I have a launch daemon that's using the Endpoint Security framework which also is causing high memory usage (in Activity Monitor memory column shows for example 2GB and Real Memory 11MB) when building a big project in Xcode. Is it some kind of memory caching by the system? leaks -forkCorpse seems to not show any leaks.
How can I attach with heap or Instruments without the process being killed with "ENDPOINTSECURITY, Code 2 EndpointSecurity client terminated because it failed to respond to a message before its deadline"?
General
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I am developing an Authorisation Plugin which talks to Launch daemons over XPC.
Above is working neat, now I have to decide on how to get it installed on a machine.
Installation requires.
Plugin Installation
Launch Daemon Installation
Both require
Moving binary and text (.plist) file into privileged system managed directory.
Firing install/load commands as root (sudo).
I have referred this post BSD Privilege Escalation on macOS, but I am still not clear how to approach this.
Q: My requirement is:
I can use .pkg builder and install via script, however I have some initialisation task that needs to be performed. User will enter some details talk to a remote server and get some keys, all goes well restarts the system and my authorisation plugin will welcome him and get him started.
If I cannot perform initialisation I will have to do it post restart on login screen which I want to avoid if possible.
I tried unconventional way of using AppleScript from a SwiftUI application to run privileged commands, I am fine if it prompts for admin credentials, but it did not work.
I don't want that I do something and when approving it from Apple it gets rejected.
Basically, how can I provide some GUI to do initialisation during installation or may be an app which helps in this.
Q: Please also guide if I am doing elevated actions, how will it affect app distribution mechanism. In Read Me for EvenBetterAuthorizationSample I read it does.
Thanks.
I have Authorisation Plugin which talks using XPC to my Launch Daemon to perform privileged actions.
I want to protect my XPC service narrowing it to be called from known trusted clients.
Now since I want authorisation plugin code which is from apple to call my service, I cannot use my own team id or app group here.
I am currently banking on following properties of client connection.
Apple Team ID : EQHXZ8M8AV
Bundle ID starting with com.apple.
Client signature verified By Apple.
This is what I have come up with.
func isClientTrusted(connection: NSXPCConnection) -> Bool {
let clientPID = connection.processIdentifier
logInfo("🔍 Checking XPC Client - PID: \(clientPID)")
var secCode: SecCode?
var secStaticCode: SecStaticCode?
let attributes = [kSecGuestAttributePid: clientPID] as NSDictionary
let status = SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes(nil, attributes, [], &secCode)
guard status == errSecSuccess, let code = secCode else {
logInfo("Failed to get SecCode for PID \(clientPID)")
return false
}
let staticStatus = SecCodeCopyStaticCode(code, [], &secStaticCode)
guard staticStatus == errSecSuccess, let staticCode = secStaticCode else {
logInfo("Failed to get SecStaticCode")
return false
}
var signingInfo: CFDictionary?
let signingStatus = SecCodeCopySigningInformation(staticCode, SecCSFlags(rawValue: kSecCSSigningInformation), &signingInfo)
guard signingStatus == errSecSuccess, let info = signingInfo as? [String: Any] else {
logInfo("Failed to retrieve signing info")
return false
}
// Extract and Verify Team ID
if let teamID = info["teamid"] as? String {
logInfo("XPC Client Team ID: \(teamID)")
if teamID != "EQHXZ8M8AV" { // Apple's official Team ID
logInfo("Client is NOT signed by Apple")
return false
}
} else {
logInfo("Failed to retrieve Team ID")
return false
}
// Verify Bundle ID Starts with "com.apple."
if let bundleID = info["identifier"] as? String {
logInfo("XPC Client Bundle ID: \(bundleID)")
if !bundleID.hasPrefix("com.apple.") {
logInfo("Client is NOT an Apple system process")
return false
}
} else {
logInfo("Failed to retrieve Bundle Identifier")
return false
}
// Verify Apple Code Signature Trust
var trustRequirement: SecRequirement?
let trustStatus = SecRequirementCreateWithString("anchor apple" as CFString, [], &trustRequirement)
guard trustStatus == errSecSuccess, let trust = trustRequirement else {
logInfo("Failed to create trust requirement")
return false
}
let verifyStatus = SecStaticCodeCheckValidity(staticCode, [], trust)
if verifyStatus != errSecSuccess {
logInfo("Client's signature is NOT trusted by Apple")
return false
}
logInfo("Client is fully verified as Apple-trusted")
return true
}
Q: Just wanted community feedback, is this correct approach?
