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

All subtopics
Posts under Privacy & Security topic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

Gathering required information for troubleshooting Private Email Relay with Sign in with Apple Privacy & Security
Hi, Before I begin my investigation, I want to explain our code-level support process for issues related to Sign in with Apple—as the issue you’re reporting may be the result of any of the following: An error in your app or web service request. A configuration issue in your Developer Account. An internal issue in the operation system or Apple ID servers. To ensure the issue is not caused by an error within your Private Email Replay configuration, please review Configuring your environment for Sign in with Apple to learn more about registering your email sources and authenticated domains. To prevent sending sensitive message details in plain text, you should create a report in Feedback Assistant to share the details requested below. Additionally, if I determine the error is caused by an internal issue in the operating system or Apple ID servers, the appropriate engineering teams have access to the same information and can communicate with you directly for more information, if needed. Please follow the instructions below to submit your feedback. Gathering required information for troubleshooting Private Email Relay with Sign in with Apple For issues occurring with your email delivery, ensure your feedback contains the following information: the primary App ID and Services ID the user’s Apple ID and/or email address the email message headers the Private Email Relay Service or Hide My Email message delivery failure, and SMTP error codes Submitting your feedback Before you submit to Feedback Assistant, please confirm the requested information above is included in your feedback. Failure to provide the requested information will only delay my investigation into the reported issue within your Sign in with Apple client. After your submission to Feedback Assistant is complete, please respond in your existing Developer Forums post with the Feedback ID. Once received, I can begin my investigation and determine if this issue is caused by an error within your client, a configuration issue within your developer account, or an underlying system bug. Cheers, Paris X Pinkney |  WWDR | DTS Engineer
0
0
885
Jul ’25
Help with Entitlements for Keychain Access
Hi everyone, I’m working an Objective-C lib that performs Keychain operations, such as generating cryptographic keys and signing data. The lib will be used by my team in a Java program for macOS via JNI. When working with the traditional file-based Keychain (i.e., without access control flags), everything works smoothly, no issues at all. However, as soon as I try to generate a key using access control flags SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags, the Data Protection Keychain returns error -34018 (errSecMissingEntitlement) during SecKeyCreateRandomKey. This behavior is expected. To address this, I attempted to codesign my native dynamic library (.dylib) with an entitlement plist specifying various combinations of: keychain-access-groups com.apple.security.keychain etc. with: My Apple Development certificate Developer ID Application certificate Apple Distribution certificate None of these combinations made a difference, the error persists. I’d love to clarify: Is it supported to access Data Protection Keychain / Secure Enclave Keys in this type of use case? If so, what exact entitlements does macOS expect when calling SecKeyCreateRandomKey from a native library? I’d really appreciate any guidance or clarification. Thanks in advance! Best regards, Neil
1
0
367
Jul ’25
C++ HMAC-SHA256 Signature Works in Python, Fails in C++ — Possible Xcode Runtime Issue?
Hi all, I’m building a macOS-native C++ trading bot, compiled via Xcode. It sends REST API requests to a crypto exchange (Bitvavo) that require HMAC-SHA256 signatures using a pre-sign string (timestamp + method + path + body) and an API secret. Here’s the issue: • The exact same pre-sign string and API secret produce valid responses when signed using Python (hmac.new(secret, msg, hashlib.sha256)), • But when I generate the HMAC signature using C++ (HMAC(EVP_sha256, ...) via OpenSSL), the exchange returns an invalid signature error. Environment: • Xcode 15.3 / macOS 14.x • OpenSSL installed via Homebrew • HMAC test vectors match Python’s output for basic strings (so HMAC lib seems correct) Yet when using the real API keys and dynamic timestamped messages, something differs enough to break verification — possibly due to UTF-8 encoding, memory alignment, or newline handling differences in the Xcode C++ runtime? Has anyone experienced subtle differences between Python and C++ HMAC-SHA256 behavior when compiled in Xcode? I’ve published a GitHub repo for reproducibility: 🔗 https://github.com/vanBaardewijk/bitvavo-cpp-signature-test Thanks in advance for any suggestions or insights. Sascha
2
0
683
Jul ’25
DeviceCheck - Device Validation Endpoint not working
We have been having very high response times in device check device validation service (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicecheck/accessing-and-modifying-per-device-data#Create-the-payload-for-a-device-validation-request) since 17 July at 19:10hs GMT. The service information page says the service was running in green status but that isn't the case and we currenly have stop consuming it. Is it being looked at? Are you aware of this issue? Can you give us an estimate of when it should be working correctly?
