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

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Issues after app transfer
We recently transferred two applications to a different account, both of which utilize Keychain and shared app containers. Before transferring the first application, we anticipated losing access to the Keychain and took proactive measures by backing up data to the app’s private container in the final release prior to the transfer. During the app transfer process, we removed the shared container group ID from the old account and recreated it under the new account. In our testing, Keychain restoration from the local backup was successful, and users experienced no disruptions. However, after releasing the application, we observed that approximately 25% of our users not only lost their Keychain data as expected but also their shared app container data. As we have been unable to reproduce this issue internally, we are seeking your guidance on how to prevent a similar situation when transferring our second application. At this stage, we have not yet released any updates from the new account, and the Keychain data remains backed up in the app’s private container. We would appreciate any insights or recommendations you can provide to ensure a smooth transition for our users and make sure we can keep the data in shared container.
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483
Feb ’25
Keychain Item Invalidation After Interrupted Face ID Reset on iOS 18.3.1
I am working on improving Keychain item storage secured with Face ID using SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags. The implementation uses the .biometryAny flag as shown below: SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags( kCFAllocatorDefault, kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly, .biometryAny, &error ) While this approach generally works as expected, I encountered a specific edge case during testing. On iOS 18.3.1 with Xcode 15.4, the following sequence causes the Keychain item to become inaccessible: Navigate to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and select Reset Face ID. Before setting up a new Face ID, tap the Back button to exit the setup process. Reopen the Face ID setup and complete the enrollment. Return to the app—previously stored Keychain items protected by .biometryAny are no longer available. This behavior appears to be a change introduced in recent iOS versions. In versions prior to iOS 15, resetting or deleting Face ID entries did not invalidate existing Keychain items protected by .biometryAny. This difference in behavior between iOS versions raises questions about the changes to biometric protection handling. Any suggestions are welcomed that might shine a light on what the best practice to use keychain access control and prevent the data to become unavailable.
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495
Feb ’25
Understanding Sandbox Violations for system services
According to https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/app_sandbox/discovering_and_diagnosing_app_sandbox_violations it is possible to view detailed violation reports for non-system services. Is it possible to do something similar for system services? I have encountered an issue where several (all?) of my Macbooks get into a sandbox violation situation (I assume). Below is in excerpt from logs focusing just on the sandbox violation. The errors are surrounded by XPC failures and errors. error 23:23:21.382263+0100 kernel Sandbox: Family(1316) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.contactsd.persistence error 23:23:24.385962+0100 kernel Sandbox: Family(1316) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.contactsd.persistence error 23:23:27.389910+0100 kernel Sandbox: Family(1316) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.contactsd.persistence error 23:23:36.408940+0100 kernel Sandbox: Family(1316) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.contactsd.persistence error 23:23:45.419593+0100 kernel Sandbox: Family(1316) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.contactsd.persistence error 23:23:54.432109+0100 kernel Sandbox: Family(1316) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.contactsd.persistence The above is just an except, and it seems that Family, imagent and searchpartyuseragent are trying to access com.apple.contactsd.persistance once per second or so and failing (there are also some attempts to reach com.apple.timed.xpc, but an insignificant amount in comparison to com.apple.contactsd.persistance). This in turn causes Diagnostics Reporter to start, and then end hastily almost every ten seconds. fault 23:23:05.903908+0100 Diagnostics Reporter Invalid launch. fault 23:23:16.038017+0100 Diagnostics Reporter Invalid launch. fault 23:23:26.136348+0100 Diagnostics Reporter Invalid launch. fault 23:23:36.274543+0100 Diagnostics Reporter Invalid launch. fault 23:23:46.414546+0100 Diagnostics Reporter Invalid launch. I have no idea how I did this, but I seemed to have messed up sandbox access rights to contacts for some system services?
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5.6k
Feb ’25
Sign in with Apple Sync Issues Across Teams
We have 2 developers: Developer A created a Bundle ID and configured Sign in with Apple, but didn't create a corresponding App. This Bundle ID is only used for login on our official website. Developer B created a Bundle ID, configured Sign in with Apple, and has a corresponding App. The issue we're encountering is that because these two Bundle IDs are under different teams, when using the same Apple ID to log into these two applications, different accounts are generated. (We've tested that when creating Service IDs under the same team, logging in with Bundle IDs under the same team generates the same account.) Since Developer A's Bundle ID doesn't have a created app, it cannot be transferred to Developer B. Therefore, we'd like to know if there's any way to make the accounts generated from logging in with the same Apple ID be identical across these two teams?
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373
Feb ’25
Issue with "NSUserTrackingUsageDescription" Blocking App Update Submission
Hi everyone, I’m currently facing an issue while trying to submit an update for my app to the App Store. The review process is blocking the update due to a "Privacy - Data Use and Sharing" warning, stating that our app requests "tracking purchase history for tracking purposes." However, we have already removed this functionality and deleted the NSUserTrackingUsageDescription key from our latest build. Despite this, the warning persists, and we are unable to proceed with the update. I have already contacted Apple Support, but in the meantime, I wanted to ask the community: Has anyone else encountered this issue, and if so, how did you resolve it? Is there a way to force a refresh of privacy-related settings in App Store Connect? Are there any additional steps we need to take to completely remove this tracking flag from our app submission? Any insights or guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help.
