorizationError Code=1 "(null)"
ASAuthorizationController credential request failed with error: Error Domain=com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError Code=1004 "(null)"
This is the specific error.
Application with identifier a is not associated with domain b
I have config the apple-app-site-association link and use ?mode=developer
Could there be any reason for this?
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
macOS
Objective-C
Authentication Services
Passkeys in iCloud Keychain
Hello everyone.
Hope this one finds you well)
I have an issue with integrating a FIDO2 server with ASAuthorizationController.
I have managed to register a user with passkey successfully, however when authenticating, the request for authentication response fails. The server can't validate signature field.
I can see 2 possible causes for the issue: ASAuthorizationPlatformPublicKeyCredentialAssertion.rawAuthenticatorData contains invalid algorithm information (the server tries ES256, which ultimately fails with false response), or I have messed up Base64URL encoding for the signature property (which is unlikely, since all other fields also require Base64URL, and the server consumes them with no issues).
So the question is, what encryption algorithm does ASAuthorizationController use? Maybe someone has other ideas regarding where to look into?
Please help. Thanks)
I am working on implementing mTLS authentication in my iOS app (Apple Inhouse & intune MAM managed app). The SCEP client certificate is deployed on the device via Intune MDM. When I try accessing the protected endpoint via SFSafariViewController/ASWebAuthenticationSession, the certificate picker appears and the request succeeds. However, from within my app (using URLSessionDelegate), the certificate is not found (errSecItemNotFound).
The didReceive challenge method is called, but my SCEP certificate is not found in the app. The certificate is visible under Settings > Device Management > SCEP Certificate.
How can I make my iOS app access and use the SCEP certificate (installed via Intune MDM) for mTLS requests?
Do I need a special entitlement, keychain access group, or configuration in Intune or Developer account to allow my app to use the certificate?
Here is the sample code I am using:
final class KeychainCertificateDelegate: NSObject, URLSessionDelegate {
func urlSession(_ session: URLSession,
didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge,
completionHandler: @escaping (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) -> Void) {
guard challenge.protectionSpace.authenticationMethod == NSURLAuthenticationMethodClientCertificate else {
completionHandler(.performDefaultHandling, nil)
return
}
// Get the DNs the server will accept
guard let expectedDNs = challenge.protectionSpace.distinguishedNames else {
completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil)
return
}
var identityRefs: CFTypeRef? = nil
let err = SecItemCopyMatching([
kSecClass: kSecClassIdentity,
kSecMatchLimit: kSecMatchLimitAll,
kSecMatchIssuers: expectedDNs,
kSecReturnRef: true,
] as NSDictionary, &identityRefs)
if err != errSecSuccess {
completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil)
return
}
guard let identities = identityRefs as? [SecIdentity],
let identity = identities.first
else {
print("Identity list is empty")
completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil)
return
}
let credential = URLCredential(identity: identity, certificates: nil, persistence: .forSession)
completionHandler(.useCredential, credential)
}
}
func perform_mTLSRequest() {
guard let url = URL(string: "https://sample.com/api/endpoint") else {
return
}
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.setValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept")
request.setValue("Bearer \(bearerToken)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")
let delegate = KeychainCertificateDelegate()
let session = URLSession(configuration: .ephemeral, delegate: delegate, delegateQueue: nil)
let task = session.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in
guard let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse, (200...299).contains(httpResponse.statusCode) else {
print("Bad response")
return
}
if let data = data {
print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!)
}
}
task.resume()
}
Hi,
We are using the MSAL library to authenticate users, with SSO authentication implemented through the Microsoft Authenticator app.
