Prioritize user privacy and data security in your app. Discuss best practices for data handling, user consent, and security measures to protect user information.

Posts under General subtopic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Created

Gate Keeper Issue
Hi, I develop a Mac application, initially on Catalina/Xcode12, but I recently upgrade to Monterey/Xcode13. I'm about to publish a new version: on Monterey all works as expected, but when I try the app on Sequoia, as a last step before uploading to the App Store, I encountered some weird security issues: The main symptom is that it's no longer possible to save any file from the app using the Save panel, although the User Select File entitlement is set to Read/Write. I've tried reinstalling different versions of the app, including the most recent downloaded from TestFlight. But, whatever the version, any try to save using the panel (e.g. on the desktop) results in a warning telling that I don't have authorization to record the file to that folder. Moreover, when I type spctl -a -t exec -v /Applications/***.app in the terminal, it returns rejected, even when the application has been installed by TestFlight. An EtreCheck report tells that my app is not signed, while codesign -dv /Applications/***.app returns a valid signature. I'm lost... It suspect a Gate Keeper problem, but I cannot found any info on the web about how this system could be reset. I tried sudo spctl --reset-default, but it returns This operation is no longer supported... I wonder if these symptoms depend on how the app is archived and could be propagated to my final users, or just related to a corrupted install of Sequoia on my local machine. My feeling is that a signature problem should have been detected by the archive validation, but how could we be sure? Any idea would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
3
0
645
Feb ’25
Unable to add "One Time Codes" support to my app
I'm working on a Password Manager app that integrates with the AutoFill Credential Provider to provide stored passwords and OTPs to the user within Safari and other apps. Password AutoFill works perfectly. I'm unable to get iOS to register that the app supports OTPs though. I've followed the Apple documentation here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/authenticationservices/providing-one-time-passcodes-to-autofill and added "ProvidesOneTimeCodes" to the AutoFill extension's Info.plist, but iOS just doesn't seem to notice the OTP support. <key>ASCredentialProviderExtensionCapabilities</key> <dict> <key>ProvidesOneTimeCodes</key> <true/> <key>ProvidesPasswords</key> <true/> </dict> Any help would be greatly appreicated!
1
0
362
Feb ’25
Passwords App is accessing websites from ASCredentialIdentityStore associated with 3rd Party password management app
The Passwords App is accessing websites found in the ASCredentialIdentityStore associated with a 3rd Party password management app (SamuraiSafe). This behaviour appears to be associated with looking up website favicons in order to display in Passwords. However the websites contacted are not stored in the Passwords App/iCloud KeyChain - only the 3rd Party password management app (SamuraiSafe). This is effectively leaking website information stored in the 3rd Party password management app. I first noticed this behaviour on macOS, and it appears to happen every 8 days. Today it was seen on iOS. The behaviour is revealed through the App Privacy Report on iOS (and LittleSnitch on macOS). I would not be surprised to see the Passwords App do this for websites saved in the Passwords App/iCloud KeyChain, however I believe it should not be arbitrarily testing every website found in the ASCredentialIdentityStore as reference to that website url should be entirely under the control of the end user. See attached screenshots from App Privacy Report. Filed bug with Apple: FB16682423
1
1
918
Mar ’25
Mobile apps and consent dialogue when logging in
We are using ASWebAuthenticationSession with apps on IoS to achieve SSO between apps. The IdP for authentication (OIDC) is an on-premise and trusted enterprise IdP based on one of the leading products in the market. Our problem is that the user is prompted for every login (and logouts) with a consent dialogue box: “AppName” wants to use “internal domain-name” to Sign In This allows the app and website to share information about you. Cancel Continue” I have read in various places that Apple has a concept of “Trusted domains” where you can put an “Apple certified” static web-page on the IdP. This page needs to contain specific metadata that iOS can verify. Once a user logs in successfully a few times, and if the IdP is verified as trusted, subsequent logins would not prompt the consent screen. Question: I struggle to find Apple documentation on how to go about a process that ends with this “Apple certified web-page” on our IdP”. Anyone who has experience with this process, or who can point me in some direction to find related documentation?