Hi everyone,
I’d like to clarify something regarding the behavior of Team IDs after an app transfer between Apple Developer accounts.
I have an app update that enforces a force update for all users. My plan is to release this update under the current developer account, and then proceed with transferring the app to a different developer account shortly afterward.
My concern is: once the transfer is complete, will users who download the same app version (released before the transfer) be logged out due to a change in Team ID? Specifically, does the transferred app continue to use the original Team ID (used to sign the last submitted build), or does the Team ID change immediately upon transfer — affecting Keychain access?
Any insights or confirmation on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Hi,
It may be a stupid question, but we really wonder if there is a way for MDM to push a unique mTLS cert to our iOS application or if it can populate a client certificate in the iOS where our application can access it. Like browser app, how do browser mTLS certs get pushed?
Thanks,
Ying
转让app成功了之后,由于开发者账号更改,团队ID改变,导致获取不到原有的keychain中缓存的用户数据,所以在用户进行登录时,无法登录到原有的老账号,而是被识别成了一个新的用户。这种情况怎么解决。
I am developing a sample authorization plugin to sync the user’s local password to the network password. During the process, I prompt the user to enter both their old and new passwords in custom plugin. After the user enters the information, I use the following code to sync the passwords:
try record.changePassword(oldPssword, toPassword: newPassword)
However, I have noticed that this is clearing all saved keychain information, such as web passwords and certificates. Is it expected behavior for record.changePassword to clear previously stored keychain data?
If so, how can I overcome this issue and ensure the keychain information is preserved while syncing the password?
Thank you for your help!
Hi,
I am working on a react native module used for tis connection and I am trying to implement the possibility to use a custom certificate/Private key.
I have already implemented on android but on iOS I am getting hard times, we cannot find lots of resources, api is different on macOS and iOS with subtle differences so after having tested SO, chatgpt, ... I am trying here:
I even tried to use an internal api since it seems ffmpeg uses it but with no success.
I have attached my current code because it does not fit here.
to sump up after having inserted cert and private key I try to get a SecIdentityRef but it fails. I assume that it's not enough to simply add certain and private key...
// Query for the identity with correct attributes
NSDictionary *identityQuery = @{
(__bridge id)kSecClass: (__bridge id)kSecClassIdentity,
(__bridge id)kSecMatchLimit: (__bridge id)kSecMatchLimitOne,
(__bridge id)kSecReturnRef: @YES,
(__bridge id)kSecReturnData: @YES,
(__bridge id)kSecAttrLabel: @"My Certificate",
//(__bridge id)kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain: @YES
};
SecIdentityRef identity = NULL;
status = SecItemCopyMatching((__bridge CFDictionaryRef)identityQuery, (CFTypeRef *)&identity);
TcpSocketClient.txt
SecItemCopyMatching with kSecClassIdentity fails,
SecIdentityCreate return NULL...
So please help and indicates what I am doing wrong and how I am supposed getting a SecIdentityRef.
Thanks
Hi,
We are using the following API from sys/random.h to generate entropy in our module.
int getentropy(void* buffer, size_t size);
Could you confirm if this API internally uses a non-physical entropy source and adhere to SP800-90B as the following document says:
https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/projects/cryptographic-module-validation-program/documents/entropy/E181_PublicUse.pdf
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
Hi,
I am creating a custom login window, so I am using SFAuthorizationpluginView, here I want to hide Submit Arrow botton which gets displayed beside username and password text feild
, is there a way to hide this, please suggest.