The problem is that once or twice a day, a prompt for forced authentication appears, indicating that silent token acquisition is failing and resulting in a requirement for forced authentication. Below are some of the logs:
=================================================
2025-08-28 11:00:05.034 [Info] [AppDelegate.swift:121] application(:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) > MSAL message: TID=751353 MSAL 1.8.1 iOS 18.5 [2025-08-28 10:00:05 - EC9D1457-2D70-4878-926F-553391EBC9D3] [MSAL] Silent flow finished. Result (null), error: -51115 error domain: MSIDErrorDomain
2025-08-28 11:00:05.034 [Info] [AppDelegate.swift:121] application(:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) > MSAL message: TID=751353 MSAL 1.8.1 iOS 18.5 [2025-08-28 10:00:05 - EC9D1457-2D70-4878-926F-553391EBC9D3] [MSAL] acquireTokenSilent returning with error: (MSALErrorDomain, -50002) Masked(not-null)
====================================================
We initially raised this issue with Microsoft, but according to them:
In the app's logs, the single one failure it contains, was when the SSO extension returned the error com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError, -6000 during a silent call. This error code is generated by the system framework (Apple), not by our code. It indicates that the framework encountered an unexpected internal issue before or after calling the SSO extension.
MSAL returning interaction_required to the client app is the most effective way to recover from this error (as you mention, after the user selects the account the app continues working as expected).
Additionally, as you also mention, the interactive call is made by switching to Authenticator (not displaying a "window" without leaving Eva Lite app), which means MSAL is not able to use the SSO extension and is using the fallback to legacy authentication.
The recommended next step is for the customer to request support directly from Apple as this is an issue on their side. Additionally, the customer can also try to update to the latest iOS, in case Apple has already fixed this issue.
=============================================
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
There is no such steps its just that this is an enterprise application which is getting used on managed devices[iPhone 14]. The device are managed using some intune policy.
Platform and Version:
iOS
Development Environment: Xcode 15, macOS 13.6.1
Run-time Configuration: iOS 18
Please let me know if there are any solutions to resolve this problem. Thank you.
Hello Apple Team
We are integrating App Attest with our backend and seeing a 400 Bad Request response when calling the attestation endpoint. The issue is that the response does not include an X-Request-ID or JSON error payload with id and code, which makes it hard to diagnose. Instead, it only returns a receipt blob.
Request Details
URL:
https://data-development.appattest.apple.com/v1/attestationData
Request Headers:
Authorization: eyJraWQiOiI0RjVLSzRGV1JaIiwidHlwIjoiSldUIiwiYWxnIjoiRVMyNTYifQ.eyJpc3MiOiJOOVNVR1pNNjdRIiwiZXhwIjoxNzU3MDUxNTYwLCJpYXQiOjE3NTcwNDc5NjB9.MEQCIF236MqPCl6Vexg7RcPUMK8XQeACXogldnpuiNnGQnzgAiBQqASdbJ64g58xfWGpbzY3iohvxBSO5U5ZE3l87JjfmQ
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Request Body:
(Binary data, logged as [B@59fd7d35)
Response
Status:
400 Bad Request
Response Headers:
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:52:40 GMT
x-b3-traceid: 4c42e18094022424
x-b3-spanid: 4c42e18094022424
Response Body (truncated):
"receipt": h'308006092A864886F70D01070...
Problem
The response does not include X-Request-ID.
The response does not include JSON with id or code.
Only a receipt blob is returned.
Questions
Can the x-b3-traceid be used by Apple to trace this failed request internally?
Is it expected for some failures to return only a receipt blob without X-Request-ID?
How should we interpret this error so we can handle it properly in production?
Thanks in advance for your guidance.
Hello
I'm using Auth0 for handling auth in my app
When the user wants to sign in, it will show the auth system pop-up
And when the user wants to log out it shows the same pop-up
My issue is how to replace the Sign In text in this pop-up to show Sign Out instead of Sign In when the user wants to sign out?
Hello everyone,
I'm developing a FIDO2 service using the AuthenticationServices framework. I've run into an issue when a user manually deletes a passkey from their password manager.
When this happens, the ASAuthorizationError I get doesn't clearly indicate that the passkey is missing. The error code is 1001, and the localizedDescription is "The operation couldn't be completed. No credentials available for login." The userInfo also contains "NSLocalizedFailureReason": "No credentials available for login."
My concern is that these localized strings will change depending on the user's device language, making it unreliable for me to programmatically check for a "no credentials" scenario.
Is there a more precise way to determine that the user has no passkey, without relying on localized string values?
Thank you for your help.
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Authentication Services
Passkeys in iCloud Keychain