2
0
495
Mar ’25
Authorization Plugin View Still Appears After Login on Home Screen for a Few Seconds
I am developing a custom authorization plugin for macOS, and I’ve encountered an issue where the auth plugin view remains visible on the home screen for a few seconds after login. Issue Details: After entering valid credentials, I call setResult(.allow) in my plugin to proceed with login. The authentication succeeds, and macOS starts transitioning to the home screen. However, for a few seconds after login, the authorization plugin view is still visible on the home screen before it disappears. I have observed this issue even when using Apple's sample authorization plugin. Observation: This issue occurs without an external monitor (on a single built-in display). If I manually close the plugin window inside Destroy(AuthPlugin.mechanism), then the auth plugin views do not appear on the home screen, which seems to fix the issue. However, when I do this, a gray screen appears for about a second before the desktop environment fully loads. I suspect that the gray screen appears due to the time macOS takes to fully load the home screen environment after login. Questions: Why does the authorization plugin view persist on the home screen for a few seconds after login? Is manually closing the plugin window in Destroy(AuthPlugin.mechanism) the correct way to prevent this, or is there a better approach? Is my assumption that the gray screen appears due to the home screen not being fully loaded correct? If the gray screen is caused by home screen loading, is there a system notification or event I can listen to in order to know when the home screen has fully loaded?
2
0
384
Mar ’25
Sign in with Apple but I got `Failed to verify your identity. Try again.``
Hey there, I used our team's account to configure sign in with Apple, the mode is pop up, my clientId scope redirectUrl state are both correct. I got Failed to verify your identity. Try again., actually my account is valid because I can login to my mac and every apple website. I have tried many apple accounts and still got this error. That was so weird, I didn't find a solution online. Pls help me thanks.
0
1
411
Mar ’25
Sign in with Apple Keychain savedEmail Stored Incorrectly
Using personal physical iPhone for simulations. Can't get Keychain to read or store AppleID name/email. I want to avoid hard reseting physical phone. Logs confirm Keychain is working, but userIdentifier and savedEmail are not being stored correctly. 🔄 Initializing UserManager... ✅ Saved testKeychain to Keychain: Test Value ✅ Retrieved testKeychain from Keychain: Test Value 🔍 Keychain Test - Retrieved Value: Test Value ⚠️ Keychain Retrieve Warning: No stored value found for userIdentifier ⚠️ Keychain Retrieve Warning: No stored value found for savedEmail 🔍 Debug - Retrieved from Keychain: userIdentifier=nil, savedEmail=nil ⚠️ No stored userIdentifier in Keychain. User needs to sign in. 📦 Converting User to CKRecord: Unknown, No Email ✅ User saved locally: Unknown, No Email ✅ User saved to CloudKit: Unknown, No Email Below UserManager.swift if someone can help troubleshoot. Or step by step tutorial to configure a project and build a User Login & User Account creation for Apple Only app. import Foundation import CloudKit import AuthenticationServices import SwiftData @MainActor class UserManager: ObservableObject { @Published var user: User? @Published var isLoggedIn = false @Published var errorMessage: String? private let database = CKContainer.default().publicCloudDatabase init() { print("🔄 Initializing UserManager...") // 🔍 Keychain Debug Test let testKey = "testKeychain" KeychainHelper.shared.save("Test Value", forKey: testKey) let retrievedValue = KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: testKey) print("🔍 Keychain Test - Retrieved Value: \(retrievedValue ?? "nil")") fetchUser() // Continue normal initialization } // ✅ Sign in & Save User func handleSignIn(_ authResults: ASAuthorization) { guard let appleIDCredential = authResults.credential as? ASAuthorizationAppleIDCredential else { errorMessage = "Error retrieving Apple credentials" print("❌ ASAuthorization Error: Invalid credentials received") return } let userIdentifier = appleIDCredential.user let fullName = appleIDCredential.fullName?.givenName ?? retrieveSavedName() var email = appleIDCredential.email ?? retrieveSavedEmail() print("🔍 Apple Sign-In Data: userIdentifier=\(userIdentifier), fullName=\(fullName), email=\(email)") // 🔄 If Apple doesn't return an email, check if it exists in Keychain if appleIDCredential.email == nil { print("⚠️ Apple Sign-In didn't return an email. Retrieving saved email from Keychain.") } // ✅ Store userIdentifier & email in Keychain KeychainHelper.shared.save(userIdentifier, forKey: "userIdentifier") KeychainHelper.shared.save(email, forKey: "savedEmail") let newUser = User(fullName: fullName, email: email, userIdentifier: userIdentifier) saveUserToCloudKit(newUser) } func saveUserToCloudKit(_ user: User) { let record = user.toRecord() Task { do { try await database.save(record) DispatchQueue.main.async { self.user = user self.isLoggedIn = true self.saveUserLocally(user) print("✅ User saved to CloudKit: \(user.fullName), \(user.email)") } } catch { DispatchQueue.main.async { self.errorMessage = "Error saving user: \(error.localizedDescription)" print("❌ CloudKit Save Error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } // ✅ Fetch User from CloudKit func fetchUser() { let userIdentifier = KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: "userIdentifier") let savedEmail = KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: "savedEmail") print("🔍 Debug - Retrieved from Keychain: userIdentifier=\(userIdentifier ?? "nil"), savedEmail=\(savedEmail ?? "nil")") guard let userIdentifier = userIdentifier else { print("⚠️ No stored userIdentifier in Keychain. User needs to sign in.") return } let predicate = NSPredicate(format: "userIdentifier == %@", userIdentifier) let query = CKQuery(recordType: "User", predicate: predicate) Task { [weak self] in guard let self = self else { return } do { let results = try await self.database.records(matching: query, resultsLimit: 1).matchResults if let (_, result) = results.first { switch result { case .success(let record): DispatchQueue.main.async { let fetchedUser = User(record: record) self.user = User( fullName: fetchedUser.fullName, email: savedEmail ?? fetchedUser.email, userIdentifier: userIdentifier ) self.isLoggedIn = true self.saveUserLocally(self.user!) print("✅ User loaded from CloudKit: \(fetchedUser.fullName), \(fetchedUser.email)") } case .failure(let error): DispatchQueue.main.async { print("❌ Error fetching user from CloudKit: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } catch { DispatchQueue.main.async { print("❌ CloudKit fetch error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } // ✅ Save User Locally private func saveUserLocally(_ user: User) { if let encoded = try? JSONEncoder().encode(user) { UserDefaults.standard.set(encoded, forKey: "savedUser") UserDefaults.standard.set(user.fullName, forKey: "savedFullName") UserDefaults.standard.set(user.email, forKey: "savedEmail") print("✅ User saved locally: \(user.fullName), \(user.email)") } else { print("❌ Local Save Error: Failed to encode user data") } } // ✅ Retrieve Previously Saved Name private func retrieveSavedName() -> String { return UserDefaults.standard.string(forKey: "savedFullName") ?? "Unknown" } // ✅ Retrieve Previously Saved Email private func retrieveSavedEmail() -> String { return KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: "savedEmail") ?? UserDefaults.standard.string(forKey: "savedEmail") ?? "No Email" } // ✅ Sign Out func signOut() { isLoggedIn = false user = nil UserDefaults.standard.removeObject(forKey: "savedUser") print("🚪 Signed Out") } }
0
0
275
Mar ’25
802.1X authentication using certificates in the data protection keychain
Can you please give me a hand with importing certificates under MacOS? I want to connect to Wi-Fi with 802.1X authentication (EAP-TLS) using a certificate that my homebrew application imported into my data protection keychain, but the imported certificate does not show up and I cannot select the certificate. It also does not show up in the Keychain Access app. One method I have tried is to import it into the data protection keychain by using the SecItemAdd function and setting kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain to true, but it does not work. Is there a better way to do this? ID: for id in identities { let identityParams: [String: Any] = [ kSecValueRef as String: id, kSecReturnPersistentRef as String: true, kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain as String: true ] let addIdentityStatus = SecItemAdd(identityParams as CFDictionary, nil) if addIdentityStatus == errSecSuccess { print("Successfully added the ID.: \(addIdentityStatus)") } else { print("Failed to add the ID.: \(addIdentityStatus)") } } Certificate: for cert in certificates { let certParams: [String: Any] = [ kSecValueRef as String: cert, kSecReturnPersistentRef as String: true, kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain as String: true ] let addCertStatus = SecItemAdd(certParams as CFDictionary, nil) if addCertStatus == errSecSuccess { print("Successfully added the certificate.: (\(addCertStatus))") } else { print("Failed to add the certificate.: (\(addCertStatus))") } } Private key: for privateKey in keys { let keyTag = UUID().uuidString.data(using: .utf8)! let keyParams: [String: Any] = [ kSecAttrApplicationTag as String: keyTag, kSecValueRef as String: privateKey, kSecReturnPersistentRef as String: true, kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain as String: true ] let addKeyStatus = SecItemAdd(keyParams as CFDictionary, nil) if addKeyStatus == errSecSuccess { print("Successfully added the private key.: \(addKeyStatus)") } else { print("Failed to add the private key.: \(addKeyStatus)") } }
3
0
361
Mar ’25
Sending emails from AWS SES to private relay service
Feedback report id: FB16605524 I'm trying to send emails to private relay service addresses using AWS SES and emails are not received. My emails are sent from dev@mydomain.fr and I've set a custom FROM domain of mail.mydomain.fr. I've added both domains and the dev@mydomain.fr adress to the "Certificates, Identifies & Profiles" section. I've set up DKIM and SPF for both. Attached a redacted version of email headers. email_headers_redacted.txt
0
0
301
Mar ’25
New iOS-style App Groups Prevent App Submission