Hi,
when creating a CryptoTokenKit extension according to https://developer.apple.com/documentation/cryptotokenkit/authenticating-users-with-a-cryptographic-token, it is neccessary to register it under the securityagent in order to make the CTK usable before login. i.e. we want to run
sudo -u _securityagent /Applications/HostApp.app/Contents/MacOS/HostApp
However, even with the empty application the command fails with
illegal hardware instruction sudo -u _securityagent /Applications/HostApp.app/Contents/MacOS/HostApp
I see that it always crashes when the HostApp is sandboxed, but it does not work even without sandboxing (i am sharing the error report message below).
i actually noticed that when the HostApp is sandboxed and I run the above command, the extension starts to be usable even before login, even though i see the HostApp crash. The same does not happen without the sandbox
So I am curious how to in fact properly register the CTK extension under security agent? Also am not sure how to unregister it from the _securityagent
thank you for your help
Version: 1.0 (1)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: Exited process [9395]
Responsible: Terminal [399]
User ID: 92
Date/Time: 2025-03-21 18:54:03.0684 +0100
OS Version: macOS 15.3.2 (24D81)
Report Version: 12
Bridge OS Version: 9.3 (22P3060)
Anonymous UUID: 41F9918C-5BCA-01C7-59C2-3E8CFC3F8653
Sleep/Wake UUID: 8AB66C75-3C32-41D4-9BD4-887B0FB468FE
Time Awake Since Boot: 4300 seconds
Time Since Wake: 1369 seconds
System Integrity Protection: enabled
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: WMClientWindowManager
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 4 Illegal instruction: 4
Terminating Process: exc handler [9396]
Application Specific Signatures:
API Misuse
Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: WMClientWindowManager
0 libxpc.dylib 0x7ff80667b2bd _xpc_api_misuse + 113
1 libxpc.dylib 0x7ff80665f0e4 xpc_connection_set_target_uid + 187
2 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b946693 -[WMClientWindowManager _createXPCConnection] + 1011
3 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b947361 -[WMClientWindowManager _xpcConnection] + 65
4 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b9447c9 __31-[WMClientWindowManager stages]_block_invoke + 41
5 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067af7e2 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
6 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067bca2c _dispatch_lane_barrier_sync_invoke_and_complete + 60
7 WindowManagement 0x7ffd0b9446fc -[WMClientWindowManager stages] + 268
8 AppKit 0x7ff80b1fd0b7 __54-[NSWMWindowCoordinator initializeStageFramesIfNeeded]_block_invoke + 30
9 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067af7e2 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
10 libdispatch.dylib 0x7ff8067b0aa2 _dispatch_once_callout + 20
11 AppKit 0x7ff80b1fd060 -[NSWMWindowCoordinator initializeStageFramesIfNeeded] + 296
12 AppKit 0x7ff80a3b3701 -[NSWindow _commonInitFrame:styleMask:backing:defer:] + 888
13 AppKit 0x7ff80a3b2f77 -[NSWindow _initContent:styleMask:backing:defer:contentView:] + 1222
14 AppKit 0x7ff80a3b2aa9 -[NSWindow initWithContentRect:styleMask:backing:defer:] + 42
15 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f321e0 0x7ff91776f000 + 8139232
16 SwiftUI 0x7ff917a8e2f2 0x7ff91776f000 + 3273458
17 SwiftUI 0x7ff917bccfba 0x7ff91776f000 + 4579258
18 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f2ca8e 0x7ff91776f000 + 8116878
19 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f24a65 0x7ff91776f000 + 8084069
20 SwiftUI 0x7ff917f21540 0x7ff91776f000 + 8070464
21 SwiftUI 0x7ff91849e9f1 0x7ff91776f000 + 13826545
22 SwiftUICore 0x7ffb13103ea5 0x7ffb12c81000 + 4730533
23 SwiftUICore 0x7ffb13102e0f 0x7ffb12c81000 + 4726287
24 SwiftUI 0x7ff91849e903 0x7ff91776f000 + 13826307
25 SwiftUI 0x7ff91849bc1c 0x7ff91776f000 + 13814812
26 AppKit 0x7ff80a54f191 -[NSApplication _doOpenUntitled] + 422
27 AppKit 0x7ff80a4efc59 __58-[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleAEOpenEvent:]_block_invoke + 237
