I added a Content Filter to my app, and when running it in Xcode (Debug/Release), I get the expected permission prompt:
"Would like to filter network content (Allow / Don't Allow)".
However, when I install the app via TestFlight, this prompt doesn’t appear at all, and the feature doesn’t work.
Is there a special configuration required for TestFlight? Has anyone encountered this issue before?
Thanks!
Networking
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When setting up a packet tunnel with a profile that has includeAllNetworks set to true, we seemingly cannot send any traffic inside the tunnel using any kind of an API. We've tried using BSD sockets, as we ping a host only reachable within the tunnel to establish whether we have connectivity - this does not work. When using NWConnection from the Network framework and specifying the required interface via virtualInterface from the packet tunnel, the connection state never reaches ready. Our interim solution is to, as ridiculous as it sounds, include a whole userspace networking stack so we can produce valid TCP packets just to send into our own tunnel. We require a TCP connection within our own tunnel to do some configuration during tunnel setup. Is there no better solution?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Tags:
Network Extension
Network
System Configuration
When installing a new version the app while a tunnel is connected, seemingly the old packet tunnel process gets stopped but the new one does not come back up. Reportedly, a path monitor is reporting that the device has no connectivity. Is this the expected behavior?
When installing an update from TestFlight or the App store, the packet tunnel instance from the old tunnel is stopped, but, due to the profile being on-demand and incldueAllNetworks, the path monitoring believes the device has no connectivity - so the new app is never downloaded. Is this the expected behavior?
During development, the old packet tunnel gets stopped, the new app is installed, but the new packet tunnel is never started. To start it, the user has to toggle the VPN twice from the Settings app. The tunnel could be started from the VPN app too, if we chose to not take the path monitor into account, but then the user still needs to attempt to start the tunnel twice - it only works on the second try. As far as we can tell, the first time around, the packet tunnel never gets started, the app receives an update about NEVPNStatus being set to disconnecting yet NEVPNConnection does not throw.
The behavior I was naively expecting was that the packet tunnel process would be stopped only when the new app is fully downloaded and when the update is installed, Are we doing something horribly wrong here?
Dear Apple:
We encountered a problem when using the Wi-Fi connection feature. When calling the Wi-Fi connection interface NEHotspotConfigurationManager applyConfiguration, it fails probabilistically. After analyzing the air interface packets, it appears that the Apple device did not send the auth message. How should we locate this issue? Are there any points to pay attention to when calling the Wi-Fi connection interface? Thanks
I am trying to convert a simple URLSession request in Swift to using NWConnection. This is because I want to make the request using a Proxy that requires Authentication. I posted this SO Question about using a proxy with URLSession. Unfortunately no one answered it but I found a fix by using NWConnection instead.
Working Request
func updateOrderStatus(completion: @escaping (Bool) -> Void) {
let orderLink = "https://shop.ccs.com/51913883831/orders/f3ef2745f2b06c6b410e2aa8a6135847"
guard let url = URL(string: orderLink) else {
completion(true)
return
}
let cookieStorage = HTTPCookieStorage.shared
let config = URLSessionConfiguration.default
config.httpCookieStorage = cookieStorage
config.httpCookieAcceptPolicy = .always
let session = URLSession(configuration: config)
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.setValue("text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept")
request.setValue("none", forHTTPHeaderField: "Sec-Fetch-Site")
request.setValue("navigate", forHTTPHeaderField: "Sec-Fetch-Mode")
request.setValue("Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/18.0.1 Safari/605.1.15", forHTTPHeaderField: "User-Agent")
request.setValue("en-US,en;q=0.9", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept-Language")
request.setValue("gzip, deflate, br", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept-Encoding")
request.setValue("document", forHTTPHeaderField: "Sec-Fetch-Dest")
request.setValue("u=0, i", forHTTPHeaderField: "Priority")
// make the request
}
Attempted Conversion
func updateOrderStatusProxy(completion: @escaping (Bool) -> Void) {
let orderLink = "https://shop.ccs.com/51913883831/orders/f3ef2745f2b06c6b410e2aa8a6135847"
guard let url = URL(string: orderLink) else {
completion(true)
return
}
let proxy = "resi.wealthproxies.com:8000:akzaidan:x0if46jo-country-US-session-7cz6bpzy-duration-60"
let proxyDetails = proxy.split(separator: ":").map(String.init)
guard proxyDetails.count == 4, let port = UInt16(proxyDetails[1]) else {
print("Invalid proxy format")
completion(false)
return
}
let proxyEndpoint = NWEndpoint.hostPort(host: .init(proxyDetails[0]),
port: NWEndpoint.Port(integerLiteral: port))
let proxyConfig = ProxyConfiguration(httpCONNECTProxy: proxyEndpoint, tlsOptions: nil)
proxyConfig.applyCredential(username: proxyDetails[2], password: proxyDetails[3])
let parameters = NWParameters.tcp
let privacyContext = NWParameters.PrivacyContext(description: "ProxyConfig")
privacyContext.proxyConfigurations = [proxyConfig]
parameters.setPrivacyContext(privacyContext)
let host = url.host ?? ""
let path = url.path.isEmpty ? "/" : url.path
let query = url.query ?? ""
let fullPath = query.isEmpty ? path : "\(path)?\(query)"
let connection = NWConnection(
to: .hostPort(
host: .init(host),
port: .init(integerLiteral: UInt16(url.port ?? 80))
),
using: parameters
)
connection.stateUpdateHandler = { state in
switch state {
case .ready:
print("Connected to proxy: \(proxyDetails[0])")
let httpRequest = """
GET \(fullPath) HTTP/1.1\r
Host: \(host)\r
Connection: close\r
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8\r
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/18.0.1 Safari/605.1.15\r
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.9\r
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br\r
Sec-Fetch-Dest: document\r
Sec-Fetch-Mode: navigate\r
Sec-Fetch-Site: none\r
Priority: u=0, i\r
\r
"""
connection.send(content: httpRequest.data(using: .utf8), completion: .contentProcessed({ error in
if let error = error {
print("Failed to send request: \(error)")
completion(false)
return
}
// Read data until the connection is complete
self.readAllData(connection: connection) { finalData, readError in
if let readError = readError {
print("Failed to receive response: \(readError)")
completion(false)
return
}
guard let data = finalData else {
print("No data received or unable to read data.")
completion(false)
return
}
if let body = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) {
print("Received \(data.count) bytes")
print("\n\nBody is \(body)")
completion(true)
} else {
print("Unable to decode response body.")