We have a macOS app that has a Photos Extension, which shares documents with the app via an app group container. Historically we used to have an iOS-style group identifier (group.${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}), because we were lead by the web interface in the developer portal to believe this to be the right way to name groups. Later with the first macOS 15 betas last year there was a bug with the operating system warning users, our app would access data from different apps, but it was our own app group container directory. Therefore we added a macOS-style group identifier (${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}) and wrote a migration of documents to the new group container directory. So basically we need to have access to these two app group containers for the foreseeable future. Now with the introduction of iOS-style group identifiers for macOS, Xcode Cloud no longer archives our app for TestFlight or AppStore, because it complains: ITMS-90286: Invalid code signing entitlements - Your application bundle’s signature contains code signing entitlements that aren’t supported on macOS. Specifically, the “[group.${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}, ${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}]” value for the com.apple.security.application-groups key in isn’t supported. This value should be a string or an array of strings, where each string is the “group” value or your Team ID, followed by a dot (“.”), followed by the group name. If you're using the “group” prefix, verify that the provisioning profile used to sign the app contains the com.apple.security.application-groups entitlement and its associated value(s). We have included the iOS-style group identifier in the provisioning profile, generated automatically, but can't do the same for the macOS-style group identifier, because the web interface only accepts identifiers starting with "group". How can we get Xcode Cloud to archive our app again using both group identifiers? Thanks in advance
1
0
334
Mar ’25
I'm trying to use a keychain-access-group and failing
This is on macOS, not iOS. Not sure if that should make a difference? I have a GUI app and a command line tool (that will run a daemon) that I need to share credentials between. The keys/certs will be stored using the GUI app. But, both tools need to utilize them. guard let accessControl = SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags( nil, kSecAttrAccessibleWhenPasscodeSetThisDeviceOnly, [.privateKeyUsage], nil ) else { throw KeychainCertError.keychainError(errSecAuthFailed, "Failed to create access control for private key") } // Define Key Pair Attributes let privateKeyAttributes: [String: Any] = [ kSecAttrIsPermanent as String: true, kSecAttrApplicationTag as String: privateLabel.data(using: .utf8)!, kSecAttrLabel as String: privateLabel, // kSecAttrAccessControl as String: accessControl, kSecAttrAccessGroup as String: keychainAccessGroup ] With the kSecAttrAccessControl commented out, I am able to generate a private key and generate a self signed certificate that is stored on the user login keychain. If I uncomment that line, I get an error to the affect of "Keychain error (-26275): Failed to generate key pair: A required entitlement isn't present" Also, to share the credentials, don't they need to be NOT on the user keychain for the daemon to access them? Any ideas what I am doing wrong? I think I'm a bit over my head here with the the security, crypto kit and openssl. 😁
6
0
460
Mar ’25
Impact of SIWA App transfer on migration on relay emails
Hello, we're currently evaluating the side effects of transferring our app to a different Apple developer account. Our users use SIWA to sign in to our platform which uses Auth0. As I understand it, the identifiers provided by Apple will change, and as such Auth0 will not recognise them and treat them as new users. I've read conflicting documentation, reports, discussions, etc, so it would be great if I could get some clarification on the topic. Furthermore we're concerned about the Hide My Email functionality. A lot of our users use this feature. Will the relay email for each user change with the transfer? If so, does the 'old' relay email stop working as soon as the transfer happens? Thanks in advance!
0
1
343
Mar ’25
Inconsistent "Sign in with Apple" behaviour: Missing Claims in ID Token and App Icon/Name Issues
Context We are experiencing inconsistent behaviour with "Sign in with Apple" across different environments (we have an app for "A" and "B" regions) on our web client in browsers. Specifically, we have observed two key issues: Missing email and email_verified Claims in ID Token In some cases, the ID token received after successful authentication does not contain the email and email_verified claims. Here the docs state that "Alternatively, if the managed Apple ID is in Apple School Manager, the email claim may be empty. Students, for example, often don’t have an email that the school issues.", but this was experienced with a non-student Apple ID. This issue was observed for certain users in the "A" environment, while the same users had no issues in the "B" environment. For one affected user, removing and re-enabling the "Sign in with Apple" integration resolved the issue (https://account.apple.com/account/manage/section/security). However, for another user, the integration could not be removed, preventing this workaround (button was active, but did nothing). In contrast, for some users, authentication works correctly in both environments without missing claims. Inconsistent Display of App Icon and App Name The app icon and app name do not always appear on the Apple login interface. One user observed that the app icon and name were displayed in "A" but not in "B". Another user had the opposite experience, with the app icon and name appearing in "B" but not in "A". A third user did not see the app icon or name in either environment. Questions Why does the app icon and name not always appear on the "Sign in with Apple" login screen? How is it possible that the ID token sometimes lacks email and email_verified claims when using the same Apple ID in different environments?