28 AppKit 0x7ff80a963818 __102-[NSApplication _reopenWindowsAsNecessaryIncludingRestorableState:withFullFidelity:completionHandler:]_block_invoke + 101
29 AppKit 0x7ff80a4ef6fa __97-[NSDocumentController(NSInternal) _autoreopenDocumentsIgnoringExpendable:withCompletionHandler:]_block_invoke_3 + 148
30 AppKit 0x7ff80a4eee8f -[NSDocumentController(NSInternal) _autoreopenDocumentsIgnoringExpendable:withCompletionHandler:] + 635
31 AppKit 0x7ff80a96373d -[NSApplication _reopenWindowsAsNecessaryIncludingRestorableState:withFullFidelity:completionHandler:] + 269
32 AppKit 0x7ff80a3a6259 -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleAEOpenEvent:] + 529
33 AppKit 0x7ff80a3a5eb9 -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleCoreEvent:withReplyEvent:] + 679
34 Foundation 0x7ff807a4b471 -[NSAppleEventManager dispatchRawAppleEvent:withRawReply:handlerRefCon:] + 307
35 Foundation 0x7ff807a4b285 _NSAppleEventManagerGenericHandler + 80
36 AE 0x7ff80e0e4e95 0x7ff80e0da000 + 44693
37 AE 0x7ff80e0e4723 0x7ff80e0da000 + 42787
38 AE 0x7ff80e0de028 aeProcessAppleEvent + 409
39 HIToolbox 0x7ff81217b836 AEProcessAppleEvent + 55
40 AppKit 0x7ff80a39ee6a _DPSNextEvent + 1725
41 AppKit 0x7ff80adf38b8 -[NSApplication(NSEventRouting) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1290
42 AppKit 0x7ff80a38faa9 -[NSApplication run] + 610
43 AppKit 0x7ff80a362d34 NSApplicationMain + 823
44 SwiftUI 0x7ff9177a7da1 0x7ff91776f000 + 232865
45 SwiftUI 0x7ff917af0d40 0x7ff91776f000 + 3677504
46 SwiftUI 0x7ff917d8fef8 0x7ff91776f000 + 6426360
47 Crescendo CryptoTokenKit 0x10b1baf6e static HostApp.$main() + 30
48 Crescendo CryptoTokenKit 0x10b1bd2f9 main + 9 (HostApp.swift:24)
49 dyld 0x7ff8065c82cd start + 1805
Hi,
I am working on Authorisation Plugin for Mac OS X and able to get going for most of the parts and taking inspiration from Jamf Authorisation Plugin repo https://github.com/jamf/NoMADLogin-AD.
I have seen in project they are implementing logic for following.
Connecting to Wifi
Power management (Sleep, Restart, Power Off)
Question: I was wondering these things need to be implemented or is there a way some components from Mac OS X could be integrated calling some API and I don't have to implement them and I see say a top bar where these items are viable as we see in default login screen.
I have developed my own login screen and I do see it is all blank everything I have to implement from scratch.
Trying luck here if any API is out there to reduce work, else no option but to implement all logic.
I'll really appreciate if someone just could help me know such API's are present or not. In case there are will save lot of effort.
Thanks,
Why are we doing this nonsense?
We want to be able to run builds in a sandbox such that they can only see the paths they are intended to depend on, to improve reproducibility.
With builds with a very large number of dependencies, there's a very large number of paths added to the sandbox, and it breaks things inside libsandbox.
Either it hits some sandbox length limit (sandbox-exec: pattern serialization length 66460 exceeds maximum (65535), Nix issue #4119, worked around: Nix PR 12570), or it hits an assert (this report; also Nix issue #2311).
The other options for sandboxing on macOS are not viable; we acknowledge sandbox-exec and sandbox_init_with_parameters are deprecated; App Sandbox is inapplicable because we aren't an app.
Our use case is closer to a browser, and all the browsers use libsandbox internally.
We could possibly use SystemExtension or a particularly diabolical use of Virtualization.framework, but the former API requires notarization which is close to a no-go for our use case as open source software: it is nearly impossible to develop the software on one's own computer, and it would require us to ship a binary blob (and have the build processes to produce one in infrastructure completely dissimilar to what we use today); it also requires a bunch of engineering time.
Today, we can pretend that code signing/notarization doesn't exist and that we are writing an old-school Unix daemon, because we are one.
The latter is absolutely diabolical and hard to implement.
See this saga about the bug we are facing: Nix issue #4119, Nix issue #2311, etc.