completion(false)
}
}
}))
case .failed(let error):
print("Connection failed for proxy \(proxyDetails[0]): \(error)")
completion(false)
case .cancelled:
print("Connection cancelled for proxy \(proxyDetails[0])")
completion(false)
case .waiting(let error):
print("Connection waiting for proxy \(proxyDetails[0]): \(error)")
completion(false)
default:
break
}
}
connection.start(queue: .global())
}
private func readAllData(connection: NWConnection,
accumulatedData: Data = Data(),
completion: @escaping (Data?, Error?) -> Void) {
connection.receive(minimumIncompleteLength: 1, maximumLength: 65536) { data, context, isComplete, error in
if let error = error {
completion(nil, error)
return
}
// Append newly received data to what's been accumulated so far
let newAccumulatedData = accumulatedData + (data ?? Data())
if isComplete {
// If isComplete is true, the server closed the connection or ended the stream
completion(newAccumulatedData, nil)
} else {
// Still more data to read, so keep calling receive
self.readAllData(connection: connection,
accumulatedData: newAccumulatedData,
completion: completion)
}
}
}
When handleNewUDPFlow in NETransparentProxyProvider is used to handle UDP data from port 53,
at the same time, run the script continuously to execute nslookup or dig, about tens of thousands of times later,
the nslookup shows the error "isc_socket_bind: address not available".
So I check the system port status, and find all of the ports from 49152 to 65535 are occupied. The number of net.inet.udp.pcbcount is also very high.
net.inet.udp.pcbcount: 91433
Then I made the following attempts:
handleNewUDPFlow function return false directly, the nslookup script runs with no problems.
I write a simple network extension that use handleNewUDPFlow to reply the mock data directly, and only hijack the UDP data from my test program (HelloWorld-5555).
My network exntension code:
override func handleNewUDPFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyUDPFlow, initialRemoteEndpoint remoteEndpoint: NWEndpoint) -> Bool {
guard let tokenData = flow.metaData.sourceAppAuditToken, tokenData.count == MemoryLayout<audit_token_t>.size else { return false }
let audit_token = tokenData.withUnsafeBytes { buf in
buf.baseAddress?.assumingMemoryBound(to: audit_token_t.self).pointee
}
let pid = audit_token_to_pid(audit_token ?? audit_token_t())
if (!flow.metaData.sourceAppSigningIdentifier.starts(with: "HelloWorld-5555")) {
return false
}
Logger.statistics.log("handleNewUDPFlow \(remoteEndpoint.debugDescription, privacy: .public) \(flow.hash), pid:\(pid), \(flow.metaData.sourceAppSigningIdentifier, privacy: .public)")
flow.open(withLocalEndpoint: nil) { error in
if let error {
os_log("flow open error: %@", error.localizedDescription)
return
}
flow.readDatagrams { data_grams, remote_endpoints, read_err in
guard let read_data_grams = data_grams,
let read_endpoints = remote_endpoints,
read_err == nil else {
os_log("readDatagrams failed")
flow.closeReadWithError(nil)
flow.closeWriteWithError(nil)
return
}
let mockData = Data([0x01,0x02,0x03])
let datagrams = [ mockData ]
guard let remoteEnd = remoteEndpoint as? NWHostEndpoint else {
os_log("Not the NWHostENdpoint")
flow.closeReadWithError(nil)
flow.closeWriteWithError(nil)
return
}
let endpoints = [ NWHostEndpoint(hostname: remoteEnd.hostname, port: remoteEnd.port) ]
flow.writeDatagrams(datagrams, sentBy: endpoints) { error in
if let error {
os_log("writeDatagrams error: %@", error.localizedDescription)
}
os_log("writeDatagrams close")
flow.closeReadWithError(nil)
flow.closeWriteWithError(nil)
}
}
}
return true
}
My test program code:
void send_udp() {
int sockfd;
struct sockaddr_in server_addr;
char buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
int bytes_sent;
// create socket
if ((sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0)) < 0) {
perror("socket create failed");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
struct sockaddr_in local_addr;
memset(&local_addr, 0, sizeof(local_addr));
local_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
local_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY);
local_addr.sin_port = htonl(0);
// bind
if (bind(sockfd, (struct sockaddr*)&local_addr, sizeof(local_addr)) < 0) {
printf("IPV4 bind errno:%d\n", errno);
close(sockfd);
return;
}
// server addr
memset(&server_addr, 0, sizeof(server_addr));
server_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
server_addr.sin_port = htons(SERVER_PORT);
server_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(SERVER_IP);
// send & recv
strcpy(buffer, "Hello, UDP server!");
bytes_sent = sendto(sockfd, buffer, strlen(buffer), 0,
(struct sockaddr *)&server_addr, sizeof(server_addr));
if (bytes_sent < 0) {
perror("sendto failed");
close(sockfd);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("sendto ok\n");
char recvbuf[128] = {0};
socklen_t len = sizeof(server_addr);
int sz = recvfrom(sockfd, recvbuf, sizeof(recvbuf), MSG_WAITALL, (struct sockaddr *) &server_addr, &len);
printf("recv sz: %d\n", sz);
close(sockfd);
return;
}
int main() {
send_udp();
return 0;
}
2.1 When I use bind in my program, after the program running tens of thousands of times, the ports are exhausted, and nslookup return the error "isc_socket_bind: address not available". The case looks like running the nslookup script, because the nslookup will call the bind.
2.2 When I remove the bind from my program, all the tests are go.
I have made the above experiments on different systems: 13.x, 14.x, 15.x, and read the kernel source code about bind and port assignment,
bsd/netinet/in_pcb.c
bsd/netinet/udp_usrreq.c
and find kernel will do different action for network extension by call necp_socket_should_use_flow_divert
I have checked my network extension process by lsof and netstat, its sockets or flows are all closed properly.
I don't know how I can avoid this problem to ensure my network extension to work long time properly. Apparently, the port exhaustion is related to the use of bind function and network extension. I doubt there is a port leak problem in system when use network extension.
Hope for your help.
I'm trying to use ThreadNetwork API to manage TheradNetworks on device (following this documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/threadnetwork/), but while some functions on THClient work (such as getPreferedNetwork), most don't (storeCredentials, retrieveAllCredentials). When calling these functions I get the following warning/error:
Client: -[THClient getConnectionEntitlementValidity]_block_invoke - Error:
-[THClient storeCredentialsForBorderAgent:activeOperationalDataSet:completion:]_block_invoke:701: - Error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service with pid 414 named com.apple.ThreadNetwork.xpc was invalidated from this process." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service with pid 414 named com.apple.ThreadNetwork.xpc was invalidated from this process.}
Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service with pid 414 named com.apple.ThreadNetwork.xpc was invalidated from this process." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service with pid 414 named com.apple.ThreadNetwork.xpc was invalidated from this process.}
Failed to store Thread credentials: Couldn’t communicate with a helper application.