0
1
449
Mar ’25
AES Decryption
Having trouble decrypting a string using an encryption key and an IV. var key: String var iv: String func decryptData(_ encryptedText: String) -> String? { if let textData = Data(base64Encoded: iv + encryptedText) { do { let sealedBox = try AES.GCM.SealedBox(combined: textData) let key = SymmetricKey(data: key.data(using: .utf8)!) let decryptedData = try AES.GCM.open(sealedBox, using: key) return String(data: decryptedData, encoding: .utf8) } catch { print("Decryption failed: \(error)") return nil } } return nil } Proper coding choices aside (I'm just trying anything at this point,) the main problem is opening the SealedBox. If I go to an online decryption site, I can paste in my encrypted text, the encryption key, and the IV as plain text and I can encrypt and decrypt just fine. But I can't seem to get the right combo in my Swift code. I don't have a "tag" even though I'm using the combined option. How can I make this work when all I will be receiving is the encrypted text, the encryption key, and the IV. (the encryption key is 256 bits) Try an AES site with a key of 32 digits and an IV of 16 digits and text of your choice. Use the encrypted version of the text and then the key and IV in my code and you'll see the problem. I can make the SealedBox but I can't open it to get the decrypted data. So I'm not combining the right things the right way. Anyone notice the problem?
3
0
410
Mar ’25
500 error on validate_device_token endpoint since around March 4
Since around March 4, 2025 off and on, we've been receiving 500 errors back from the validate_device_token endpoint on development and production. Today (March 6) we are constantly getting 500 error back. https://api.development.devicecheck.apple.com/v1/validate_device_token This was working previously before then. No change has happened on our end since then. This is a critical piece for our infrastructure. Thanks in advance. -Matt
2
2
1.1k
Mar ’25
Device check validation API request to apple development server failed with error code 500
Our application uses device check api to validate the device token in staging server. We are using "https://api.development.devicecheck.apple.com/v1/validate_device_token"for this.But the response is 500 internal server error. Our production build is working fine.We pointed the build to "https://api.devicecheck.apple.com/v1/validate_device_token" url.We are using the same device check key for both development and production server. Device check was working fine in development server also.Suddenly it started to failed with out making any changes in our code.
2
0
413
Mar ’25
Authorization Plugin code signing issue
Hi. We're writing Authorization Plugin and started with NullAuthPlugin compilation. When tried to run it on VM (Sonoma 14.6, SIP enabled), we're going into the following issue: `2025-03-08 13:38:20.699503-0800 0xdcb0 Error 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleMobileFileIntegrity) [com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity:library_validation_failure] Library Validation failed: Rejecting '/Library/Security/SecurityAgentPlugins/NullAuthPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/NullAuthPlugin' (Team ID: ABCD12EF34, platform: no) for process 'SecurityAgentHel(2094)' (Team ID: N/A, platform: yes), reason: mapping process is a platform binary, but mapped file is not' As I understand, the platform binary is the one signed with Apple signature, which indeed is unavailable for us. How can we avoid this issue and run the plugin? Perhaps we're missing some build setting requirement?
2
0
320
Mar ’25
ASCredentialProviderExtensionContext completeRequestWithTextToInsert:completionHandler: sometimes fails to return text
completeRequestWithTextToInsert is used to return text into an arbitrary textfield via the context menu AutoFill/Passwords from a 3rd party password manager (or presumably the Passwords App) in iOS 18. While testing this feature in the debugger, it would often fail on the first invocation. It also appears to happen intermittently in the released app extension. Subsequent testing using the Passwords App shows it too may fail to return a value. I have confirmed this behaviour is repeatable with the Passwords App on an iPhone running iOS 18.3.1 Reboot the iPhone. Show the App Library, and right click Autofill. Select Passwords Select Passwords (App) Select a password. Nothing will be inserted (intermittently). Feedback assistant report: FB16788563
0
0
353
Mar ’25