What is going wrong
I can't attach the file fail.sb as it is too large (you can view the failing test case at Lix's gerrit, CL 2870) and run this:
$ sandbox-exec -D _GLOBAL_TMP_DIR=/tmp -f fail.sb /bin/sh
Assertion failed: (diff <= INSTR_JUMP_NE_MAX_LENGTH), function push_jne_instr, file serialize.c, line 240.
zsh: abort sandbox-exec -D _GLOBAL_TMP_DIR=/tmp -f fail.sb /bin/sh
Or a stacktrace:
stacktrace.txt
Credits
Full credits to Jade Lovelace (Lix) for writing the above text and filing a bug.
This is submitted under FB16964888
I'm building a tool for admins in the enterprise context. The app needs to do some things as root, such as executing a script.
I was hoping to implement a workflow where the user clicks a button, then will be shown the authentication prompt, enter the credentials and then execute the desired action. However, I couldn't find a way to implement this. AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges looked promising, but that's deprecated since 10.7.
I've now tried to use a launch daemon that's contained in the app bundle with XPC, but that seems overly complicated and has several downsides (daemon with global machservice and the approval of a launch daemon suggests to the user that something's always running in the background). Also I'd like to stream the output of the executed scripts in real time back to the UI which seems very complicated to implement in this fashion.
Is there a better way to enable an app to perform authorized privilege escalation for certain actions? What about privileged helper tools? I couldn't find any documentation about them. I know privilege escalation is not allowed in the App Store, but that's not relevant for us.
I have developed a sample app following the example found Updating your app package installer to use the new Service Management API and referring this discussion on XPC Security.
The app is working fine, I have used Swift NSXPCConnection in favour of xpc_connection_create_mach_service used in the example. (I am running app directly from Xcode)
I am trying to set up security requirements for the client connection using setCodeSigningRequirement on the connection instance.
But it fails for even basic requirement connection.setCodeSigningRequirement("anchor apple").
Error is as follows.
cannot open file at line 46986 of [554764a6e7]
os_unix.c:46986: (0) open(/private/var/db/DetachedSignatures) - Undefined error: 0
xpc_support_check_token: anchor apple error: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67050 "(null)" status: -67050
I have used codesign -d --verbose=4 /path/to/executable to check the attributes I do get them in the terminal.
Other way round, I have tried XPC service provider sending back process id (pid) with each request, and I am probing this id to get attributes using this code which gives all the details.
func inspectCodeSignature(ofPIDString pidString: String) {
guard let pid = pid_t(pidString) else {
print("Invalid PID string: \(pidString)")
return
}
let attributes = [kSecGuestAttributePid: pid] as CFDictionary
var codeRef: SecCode?
let status = SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes(nil, attributes, [], &codeRef)
guard status == errSecSuccess, let code = codeRef else {
print("Failed to get SecCode for PID \(pid) (status: \(status))")
return
}
var staticCode: SecStaticCode?
let staticStatus = SecCodeCopyStaticCode(code, [], &staticCode)
guard staticStatus == errSecSuccess, let staticCodeRef = staticCode else {
print("Failed to get SecStaticCode (status: \(staticStatus))")
return
}
var infoDict: CFDictionary?
if SecCodeCopySigningInformation(staticCodeRef, SecCSFlags(rawValue: kSecCSSigningInformation), &infoDict) == errSecSuccess,
let info = infoDict as? [String: Any] {
print("🔍 Code Signing Info for PID \(pid):")
print("• Identifier: \(info["identifier"] ?? "N/A")")
print("• Team ID: \(info["teamid"] ?? "N/A")")
if let entitlements = info["entitlements-dict"] as? [String: Any] {
print("• Entitlements:")
for (key, value) in entitlements {
print(" - \(key): \(value)")
}
}
} else {
print("Failed to retrieve signing information.")