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Create new project
Add Thread Network capability via Xcode UI (com.apple.developer.networking.manage-thread-network-credentials)
Trigger storeCredentials
let extendedMacData = "9483C451DC3E".hexadecimal
let tlvHex = "0e080000000000010000000300001035060004001fffe002083c66f0dc9ef53f1c0708fdb360c72874da9905104094dce45388fd3d3426e992cbf0697b030d474c2d5332302d6e65773030310102250b04106c9f919a4da9b213764fc83f849381080c0402a0f7f8".hexadecimal
// Initialize the THClient
let thClient = THClient()
// Store the credentials
await thClient.storeCredentials(forBorderAgent: extendedMacData!, activeOperationalDataSet: tlvHex!) { error in
if let error = error {
print(error)
print("Failed to store Thread credentials: \(error.localizedDescription)")
} else {
print("Successfully stored Thread credentials")
}
}
NOTES:
I tried with first calling getPreferedNetwork to initiate network permission dialog
Tried adding meshcop to bojur services
Tried with different release and debug build configurations
I'm simply trying to use a proxy to route a http request in Swift. I've tried using a URLSession Delegate but that results in the same issue with the iOS menu.
proxy format: host:port:username:password
When I run the code below I am prompted with a menu to add credentials for the proxy. I closed this menu inside my app and tried the function below again and it worked without giving me the menu a second time. However even though the function works without throwing any errors, it does NOT use the proxies to route the request.
I've spent days on this and the only solution I found was using a NWConnection but this is super low level and now I need a shared session to manage cookies. If you want to see the NWConnection solution I made its here
func averageProxyGroupSpeed(proxies: [String], completion: @escaping (Int, String) -> Void) {
let numProxies = proxies.count
if numProxies == 0 {
completion(0, "No proxies")
return
}
var totalTime: Int64 = 0
var successCount = 0
let group = DispatchGroup()
let queue = DispatchQueue(label: "proxyQueue", attributes: .concurrent)
let lock = NSLock()
let shuffledProxies = proxies.shuffled()
let selectedProxies = Array(shuffledProxies.prefix(25))
for proxy in selectedProxies {
group.enter()
queue.async {
let proxyDetails = proxy.split(separator: ":").map(String.init)
guard proxyDetails.count == 4,
let port = Int(proxyDetails[1]),
let url = URL(string: "http://httpbin.org/get") else {
completion(0, "Invalid proxy format")
group.leave()
return
}
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.timeoutInterval = 15
let configuration = URLSessionConfiguration.default
configuration.connectionProxyDictionary = [
AnyHashable("HTTPEnable"): true,
AnyHashable("HTTPProxy"): proxyDetails[0],
AnyHashable("HTTPPort"): port,
AnyHashable("HTTPSEnable"): false,
AnyHashable("HTTPUser"): proxyDetails[2],
AnyHashable("HTTPPassword"): proxyDetails[3]
]
let session = URLSession(configuration: configuration)
let start = Date()
let task = session.dataTask(with: request) { _, _, error in
defer { group.leave() }
if let error = error {
print("Error: \(error.localizedDescription)")
} else {
let duration = Date().timeIntervalSince(start) * 1000
lock.lock()
totalTime += Int64(duration)
successCount += 1
lock.unlock()
}
}
task.resume()
}
}
group.notify(queue: DispatchQueue.main) {
if successCount == 0 {
completion(0, "Proxies Failed")
} else {
let averageTime = Int(Double(totalTime) / Double(successCount))
completion(averageTime, "")
}
}
}
Delegate example
class ProxySessionDelegate: NSObject, URLSessionDelegate {
let username: String
let password: String
init(username: String, password: String) {
self.username = username
self.password = password
}
func urlSession(_ session: URLSession, task: URLSessionTask, didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge, completionHandler: @escaping (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) -> Void) {
if challenge.protectionSpace.authenticationMethod == NSURLAuthenticationMethodHTTPBasic {
let credential = URLCredential(user: self.username, password: self.password, persistence: .forSession)
completionHandler(.useCredential, credential)
} else {
completionHandler(.performDefaultHandling, nil)
}
}
}
I see a lot of folks spend a lot of time trying to get Multipeer Connectivity to work for them. My experience is that the final result is often unsatisfactory. Instead, my medium-to-long term recommendation is to use Network framework instead. This post explains how you might move from Multipeer Connectivity to Network framework.
If you have questions or comments, put them in a new thread. Place it in the App & System Services > Networking topic area and tag it with Multipeer Connectivity and Network framework.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Moving from Multipeer Connectivity to Network Framework
Multipeer Connectivity has a number of drawbacks:
It has an opinionated networking model, where every participant in a session is a symmetric peer. Many apps work better with the traditional client/server model.
It offers good latency but poor throughput.
It doesn’t support flow control, aka back pressure, which severely constrains its utility for general-purpose networking.
It includes a number of UI components that are effectively obsolete.
It hasn’t evolved in recent years. For example, it relies on NSStream, which has been scheduled for deprecation as far as networking is concerned.
It always enables peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, something that’s not required for many apps and can impact the performance of the network (see Enable peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, below, for more about this).
Its security model requires the use of PKI — public key infrastructure, that is, digital identities and certificates — which are tricky to deploy in a peer-to-peer environment.
It has some gnarly bugs.
IMPORTANT Many folks use Multipeer Connectivity because they think it’s the only way to use peer-to-peer Wi-Fi. That’s not the case. Network framework has opt-in peer-to-peer Wi-Fi support. See Enable peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, below.
If Multipeer Connectivity is not working well for you, consider moving to Network framework. This post explains how to do that in 13 easy steps (-:
Plan for security
Select a network architecture
Create a peer identifier
Choose a protocol to match your send mode
Discover peers
Design for privacy
Configure your connections
Manage a listener
Manage a connection
Send and receive reliable messages
Send and receive best effort messages
Start a stream
Send a resource
Finally, at the end of the post you’ll find two appendices:
Final notes contains some general hints and tips.
Symbol cross reference maps symbols in the Multipeer Connectivity framework to sections of this post. Consult it if you’re not sure where to start with a specific Multipeer Connectivity construct.
Plan for security
The first thing you need to think about is security. Multipeer Connectivity offers three security models, expressed as choices in the MCEncryptionPreference enum:
.none for no security
.optional for optional security
.required for required security
For required security each peer must have a digital identity.
Optional security is largely pointless. It’s more complex than no security but doesn’t yield any benefits. So, in this post we’ll focus on the no security and required security models.
Your security choice affects the network protocols you can use:
QUIC is always secure.
WebSocket, TCP, and UDP can be used with and without TLS security.
QUIC security only supports PKI. TLS security supports both TLS-PKI and pre-shared key (PSK). You might find that TLS-PSK is easier to deploy in a peer-to-peer environment.