1
0
723
Jul ’25
Downloading Developer ID provisioning profiles - missing new entitlements
Please provide a descriptive title for your feedback: Downloading Developer ID provisioning profiles - missing new entitlements Which area are you seeing an issue with? App Store Connect What type of feedback are you reporting? Incorrect/Unexpected Behavior Please provide the App name/App ID if possible: com.onexengineering.themedeck.macos Please describe the issue and what steps we can take to reproduce it bug in App Store Connect where downloading Developer ID provisioning profiles are missing the new entitlements regenerated from scratch -- App Store Connect says entitlements are good, but actual file confirms entitlements are missing App Store provisioning profiles seem to be unaffected (ignore my incorrect naming of files)
1
0
259
Jul ’25
Questions about migrating accounts between ServiceIDs
Our organization operates a web platform that hosts numerous newspaper properties. We recently acquired a new newspaper and are in the process of integrating it into our platform. As part of this transition, we’ve successfully transferred the App and App ID for the acquired newspaper into our Apple Developer portal. However, no Service ID associated with Sign in with Apple was included in the transfer. Our current implementation uses a single, unified Service ID for all existing newspaper properties. This Service ID facilitates OAuth via a centralized Identity Server. The organization we acquired provided a CSV file containing a list of transport_ids, and based on our understanding, we’re expected to use the Apple endpoint: https://appleid.apple.com/auth/usermigrationinfo to initiate a registration process by submitting our Service ID (client_id) along with each transport ID. This step is required before users can sign in, and it should return the existing relay email address. We have a few key concerns: Service ID Compatibility It appears that users cannot be transferred between Service IDs. In our case, there are now two: a.) Our existing Service ID (used across all current newspaper properties) b.) A separate Service ID previously associated with the acquired newspaper 3.) Due to architectural constraints, our platform cannot dynamically toggle between multiple Apple Service IDs. All properties authenticate through our unified Identity Server bound to our existing Service ID. 4.) Is it possible to call /usermigrationinfo using our existing Service ID rather than the one originally used by the acquired property? 5.) Relay Email and Apple ID Consistency 6.) We’re seeing conflicting information about whether the Apple relay email address (@privaterelay.appleid.com) and the Apple user ID are preserved during this migration. Some sources suggest that the relay email and Apple ID are tightly coupled to both the Service ID and Team ID. 7.) If we call /usermigrationinfo with our existing Service ID, will the same relay email be returned, or will Apple issue a new one?
0
0
148
Jul ’25
ASPasswordCredential Returns a Blank Password with Apple Password App
Using the simplified sign-in with tvOS and a third party password manager, I receive a complete ASPasswordCredential, and I can easily log into my app. When I do the same thing but with Apple's password manager as the source, I receive an ASPasswordCredential that includes the email address, but the password is an empty string. I have tried deleting the credentials from Apple Passwords and regenerating them with a new login to the app's website. I have tried restarting my iPhone. Is this the expected behavior? How should I be getting a password from Apple's Password app with an ASAuthorizationPasswordRequest?
2
0
196
Jul ’25
How to Programmatically Install and Trust Root Certificate in System Keychain
I am developing a macOS application (targeting macOS 13 and later) that is non-sandboxed and needs to install and trust a root certificate by adding it to the System keychain programmatically. I’m fine with prompting the user for admin privileges or password, if needed. So far, I have attempted to execute the following command programmatically from both: A user-level process A root-level process sudo security add-trusted-cert -d -r trustRoot -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain /path/to/cert.pem While the certificate does get installed, it does not appear as trusted in the Keychain Access app. One more point: The app is not distributed via MDM. App will be distributed out side the app store. Questions: What is the correct way to programmatically install and trust a root certificate in the System keychain? Does this require additional entitlements, signing, or profile configurations? Is it possible outside of MDM management? Any guidance or working samples would be greatly appreciated.