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565
Feb ’25
App Closes After Apple Sign-In on Vision Pro When Launched Directly
I am experiencing an issue with Apple Sign-In on Vision Pro. When I build and run the app from Xcode, everything works fine—after signing in, the app returns to the foreground as expected. However, when I launch the app directly on Vision Pro (not from Xcode), after completing the sign-in process, the app does not reopen from the background automatically. Instead, it closes, and I have to manually tap the app icon to reopen it. Has anyone else encountered this issue? Is there a way to ensure the app properly resumes after sign-in without requiring manual intervention?
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498
Feb ’25
Missing privacy manifest
Hi, The email attached states that we need to add GoogleToolboxForMac's missing privacy manifest. I received the attached report after running my app privacy report, however it is different and does not include GoogleToolboxForMac. I'm not sure if we need to add the privacy manifest for GoogleToolboxForMac alone or for both of them. If yes, what should I put in my privacy manifest for GoogleToolboxForMac? IS IT BELOW CODE NEED TO ADD IN PRIVACY MANIFEST OR IS IT BELOW CODE NEED TO ADD IN PRIVACY MANIFEST Please reply ASAP Regards, Viharshitha
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1.8k
Feb ’25
suddenly 'zsh: killed' my Xcode-based console app
I have a small command-line app I've been using for years to process files. I have it run by an Automator script, so that I can drop files onto it. It stopped working this morning. At first, I could still run the app from the command line, without Automator. But then after I recompiled the app, now I cannot even do that. When I run it, it's saying 'zsh: killed' followed by my app's path. What is that? The app does run if I run it from Xcode. How do I fix this?
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584
Feb ’25
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!
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642
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!
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361
Mar ’25
Impact of Security Vulnerabilities Caused by Enabling "Generate Debug Symbols"
We are working with an iOS app where we have enabled the “Generate Debug Symbols” setting to true in Xcode. As a result, the .dSYM files are generated and utilized in Firebase Crashlytics for crash reporting. However, we received a note in our Vulnerability Assessment report indicating a potential security concern. The report mentions that the .ipa file could be reverse-engineered due to the presence of debug symbols, and that such symbols should not be included in a released app. We could not find any security-related information about this flag, “Generate Debug Symbols,” in Apple’s documentation. Could you please clarify if enabling the “Generate Debug Symbols” flag in Xcode for a production app creates any security vulnerabilities, such as the one described in the report? The report mentions the following vulnerability: TEST-0219: Testing for Debugging Symbols The concern raised is that debugging symbols, while useful for crash symbolication, may be leveraged to reverse-engineer the app and should not be present in a production release. Your prompt confirmation on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
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530
Mar ’25
AutoFill Unavailable - The developer needs to update it to work with this feature.
I have had a password autofill app extension in production for years. It still works fine. Except when the user taps a username or password textfield and selects "AutoFill" from the context menu. They are shown a modal error dialog, stating: "AutoFill Unavailable - The developer needs to update it to work with this feature." I cannot find any help on this issue. The AutoFill extension works fine when tapping the "Passwords" bar above the iOS keyboard. Any pointers would be appreciated.
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752
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.
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408
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?
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382
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
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299
Mar ’25
Wifi and Power option while developing Mac OS X Authorisation Plugin.
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,
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420
Mar ’25
Device unable to download the AASA file when using a domain name with special characters
Hello, I have a fully functional webauthn relying party that uses passkeys and I am trying to implement an iOS sdk for it. On the server, the AASA file is valid and well served at /.well-known/assetlinks.json. I verified its validity with branch.io and that it is indeed cached by Apple's CDN (https://app-site-association.cdn-apple.com/a/v1/service.domain.com), but even will all these I still get the following error when installing the app on a device and starting the passkey ceremony: Passkey authorization failed. Error: The operation couldn’t be completed. Application with identifier TEAM.com.APP is not associated with domain service.domain.com So I then checked the system log when installing the app on my iPhone, and under the swcd process (which is apparently responsible of fetching the AASA file) I found the following error: swcd: Domain is invalid. Will not attempt a download. The issue that I have is that my domain is actually an IDN, it has a special character in it. But everywhere I have used it, I converted it to ASCII (punycode). With this conversion, Apple's CDN is able to fetch the AASA file, and the passkey ceremony works fine on a browser. So I don't understand how the device (both iPhone or Mac) finds this domain to be invalid? In the app's entitlements, I added the capability for an associated domain, with webcredentials:service.domain.com with the domain name converted to ASCII (punycode) and developer mode doesn't address this issue as it appears when the app is installed (and is not related to Apple's CDN). The last thing I tried was to add the domain with special characters in the app's entitlements (for webcredentials:) but then Xcode was unable to install the app on the device, and gave the following error: Failed to verify code signature (A valid provisioning profile for this executable was not found.) which happened only with a special character in the domain in the app's entitlements. All this leaves me kind of in a dead end, I understand Xcode or iOS/macOS has a hard time with IDNs and special characters (so do I), but I have no idea on how to solve this (without changing the domain name), so I would really appreciate any help. Thanks in advance. PS: I tested all this previously with another domain without special characters and it was working. It also had dashes ('-') in it and the new domain converted to ASCII is basically a regular domain with '-' in it so I suppose there is some kind of conversion made from ASCII back to special characters and that then, the domain is considered as invalid, but this doesn't really help me a lot... PS2: My devices are running on iOS 17.4.1 and macOS 14.4.1 with Xcode 15.2
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1.1k
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") } }
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274
Mar ’25