}
var requirement: SecRequirement?
if SecRequirementCreateWithString("anchor apple" as CFString, [], &requirement) == errSecSuccess,
let req = requirement {
let result = SecStaticCodeCheckValidity(staticCodeRef, [], req)
if result == errSecSuccess {
print("Signature is trusted (anchor apple)")
} else {
print("Signature is NOT trusted by Apple (failed anchor check)")
}
}
var infoDict1: CFDictionary?
let signingStatus = SecCodeCopySigningInformation(staticCodeRef, SecCSFlags(rawValue: kSecCSSigningInformation), &infoDict1)
guard signingStatus == errSecSuccess, let info = infoDict1 as? [String: Any] else {
print("Failed to retrieve signing information.")
return
}
print("🔍 Signing Info for PID \(pid):")
for (key, value) in info.sorted(by: { $0.key < $1.key }) {
print("• \(key): \(value)")
}
}
If connection.setCodeSigningRequirement does not works I plan to use above logic as backup.
Q: Please advise is there some setting required to be enabled or I have to sign code with some flags enabled.
Note: My app is not running in a Sandbox or Hardened Runtime, which I want.
I have been trying to find a way to be able to sign some data with private key of an identity in login keychain without raising any prompts.
I am able to do this with system keychain (obviously with correct permissions and checks) but not with login keychain. It always ends up asking user for their login password.
Here is how the code looks, roughly,
NSDictionary *query = @{
(__bridge id)kSecClass: (__bridge id)kSecClassIdentity,
(__bridge id)kSecReturnRef: @YES,
(__bridge id)kSecMatchLimit: (__bridge id)kSecMatchLimitAll
};
CFTypeRef result = NULL;
OSStatus status = SecItemCopyMatching((__bridge CFDictionaryRef)query, (CFTypeRef *)&amp;result);
NSArray *identities = ( NSArray *)result;
SecIdentityRef identity = NULL;
for (id _ident in identities) {
// pick one as required
}
SecKeyRef privateKey = NULL;
OSStatus status = SecIdentityCopyPrivateKey(identity, &amp;privateKey);
NSData *strData = [string dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
unsigned char hash[CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
CC_SHA256(strData.bytes, (CC_LONG)strData.length, hash);
NSData *digestData = [NSData dataWithBytes:hash length:CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
CFErrorRef cfError = NULL;
NSData *signature = (__bridge_transfer NSData *)SecKeyCreateSignature(privateKey,
kSecKeyAlgorithmRSASignatureDigestPKCS1v15SHA256,
(__bridge CFDataRef)digestData,
&amp;cfError);
Above code raises these system logs in console
default 08:44:52.781024+0000 securityd client is valid, proceeding
default 08:44:52.781172+0000 securityd code requirement check failed (-67050), client is not Apple-signed
default 08:44:52.781233+0000 securityd displaying keychain prompt for /Applications/Demo.app(81692)
If the key is in login keychain, is there any way to do SecKeyCreateSignature without raising prompts? What does client is not Apple-signed mean?
PS: Identities are pre-installed either manually or via some device management solution, the application is not installing them.
I have a sandboxed Mac app which I can grant access to a folder using an NSOpenPanel. Once it’s been granted access it can enumerate the contents of the folder just fine. If I rename the folder while the app is open and then make the app enumerate the folder’s contents again, though, it seems to have lost access.
What’s the recommended way to have an app’s sandbox “track” files as they’re moved around the filesystem? (NSDocument handles this for you, from what I can tell.) I’ve managed to hack something together with a combination of Dispatch sources and security-scoped bookmarks, but it feels like there must be an easier solution …
I am writing a MacOS app that uses the Apple crypto libraries to create, save, and use an RSA key pair. I am not using a Secure Enclave so that the private key can later the retrieved through the keychain. The problem I am running into is that on my and multiple other systems the creation and retrieval works fine. On a different system -- running MacOS 15.3 just like the working systems -- the SecKeyCreateRandomKey function appears to work fine and I get a key reference back, but on subsequent runs SecItemCopyMatching results in errSecItemNotFound. Why would it appear to save properly on some systems and not others?
var error: Unmanaged<CFError>?
let access = SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags(kCFAllocatorDefault,
kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly,
.biometryAny,
&error)!