To configure the security of the QUIC protocol:
func quicParameters() -> NWParameters {
let quic = NWProtocolQUIC.Options(alpn: ["MyAPLN"])
let sec = quic.securityProtocolOptions
… configure `sec` here …
return NWParameters(quic: quic)
}
To enable TLS over TCP:
func tlsOverTCPParameters() -> NWParameters {
let tcp = NWProtocolTCP.Options()
let tls = NWProtocolTLS.Options()
let sec = tls.securityProtocolOptions
… configure `sec` here …
return NWParameters(tls: tls, tcp: tcp)
}
To enable TLS over UDP, also known as DTLS:
func dtlsOverUDPParameters() -> NWParameters {
let udp = NWProtocolUDP.Options()
let dtls = NWProtocolTLS.Options()
let sec = dtls.securityProtocolOptions
… configure `sec` here …
return NWParameters(dtls: dtls, udp: udp)
}
To configure TLS with a local digital identity and custom server trust evaluation:
func configureTLSPKI(sec: sec_protocol_options_t, identity: SecIdentity) {
let secIdentity = sec_identity_create(identity)!
sec_protocol_options_set_local_identity(sec, secIdentity)
if disableServerTrustEvaluation {
sec_protocol_options_set_verify_block(sec, { metadata, secTrust, completionHandler in
let trust = sec_trust_copy_ref(secTrust).takeRetainedValue()
… evaluate `trust` here …
completionHandler(true)
}, .main)
}
}
To configure TLS with a pre-shared key:
func configureTLSPSK(sec: sec_protocol_options_t, identity: Data, key: Data) {
let identityDD = identity.withUnsafeBytes { DispatchData(bytes: $0) }
let keyDD = identity.withUnsafeBytes { DispatchData(bytes: $0) }
sec_protocol_options_add_pre_shared_key(
sec,
keyDD as dispatch_data_t,
identityDD as dispatch_data_t
)
sec_protocol_options_append_tls_ciphersuite(
sec,
tls_ciphersuite_t(rawValue: TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256)!
)
}
Select a network architecture
Multipeer Connectivity uses a star network architecture. All peers are equal, and every peer is effectively connected to every peer. Many apps work better with the client/server model, where one peer acts on the server and all the others are clients. Network framework supports both models.
To implement a client/server network architecture with Network framework:
Designate one peer as the server and all the others as clients.
On the server, use NWListener to listen for incoming connections.
On each client, use NWConnection to made an outgoing connection to the server.
To implement a star network architecture with Network framework:
On each peer, start a listener.
And also start a connection to each of the other peers.
This is likely to generate a lot of redundant connections, as peer A connects to peer B and vice versa. You’ll need to a way to deduplicate those connections, which is the subject of the next section.
IMPORTANT While the star network architecture is more likely to create redundant connections, the client/server network architecture can generate redundant connections as well. The advice in the next section applies to both architectures.
Create a peer identifier
Multipeer Connectivity uses MCPeerID to uniquely identify each peer. There’s nothing particularly magic about MCPeerID; it’s effectively a wrapper around a large random number.
To identify each peer in Network framework, generate your own large random number. One good choice for a peer identifier is a locally generated UUID, created using the system UUID type.
Some Multipeer Connectivity apps persist their local MCPeerID value, taking advantage of its NSSecureCoding support. You can do the same with a UUID, using either its string representation or its Codable support.
IMPORTANT Before you decide to persist a peer identifier, think about the privacy implications. See Design for privacy below.
Avoid having multiple connections between peers; that’s both wasteful and potentially confusing. Use your peer identifier to deduplicate connections.
Deduplicating connections in a client/server network architecture is easy. Have each client check in with the server with its peer identifier. If the server already has a connection for that identifier, it can either close the old connection and keep the new connection, or vice versa.
Deduplicating connections in a star network architecture is a bit trickier. One option is to have each peer send its peer identifier to the other peer and then the peer with the ‘best’ identifier wins. For example, imagine that peer A makes an outgoing connection to peer B while peer B is simultaneously making an outgoing connection to peer A. When a peer receives a peer identifier from a connection, it checks for a duplicate. If it finds one, it compares the peer identifiers and then chooses a connection to drop based on that comparison:
if local peer identifier > remote peer identifier then
drop outgoing connection
else
drop incoming connection
end if
So, peer A drops its incoming connection and peer B drops its outgoing connection. Et voilà!
Choose a protocol to match your send mode
Multipeer Connectivity offers two send modes, expressed as choices in the MCSessionSendDataMode enum:
.reliable for reliable messages
.unreliable for best effort messages
Best effort is useful when sending latency-sensitive data, that is, data where retransmission is pointless because, by the retransmission arrives, the data will no longer be relevant. This is common in audio and video applications.
In Network framework, the send mode is set by the connection’s protocol:
A specific QUIC connection is either reliable or best effort.
WebSocket and TCP are reliable.
UDP is best effort.
Start with a reliable connection. In many cases you can stop there, because you never need a best effort connection.
If you’re not sure which reliable protocol to use, choose WebSocket. It has key advantages over other protocols:
It supports both security models: none and required. Moreover, its required security model supports both TLS-PKI and TLS PSK. In contrast, QUIC only supports the required security model, and within that model it only supports TLS-PKI.
It allows you to send messages over the connection. In contrast, TCP works in terms of bytes, meaning that you have to add your own framing.
If you need a best effort connection, get started with a reliable connection and use that connection to set up a parallel best effort connection. For example, you might have an exchange like this:
Peer A uses its reliable WebSocket connection to peer B to send a request for a parallel best effort UDP connection.
Peer B receives that, opens a UDP listener, and sends the UDP listener’s port number back to peer A.
Peer A opens its parallel UDP connection to that port on peer B.
Note For step 3, get peer B’s IP address from the currentPath property of the reliable WebSocket connection.
If you’re not sure which best effort protocol to use, use UDP. While it is possible to use QUIC in datagram mode, it has the same security complexities as QUIC in reliable mode.
Discover peers
Multipeer Connectivity has a types for advertising a peer’s session (MCAdvertiserAssistant) and a type for browsering for peer (MCNearbyServiceBrowser).
In Network framework, configure the listener to advertise its service by setting the service property of NWListener:
let listener: NWListener = …
listener.service = .init(type: "_example._tcp")
listener.serviceRegistrationUpdateHandler = { change in
switch change {
case .add(let endpoint):
… update UI for the added listener endpoint …
break
case .remove(let endpoint):
… update UI for the removed listener endpoint …
break
@unknown default:
break
}
}
listener.stateUpdateHandler = … handle state changes …
listener.newConnectionHandler = … handle the new connection …
listener.start(queue: .main)
This example also shows how to use the serviceRegistrationUpdateHandler to update your UI to reflect changes in the listener.
Note This example uses a service type of _example._tcp. See About service types, below, for more details on that.