3
0
285
Jul ’25
Authorization Credentials Caching Implications
I'm developing an Authorization Plug-In and have stumbled upon a concerning behavior regarding credential caching that may have security implications. Consider this scenario: I'm working on a Mac without admin privileges, and I need to temporarily disable the Firewall for some testing. An administrator physically comes to my machine, inputs their credentials to disable the Firewall, and then leaves. What follows is that, for a short period after this action, the administrator's credentials remain cached in Authorization Services. During this window, I can perform some additional privileged operations without any re-authentication. For example, I can open Activity Monitor and send SIGKILL signals to arbitrary privileged processes (!!). From what I could gather, this happens because system.preferences.network shares cached credentials with other authorization rights. Even more concerning, even when I explicitly modify the authorization database to prevent credential sharing for this specific right, the behavior persists! I suspect the issue relates to the underlying shared authentication rules (such as authenticate-admin-30, which com.apple.activitymonitor.kill uses), but I've been unable to modify these rules to test this theory. From my understanding, the most concerning aspect is that even if all system Authorization Rights were configured to not share credentials, third-party applications could still create proprietary rights that might end up sharing credentials anyway. From my Auth Plug-In, I've tried unsetting the kAuthorizationEnvironmentShared context value (even though the documentation in AuthorizationTags.h tells me that the value is ignored), and looking for ways to override the timeout for shared credentials, both without success. Finally, I'm looking to answer some questions that have been raised: I understand that this credential sharing is a feature, but isn't the behavior I described actually a security vulnerability? I worry that other (potentially more dangerous) operations may be able to exploit this. Is there a recommended way to prevent privileged credentials from being reused across arbitrary authorization rights if the original process does not destroy the auth reference? Are there any options from within an Authorization Plug-In to ensure more strict authentication boundaries? What exactly is the authorization "session" mentioned in /System/Library/Security/authorization.plist? Does this concept imply that System Settings.app and Activity Monitor.app share the same session in my previous example? This post ended up being quite long, but unfortunately, documentation on the subject seems incredibly scarce. For reference, the little information I could find came from: QA 1277 The Credentials Cache and the Authentication Dialog Comments on /System/Library/Security/authorization.plist
2
0
263
Jul ’25
What is the code signing trust level?
In some crashlog files, there are additional pieces of information related to codesigning. I can understand what most of themcorresponds to (ID, TeamID, Flags, Validation Category). But there is one I have some doubt about: Trust Level. As far as I can tell (or at least what Google and other search engines say), this is an unsigned 32 bit integer that defines the trust level with -1 being untrusted, 0, being basically an Apple executable and other potential bigger values corresponding to App Store binaries, Developer ID signature, etc. Yet, I'm not able to find a corresponding detailed documentation about this on Apple's developer website. I also had a look at the LightweightCodeRequirements "include" file and there does not seem to be such a field available. [Q] Is there any official documentation listing the different values for this trust level value and providing a clear description of what it corresponds to?
4
0
225
Jul ’25
Provisioning profile doesn't support the Sign in with Apple capability.
Hi! I'm trying to add Sign in with Apple to my macOS app. I enabled this capability from the developer portal and created the corresponding certificate & provisioning profile (both of type Developer ID Application.) However, Xcode keeps prompting me that the profile doesn't support Sign in with Apple. If I enable Automatically manage signing from Xcode, I can build and run the app but not distribute. If I turn it off and use the profile I got, it just keeps showing the errors below and doesn't even let me build.
1
0
260
Jul ’25
Accessing PIV Smart Card Certificates from iPadOS application.
I am new to swift development, and it's possible that I'm missing something fundamental/obvious. If so, I apologize in advance. My team is developing an application for iPadOS using SwiftUI, and I'm trying to accomplish something similar to what the original inquirer is asking for in this thread: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/725152. The only difference is that I'm trying to use a PIV smart card to achieve authentication to a server rather than digitally sign a document. Unfortunately, I'm getting stuck when attempting to run the list() function provided in the accepted answer to the post mentioned above. When attempting to call SecItemCopyMatching(), I'm getting a -34018 missing entitlement error. I've attempted to add the com.apple.token to my app's keychain-access-groups entitlements, but this does not resolve the issue. I have checked the entitlements in my built app, per the recommendation in the troubleshooting guide here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/114456. The entitlement for com.apple.token is indeed present in the plist. Based on other documentation I've read, however, it seems that the explicit declaration of com.apple.token should not even be required in the entitlements. Is there something obvious that I'm missing here that would prevent my app from accessing the token access group?