let tag = TAG.data(using: .utf8)! // com.example.myapp.rsakey
let attributes: [String: Any] = [
kSecAttrKeyType as String: KEY_TYPE, // set to kSecAttrKeyTypeRSA
kSecAttrKeySizeInBits as String: 3072,
kSecPrivateKeyAttrs as String: [
kSecAttrIsPermanent as String: true,
kSecAttrApplicationTag as String: tag,
kSecAttrAccessControl as String: access,
],
]
guard let newKey = SecKeyCreateRandomKey(attributes as CFDictionary, &error) else {
throw error!.takeRetainedValue() as Error
}
return newKey
This runs fine on both systems, getting a valid key reference that I can use. But then if I immediately try to pull the key, it works on my system but not the other.
let query = [ kSecClass as String: kSecClassKey,
kSecAttrApplicationTag as String: tag,
kSecReturnRef as String: true, ]
var item: CFTypeRef?
let status = SecItemCopyMatching(query as CFDictionary, &item)
let msg = SecCopyErrorMessageString(status, nil)
if status == errSecItemNotFound {
print("key not found")
}
guard status == errSecSuccess else { print("other retrieval error") }
return item as! SecKey
I've also tried a separate query using the secCall function from here (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/710961) that gets ALL kSecClassKey items before and after the "create the key" function and it'll report the same amount of keys before and after on the bugged system. On the other machines where it works, it'll show one more key as expected.
In the Signing & Capabilities section of the project config, I have Keychain Sharing set up with a group like com.example.myapp where my key uses a tag like com.example.myapp.rsakey. The entitlements file has an associated entry for Keychain Access Groups with value $(AppIdentifierPrefix)com.example.myapp.
I need to open p12 file from other iOS applications to import private key to my application. My app is set up to be able to open nay file with following plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>CFBundleDocumentTypes</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
<string>Files</string>
<key>LSHandlerRank</key>
<string>Default</string>
<key>LSItemContentTypes</key>
<array>
<string>public.item</string>
<string>public.data</string>
<string>public.content</string>
</array>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
But my don't appear in share dialog from Files or Mail app for example. There are however other third party apps that can accept this file. Some of them use Share extension which I don't have, but some of them don't have it as far as I can understand. At least they don't present any UI and open apps directly.
Also I've tried to specify com.rsa.pkcs-12 UTI directly but it didn't help. Also noticed that *.crt files have similar behaviour.
Am I missing something about this specific file type?
I work for Brave, a browser with ~80M users. We want to introduce a new system for automatic updates called Omaha 4 (O4). It's the same system that powers automatic updates in Chrome.
O4 runs as a separate application on users' systems. For Chrome, this works as follows: An app called GoogleUpdater.app regularly checks for updates in the background. When a new version is found, then GoogleUpdater.app installs it into Chrome's installation directory /Applications/Google Chrome.app.
But consider what this means: A separate application, GoogleUpdater.app, is able to modify Google Chrome.app.
This is especially surprising because, for example, the built-in Terminal.app is not able to modify Google Chrome.app. Here's how you can check this for yourself:
(Re-)install Chrome with its DMG installer.
Run the following command in Terminal: mkdir /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/test. This works.
Undo the command: rm -rf /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/test
Start Chrome and close it again.
mkdir /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/test now fails with "Operation not permitted".
(These steps assume that Terminal does not have Full Disk Access and System Integrity Protection is enabled.)
In other words, once Chrome was started at least once, another application (Terminal in this case) is no longer allowed to modify it.
But at the same time, GoogleUpdater.app is able to modify Chrome. It regularly applies updates to the browser. For each update, this process begins with an mkdir call similarly to the one shown above.
How is this possible? What is it in macOS that lets GoogleUpdater.app modify Chrome, but not another app such as Terminal? Note that Terminal is not sandboxed.
I've checked that it's not related to codesigning or notarization issues. In our case, the main application (Brave) and the updater (BraveUpdater) are signed and notarized with the same certificate and have equivalent requirements, entitlements and provisioning profiles as Chrome and GoogleUpdater.
The error that shows up in the Console for the disallowed mkdir call is:
kernel (Sandbox)
System Policy: mkdir(8917) deny(1) file-write-create /Applications/Google Chrome.app/foo
(It's a similar error when BraveUpdater tries to install a new version into /Applications/Brave Browser.app.)
The error goes away when I disable System Integrity Protection. But of course, we cannot ask users to do that.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.