To browse for services, use NWBrowser:
let browser = NWBrowser(for: .bonjour(type: "_example._tcp", domain: nil), using: .tcp)
browser.browseResultsChangedHandler = { latestResults, _ in
… update UI to show the latest results …
}
browser.stateUpdateHandler = … handle state changes …
browser.start(queue: .main)
This yields NWEndpoint values for each peer that it discovers. To connect to a given peer, create an NWConnection with that endpoint.
About service types
The examples in this post use _example._tcp for the service type. The first part, _example, is directly analogous to the serviceType value you supply when creating MCAdvertiserAssistant and MCNearbyServiceBrowser objects. The second part is either _tcp or _udp depending on the underlying transport protocol. For TCP and WebSocket, use _tcp. For UDP and QUIC, use _udp.
Service types are described in RFC 6335. If you deploy an app that uses a new service type, register that service type with IANA.
Discovery UI
Multipeer Connectivity also has UI components for advertising (MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser) and browsing (MCBrowserViewController). There’s no direct equivalent to this in Network framework. Instead, use your preferred UI framework to create a UI that best suits your requirements.
Note If you’re targeting Apple TV, check out the DeviceDiscoveryUI framework.
Discovery TXT records
The Bonjour service discovery protocol used by Network framework supports TXT records. Using these, a listener can associate metadata with its service and a browser can get that metadata for each discovered service.
To advertise a TXT record with your listener, include it it the service property value:
let listener: NWListener = …
let peerID: UUID = …
var txtRecord = NWTXTRecord()
txtRecord["peerID"] = peerID.uuidString
listener.service = .init(type: "_example._tcp", txtRecord: txtRecord.data)
To browse for services and their associated TXT records, use the .bonjourWithTXTRecord(…) descriptor:
let browser = NWBrowser(for: .bonjourWithTXTRecord(type: "_example._tcp", domain: nil), using: .tcp)
browser.browseResultsChangedHandler = { latestResults, _ in
for result in latestResults {
guard
case .bonjour(let txtRecord) = result.metadata,
let peerID = txtRecord["peerID"]
else { continue }
// … examine `result` and `peerID` …
_ = peerID
}
}
This example includes the peer identifier in the TXT record with the goal of reducing the number of duplicate connections, but that’s just one potential use for TXT records.
Design for privacy
This section lists some privacy topics to consider as you implement your app. Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list. For general advice on this topic, see Protecting the User’s Privacy.
There can be no privacy without security. If you didn’t opt in to security with Multipeer Connectivity because you didn’t want to deal with PKI, consider the TLS-PSK options offered by Network framework. For more on this topic, see Plan for security.
When you advertise a service, the default behaviour is to use the user-assigned device name as the service name. To override that, create a service with a custom name:
let listener: NWListener = …
let name: String = …
listener.service = .init(name: name, type: "_example._tcp")
It’s not uncommon for folks to use the peer identifier as the service name. Whether that’s a good option depends on the user experience of your product:
Some products present a list of remote peers and have the user choose from that list. In that case it’s best to stick with the user-assigned device name, because that’s what the user will recognise.
Some products automatically connect to services as they discover them. In that case it’s fine to use the peer identifier as the service name, because the user won’t see it anyway.
If you stick with the user-assigned device name, consider advertising the peer identifier in your TXT record. See Discovery TXT records.
IMPORTANT Using a peer identifier in your service name or TXT record is a heuristic to reduce the number of duplicate connections. Don’t rely on it for correctness. Rather, deduplicate connections using the process described in Create a peer identifier.
There are good reasons to persist your peer identifier, but doing so isn’t great for privacy. Persisting the identifier allows for tracking of your service over time and between networks. Consider whether you need a persistent peer identifier at all. If you do, consider whether it makes sense to rotate it over time.
A persistent peer identifier is especially worrying if you use it as your service name or put it in your TXT record.
Configure your connections
Multipeer Connectivity’s symmetric architecture means that it uses a single type, MCSession, to manage the connections to all peers.
In Network framework, that role is fulfilled by two types:
NWListener to listen for incoming connections.
NWConnection to make outgoing connections.
Both types require you to supply an NWParameters value that specifies the network protocol and options to use. In addition, when creating an NWConnection you pass in an NWEndpoint to tell it the service to connect to. For example, here’s how to configure a very simple listener for TCP:
let parameters = NWParameters.tcp
let listener = try NWListener(using: parameters)
… continue setting up the listener …
And here’s how you might configure an outgoing TCP connection:
let parameters = NWParameters.tcp
let endpoint = NWEndpoint.hostPort(host: "example.com", port: 80)
let connection = NWConnection.init(to: endpoint, using: parameters)
… continue setting up the connection …
NWParameters has properties to control exactly what protocol to use and what options to use with those protocols.
To work with QUIC connections, use code like that shown in the quicParameters() example from the Security section earlier in this post.
To work with TCP connections, use the NWParameters.tcp property as shown above.
To enable TLS on your TCP connections, use code like that shown in the tlsOverTCPParameters() example from the Security section earlier in this post.
To work with WebSocket connections, insert it into the application protocols array:
let parameters = NWParameters.tcp
let ws = NWProtocolWebSocket.Options(.version13)
parameters.defaultProtocolStack.applicationProtocols.insert(ws, at: 0)
To enable TLS on your WebSocket connections, use code like that shown in the tlsOverTCPParameters() example to create your base parameters and then add the WebSocket application protocol to that.
To work with UDP connections, use the NWParameters.udp property:
let parameters = NWParameters.udp
To enable TLS on your UDP connections, use code like that shown in the dtlsOverUDPParameters() example from the Security section earlier in this post.
Enable peer-to-peer Wi-Fi
By default, Network framework doesn’t use peer-to-peer Wi-Fi. To enable that, set the includePeerToPeer property on the parameters used to create your listener and connection objects.
parameters.includePeerToPeer = true
IMPORTANT Enabling peer-to-peer Wi-Fi can impact the performance of the network. Only opt into it if it’s a significant benefit to your app.
If you enable peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, it’s critical to stop network operations as soon as you’re done with them. For example, if you’re browsing for services with peer-to-peer Wi-Fi enabled and the user picks a service, stop the browse operation immediately. Otherwise, the ongoing browse operation might affect the performance of your connection.
Manage a listener
In Network framework, use NWListener to listen for incoming connections:
let parameters: NWParameters = .tcp
… configure parameters …
let listener = try NWListener(using: parameters)
listener.service = … service details …
listener.serviceRegistrationUpdateHandler = … handle service registration changes …
listener.stateUpdateHandler = { newState in
… handle state changes …
}
listener.newConnectionHandler = { newConnection in
… handle the new connection …
}
listener.start(queue: .main)
For details on how to set up parameters, see Configure your connections. For details on how to set up up service and serviceRegistrationUpdateHandler, see Discover peers.