5
0
176
Jul ’25
Keep getting: invalid_client
I keep getting invalid_client, here is a test login: https://www.bella-booking.ch/_get_incl/test_apple_login.cfm Any help appreciated. NOTE: Everey other error, like wrong reroute or wrong client id, a different error will be sent frpm apple, after I checked all and crosschecked with jwt.io, it keep getting invalid_client. Any clue? If the response is correct, the token should be displayed on the page. Thx
2
0
406
Jul ’25
Invalid Persona Issue
Has anyone here encountered this? It's driving me crazy. It appears on launch. App Sandbox is enabled. The proper entitlement is selected (com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write) I believe this is causing an issue with app functionality for users on different machines. There is zero documentation across the internet on this problem. I am on macOS 26 beta. This error appears in both Xcode and Xcode-beta. Please help! Thank you, Logan
3
0
463
Jul ’25
Conditional create on iPhone + Safari + Passwords violates the WebAuthn spec
WebAuthn Level 3 § 5.1.3 Step 22 Item 4 states the steps a user agent MUST follow when "conditional" mediation is used in conjunction with required user verification: Let userVerification be the effective user verification requirement for credential creation, a Boolean value, as follows. If pkOptions.authenticatorSelection.userVerification is set to required If options.mediation is set to conditional and user verification cannot be collected during the ceremony, throw a ConstraintError DOMException. Let userVerification be true. On my iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.5, Safari + Passwords does not exhibit this behavior; instead an error is not reported and user verification is not performed (i.e., the UV bit is 0). Per the spec this results in a registration ceremony failure on the server which is made all the more "annoying" since the credential was created in Passwords forcing a user to then delete the credential. : If the Relying Party requires user verification for this registration, verify that the UV bit of the flags in authData is set. In contrast when I use Google Password Manager + Chrome on a Samsung Galaxy S24 running Android 15, user verification is enforced and the UV bit is 1. Either the UV bit should be 1 after enforcing user verification or an error should be thrown since user verification cannot be performed.
1
0
440
Jul ’25
iPhone + Safari + Passwords violates WebAuthn spec when pubKeyCredParams doesn't contain ES256
WebAuthn Level 3 § 6.3.2 Step 2 states the authenticator must : Check if at least one of the specified combinations of PublicKeyCredentialType and cryptographic parameters in credTypesAndPubKeyAlgs is supported. If not, return an error code equivalent to "NotSupportedError" and terminate the operation. On my iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.5, Safari + Passwords does not exhibit this behavior; instead an error is not reported and an ES256 credential is created when an RP passes a non-empty sequence that does not contain {"type":"public-key","alg":-7} (e.g., [{"type":"public-key","alg":-8}]). When I use Chromium 138.0.7204.92 on my laptop running Arch Linux in conjunction with the Passwords app (connected via the "hybrid" protocol), a credential is not created and instead an error is reported per the spec.
3
0
472
Jul ’25
Will Security Layer Affect AASA File Accessibility?
I’d like to confirm something regarding the hosting of the apple-app-site-association (AASA) file. We have a server that publicly hosts the AASA file and is accessible globally. However, this server sits behind an additional security layer (a security server/reverse proxy). My question is: Will this security layer affect Apple’s ability to access and validate the AASA file for Universal Links or App Clips? Are there specific requirements (e.g. headers, redirects, TLS versions, etc.) that we need to ensure the security server does not block or modify? Any guidance or best practices would be appreciated. Thanks!
1
0
216
Jul ’25
Will Security Layer Affect AASA File Accessibility?
Hi, I’d like to confirm something regarding the hosting of the apple-app-site-association (AASA) file. We have a server that publicly hosts the AASA file and is accessible globally. However, this server sits behind an additional security layer (a security server/reverse proxy). My question is: Will this security layer affect Apple’s ability to access and validate the AASA file for Universal Links or App Clips? Are there specific requirements (e.g. headers, redirects, TLS versions, etc.) that we need to ensure the security server does not block or modify? Any guidance or best practices would be appreciated.
1
0
294
Jul ’25