Network framework calls your state update handler when the listener changes state:
let listener: NWListener = …
listener.stateUpdateHandler = { newState in
switch newState {
case .setup:
// The listener has not yet started.
…
case .waiting(let error):
// The listener tried to start and failed. It might recover in the
// future.
…
case .ready:
// The listener is running.
…
case .failed(let error):
// The listener tried to start and failed irrecoverably.
…
case .cancelled:
// The listener was cancelled by you.
…
@unknown default:
break
}
}
Network framework calls your new connection handler when a client connects to it:
var connections: [NWConnection] = []
let listener: NWListener = listener
listener.newConnectionHandler = { newConnection in
… configure the new connection …
newConnection.start(queue: .main)
connections.append(newConnection)
}
IMPORTANT Don’t forget to call start(queue:) on your connections.
In Multipeer Connectivity, the session (MCSession) keeps track of all the peers you’re communicating with. With Network framework, that responsibility falls on you. This example uses a simple connections array for that purpose. In your app you may or may not need a more complex data structure. For example:
In the client/server network architecture, the client only needs to manage the connections to a single peer, the server.
On the other hand, the server must managed the connections to all client peers.
In the star network architecture, every peer must maintain a listener and connections to each of the other peers.
Understand UDP flows
Network framework handles UDP using the same NWListener and NWConnection types as it uses for TCP. However, the underlying UDP protocol is not implemented in terms of listeners and connections. To resolve this, Network framework works in terms of UDP flows. A UDP flow is defined as a bidirectional sequence of UDP datagrams with the same 4 tuple (local IP address, local port, remote IP address, and remote port). In Network framework:
Each NWConnection object manages a single UDP flow.
If an NWListener receives a UDP datagram whose 4 tuple doesn’t match any known NWConnection, it creates a new NWConnection.
Manage a connection
In Network framework, use NWConnection to start an outgoing connection:
var connections: [NWConnection] = []
let parameters: NWParameters = …
let endpoint: NWEndpoint = …
let connection = NWConnection(to: endpoint, using: parameters)
connection.stateUpdateHandler = … handle state changes …
connection.viabilityUpdateHandler = … handle viability changes …
connection.pathUpdateHandler = … handle path changes …
connection.betterPathUpdateHandler = … handle better path notifications …
connection.start(queue: .main)
connections.append(connection)
As in the listener case, you’re responsible for keeping track of this connection.
Each connection supports four different handlers. Of these, the state and viability update handlers are the most important. For information about the path update and better path handlers, see the NWConnection documentation.
Network framework calls your state update handler when the connection changes state:
let connection: NWConnection = …
connection.stateUpdateHandler = { newState in
switch newState {
case .setup:
// The connection has not yet started.
…
case .preparing:
// The connection is starting.
…
case .waiting(let error):
// The connection tried to start and failed. It might recover in the
// future.
…
case .ready:
// The connection is running.
…
case .failed(let error):
// The connection tried to start and failed irrecoverably.
…
case .cancelled:
// The connection was cancelled by you.
…
@unknown default:
break
}
}
If you a connection is in the .waiting(_:) state and you want to force an immediate retry, call the restart() method.
Network framework calls your viability update handler when its viability changes:
let connection: NWConnection = …
connection.viabilityUpdateHandler = { isViable in
… react to viability changes …
}
A connection becomes inviable when a network resource that it depends on is unavailable. A good example of this is the network interface that the connection is running over. If you have a connection running over Wi-Fi, and the user turns off Wi-Fi or moves out of range of their Wi-Fi network, any connection running over Wi-Fi becomes inviable.
The inviable state is not necessarily permanent. To continue the above example, the user might re-enable Wi-Fi or move back into range of their Wi-Fi network. If the connection becomes viable again, Network framework calls your viability update handler with a true value.
It’s a good idea to debounce the viability handler. If the connection becomes inviable, don’t close it down immediately. Rather, wait for a short while to see if it becomes viable again.
If a connection has been inviable for a while, you get to choose as to how to respond. For example, you might close the connection down or inform the user.
To close a connection, call the cancel() method. This gracefully disconnects the underlying network connection. To close a connection immediately, call the forceCancel() method. This is not something you should do as a matter of course, but it does make sense in exceptional circumstances. For example, if you’ve determined that the remote peer has gone deaf, it makes sense to cancel it in this way.
Send and receive reliable messages
In Multipeer Connectivity, a single session supports both reliable and best effort send modes. In Network framework, a connection is either reliable or best effort, depending on the underlying network protocol.
The exact mechanism for sending a message depends on the underlying network protocol. A good protocol for reliable messages is WebSocket. To send a message on a WebSocket connection:
let connection: NWConnection = …
let message: Data = …
let metadata = NWProtocolWebSocket.Metadata(opcode: .binary)
let context = NWConnection.ContentContext(identifier: "send", metadata: [metadata])
connection.send(content: message, contentContext: context, completion: .contentProcessed({ error in
// … check `error` …
_ = error
}))
In WebSocket, the content identifier is ignored. Using an arbitrary fixed value, like the send in this example, is just fine.
Multipeer Connectivity allows you to send a message to multiple peers in a single send call. In Network framework each send call targets a specific connection. To send a message to multiple peers, make a send call on the connection associated with each peer.
If your app needs to transfer arbitrary amounts of data on a connection, it must implement flow control. See Start a stream, below.
To receive messages on a WebSocket connection:
func startWebSocketReceive(on connection: NWConnection) {
connection.receiveMessage { message, _, _, error in
if let error {
… handle the error …
return
}
if let message {
… handle the incoming message …
}
startWebSocketReceive(on: connection)
}
}
IMPORTANT WebSocket preserves message boundaries, which is one of the reasons why it’s ideal for your reliable messaging connections. If you use a streaming protocol, like TCP or QUIC streams, you must do your own framing. A good way to do that is with NWProtocolFramer.
If you need the metadata associated with the message, get it from the context parameter:
connection.receiveMessage { message, context, _, error in
…
if let message,
let metadata = context?.protocolMetadata(definition: NWProtocolWebSocket.definition) as? NWProtocolWebSocket.Metadata
{
… handle the incoming message and its metadata …
}
…
}
Send and receive best effort messages
In Multipeer Connectivity, a single session supports both reliable and best effort send modes. In Network framework, a connection is either reliable or best effort, depending on the underlying network protocol.
The exact mechanism for sending a message depends on the underlying network protocol. A good protocol for best effort messages is UDP. To send a message on a UDP connection:
let connection: NWConnection = …
let message: Data = …
connection.send(content: message, completion: .idempotent)
IMPORTANT UDP datagrams have a theoretical maximum size of just under 64 KiB. However, sending a large datagram results in IP fragmentation, which is very inefficient. For this reason, Network framework prevents you from sending UDP datagrams that will be fragmented. To find the maximum supported datagram size for a connection, gets its maximumDatagramSize property.
To receive messages on a UDP connection:
func startUDPReceive(on connection: NWConnection) {
connection.receiveMessage { message, _, _, error in
if let error {
… handle the error …
return
}
if let message {
… handle the incoming message …
}
startUDPReceive(on: connection)
}
}
This is exactly the same code as you’d use for WebSocket.
Start a stream
In Multipeer Connectivity, you can ask the session to start a stream to a specific peer. There are two ways to achieve this in Network framework:
If you’re using QUIC for your reliable connection, start a new QUIC stream over that connection. This is one place that QUIC shines. You can run an arbitrary number of QUIC connections over a single QUIC connection group, and QUIC manages flow control (see below) for each connection and for the group as a whole.
If you’re using some other protocol for your reliable connection, like WebSocket, you must start a new connection. You might use TCP for this new connection, but it’s not unreasonable to use WebSocket or QUIC.
If you need to open a new connection for your stream, you can manage that process over your reliable connection. Choose a protocol to match your send mode explains the general approach for this, although in that case it’s opening a parallel best effort UDP connection rather than a parallel stream connection.
The main reason to start a new stream is that you want to send a lot of data to the remote peer. In that case you need to worry about flow control. Flow control applies to both the send and receive side.
IMPORTANT Failing to implement flow control can result in unbounded memory growth in your app. This is particularly bad on iOS, where jetsam will terminate your app if it uses too much memory.
On the send side, implement flow control by waiting for the connection to call your completion handler before generating and sending more data. For example, on a TCP connection or QUIC stream you might have code like this:
func sendNextChunk(on connection: NWConnection) {
let chunk: Data = … read next chunk from disk …
connection.send(content: chunk, completion: .contentProcessed({ error in
if let error {
… handle error …
return
}
sendNextChunk(on: connection)
}))
}
This acts like an asynchronous loop. The first send call completes immediately because the connection just copies the data to its send buffer. In response, your app generates more data. This continues until the connection’s send buffer fills up, at which point it defers calling your completion handler. Eventually, the connection moves enough data across the network to free up space in its send buffer, and calls your completion handler. Your app generates another chunk of data
For best performance, use a chunk size of at least 64 KiB. If you’re expecting to run on a fast device with a fast network, a chunk size of 1 MiB is reasonable.
Receive-side flow control is a natural extension of the standard receive pattern. For example, on a TCP connection or QUIC stream you might have code like this:
func receiveNextChunk(on connection: NWConnection) {
let chunkSize = 64 * 1024
connection.receive(minimumIncompleteLength: chunkSize, maximumLength: chunkSize) { chunk, _, isComplete, error in
if let chunk {
… write chunk to disk …
}
if isComplete {
… close the file …
return
}
if let error {
… handle the error …
return
}
receiveNextChunk(on: connection)
}
}
IMPORTANT The above is cast in terms of writing the chunk to disk. That’s important, because it prevents unbounded memory growth. If, for example, you accumulated the chunks into an in-memory buffer, that buffer could grow without bound, which risks jetsam terminating your app.
The above assumes that you can read and write chunks of data synchronously and promptly, for example, reading and writing a file on a local disk. That’s not always the case. For example, you might be writing data to an accessory over a slow interface, like Bluetooth LE. In such cases you need to read and write each chunk asynchronously.
This results in a structure where you read from an asynchronous input and write to an asynchronous output. For an example of how you might approach this, albeit in a very different context, see Handling Flow Copying.
Send a resource
In Multipeer Connectivity, you can ask the session to send a complete resource, identified by either a file or HTTP URL, to a specific peer. Network framework has no equivalent support for this, but you can implement it on top of a stream:
To send, open a stream and then read chunks of data using URLSession and send them over that stream.
To receive, open a stream and then receive chunks of data from that stream and write those chunks to disk.
In this situation it’s critical to implement flow control, as described in the previous section.
Final notes
This section collects together some general hints and tips.
Concurrency
In Multipeer Connectivity, each MCSession has its own internal queue and calls delegate callbacks on that queue. In Network framework, you get to control the queue used by each object for its callbacks. A good pattern is to have a single serial queue for all networking, including your listener and all connections.
In a simple app it’s reasonable to use the main queue for networking. If you do this, be careful not to do CPU intensive work in your networking callbacks. For example, if you receive a message that holds JPEG data, don’t decode that data on the main queue.
Overriding protocol defaults
Many network protocols, most notably TCP and QUIC, are intended to be deployed at vast scale across the wider Internet. For that reason they use default options that aren’t optimised for local networking. Consider changing these defaults in your app.
TCP has the concept of a send timeout. If you send data on a TCP connection and TCP is unable to successfully transfer it to the remote peer within the send timeout, TCP will fail the connection.
The default send timeout is infinite. TCP just keeps trying. To change this, set the connectionDropTime property.
TCP has the concept of keepalives. If a connection is idle, TCP will send traffic on the connection for two reasons:
If the connection is running through a NAT, the keepalives prevent the NAT mapping from timing out.
If the remote peer is inaccessible, the keepalives fail, which in turn causes the connection to fail. This prevents idle but dead connections from lingering indefinitely.
TCP keepalives default to disabled. To enable and configure them, set the enableKeepalive property. To configure their behaviour, set the keepaliveIdle, keepaliveCount, and keepaliveInterval properties.
Symbol cross reference
If you’re not sure where to start with a specific Multipeer Connectivity construct, find it in the tables below and follow the link to the relevant section.
[Sorry for the poor formatting here. DevForums doesn’t support tables properly, so I’ve included the tables as preformatted text.]
| For symbol | See |
| ----------------------------------- | --------------------------- |
| `MCAdvertiserAssistant` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCAdvertiserAssistantDelegate` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCBrowserViewController` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCBrowserViewControllerDelegate` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCNearbyServiceAdvertiserDelegate` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCNearbyServiceBrowser` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCNearbyServiceBrowserDelegate` | *Discover peers* |
| `MCPeerID` | *Create a peer identifier* |
| `MCSession` | See below. |
| `MCSessionDelegate` | See below. |
Within MCSession:
| For symbol | See |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| `cancelConnectPeer(_:)` | *Manage a connection* |
| `connectedPeers` | *Manage a listener* |
| `connectPeer(_:withNearbyConnectionData:)` | *Manage a connection* |
| `disconnect()` | *Manage a connection* |
| `encryptionPreference` | *Plan for security* |
| `myPeerID` | *Create a peer identifier* |
| `nearbyConnectionData(forPeer:withCompletionHandler:)` | *Discover peers* |
| `securityIdentity` | *Plan for security* |
| `send(_:toPeers:with:)` | *Send and receive reliable messages* |
| `sendResource(at:withName:toPeer:withCompletionHandler:)` | *Send a resource* |
| `startStream(withName:toPeer:)` | *Start a stream* |
Within MCSessionDelegate:
| For symbol | See |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| `session(_:didFinishReceivingResourceWithName:fromPeer:at:withError:)` | *Send a resource* |
| `session(_:didReceive:fromPeer:)` | *Send and receive reliable messages* |
| `session(_:didReceive:withName:fromPeer:)` | *Start a stream* |
| `session(_:didReceiveCertificate:fromPeer:certificateHandler:)` | *Plan for security* |
| `session(_:didStartReceivingResourceWithName:fromPeer:with:)` | *Send a resource* |
| `session(_:peer:didChange:)` | *Manage a connection* |
Revision History
2025-04-11 Added some advice as to whether to use the peer identifier in your service name. Expanded the discussion of how to deduplicate connections in a star network architecture.
2025-03-20 Added a link to the DeviceDiscoveryUI framework to the Discovery UI section. Made other minor editorial changes.
2025-03-11 Expanded the Enable peer-to-peer Wi-Fi section to stress the importance of stopping network operations once you’re done with them. Added a link to that section from the list of Multipeer Connectivity drawbacks.
2025-03-07 First posted.
Dear Apple:
We found that after mirroring an iPhone and a Mac, calling the NEHotspotConfigurationManager applyConfiguration interface on the iPhone fails to connect to Wi-Fi. Are there any restrictions on using this interface in mirror mode?
We've observed intermittent crashes in our production environment, pls help to take a look at this, thx
We use Boost ***** (1.86.0) for WebSockets in an iOS application using a self-signed certificate.
The ***** WebSocket client works fine on iOS 18.1 and every other OS (Windows, Android, Linux, etc...) but not iOS 18.3.1 and possibly versions before 18.3.1 but later than iOS 18.1.
Has anyone else ran into this issue and how did you resolve?
What could have changed after iOS 18.1 that would prevent a WSS Websocket from connecting that works fine on iOS 18.1?
Hi
we want to use CONNECT-IP extension within the MASQUE protocol suite.
we want to be able to reroute ICMP packets from our machine and redirect them to our MASQUE proxy.
we want to avoid a creation of virtual interface or modifying the routing tables.
is it possible, if so, how can it be achieved.
thanks
Hi there, I'm trying to build a MacOS VPN application from scratch. My VPN application is slightly from normal ones,
It will include an authentication token and underlying process information (pid, application path etc.) in each connection made to the VPN gateway. Consider it a poor man's zerotrust implementation.
NetworkExtension and PacketTunnel is a must, thus to retrieve process information via audit tokens.
However, I'm unable to find any working examples that can be built on MacOS 15.X. I tried to open an TSI case but didn't receive anything useful.
Anyone?
I was trying to call getsockopt(fd, SOL_LOCAL, LOCAL_PEERCRED, ...), and by mistake passed a wrong value for the second parameter where it should be SOL_LOCAL. But the call still succeeded. Then I did more experiments and passed more random values for the second parameter, all succeeded. It seems there is a lack of parameter check in the implementation of getsockopt() , where it should return errors if people pass invalid parameters instead of succeeding silently. Hope the Apple engineers can help to validate and fix it.
hi everybody,
When I use the following code to connect to WiFi network, an error message of "error=null" or "error='Error Domain=NEHotspotConfigurationErrorDomain Code=11 "" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=}' " will occur. It has been uploaded to Feedback.
Feedback ID:
FB16819345 (WiFi-无法加入网络)
NEHotspotConfiguration *hotspotConfig = [[NEHotspotConfiguration alloc] initWithSSID:ssid passphrase:psk isWEP:NO];
[[NEHotspotConfigurationManager sharedManager] applyConfiguration:hotspotConfig completionHandler:^(NSError * _Nullable error) {
}];
I am developing an App based on Network Extension that lets all network requests on device access the Internet through a private Relay.
I created an empty iOS App and only the entitlements file and ViewController.swift(Main.storyboard) file have been modified. The code was copied from the official video https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10002/
But, running the App on iPhone, the saveToPreferences API reported Error Domain=NERelayErrorDomain Code=3 "(null)" and the App doesn't look like it's changed at all (it doesn't jump to the Settings - VPN&Relay). Does anyone know why?Any reply would be greatly appreciated.
The contents of the entitlements file:
<?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>com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension</key>
<array>
<string>relay</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
ViewController.swift:
import UIKit
import NetworkExtension
class ViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
}
@IBAction func tap(_ sender: Any) {
let newRelay = NERelay()
let relayURL = URL(string: "https://relay.example.com:443/")
newRelay.http3RelayURL = relayURL
newRelay.http2RelayURL = relayURL
newRelay.additionalHTTPHeaderFields = ["Authorization" : "PrivateToken=123"]
let manager = NERelayManager.shared()
manager.relays = [newRelay]
manager.matchDomains = ["internal.example.com"]
manager.isEnabled = false
manager.saveToPreferences { err in
print(err)
}
}
}
I am writing to seek clarification on two technical issues related to iOS frameworks (CoreBluetooth and NetworkExtension). These observations are critical for optimizing our app's performance, and I would appreciate any official guidance or documentation references.
CoreBluetooth Scanning Frequency and Cycle
Issue:
We noticed inconsistent BLE device discovery times (ranging from 0.5s to 1.5s) despite the peripheral advertising at 2Hz (500ms interval).
Questions:
Does iOS regulate the BLE scan interval or duty cycle internally? If yes, what factors affect this behavior (e.g., foreground/background state, connected devices)?
Are there recommended practices to reduce discovery latency for peripherals with fixed advertising intervals?
Is there a way to configure scan parameters (e.g., scan window/interval) programmatically, similar to Android's BluetoothLeScanner?
Test Context:
Device: iPhone 13 mini (iOS 17.6.1)
Code: CBCentralManager.scanForPeripherals(withServices: nil, options: [CBCentralManagerScanOptionAllowDuplicatesKey: true])
NEHotspotConfigurationManager Workflow and Latency
Issue:
Using NEHotspotConfigurationManager.shared.apply(_:) to connect to Wi-Fi occasionally takes up to 8 seconds to complete.
Questions:
What is the internal workflow of the apply method? Does it include user permission checks, SSID scanning, authentication, or IP assignment steps?
Are there known scenarios where this method would block for extended periods (e.g., waiting for user interaction, network timeouts)?
Is the latency related to system-level retries or radio coexistence with other wireless activities (e.g., Bluetooth)?
Test Context:
Configuration: NEHotspotConfiguration(ssid: "TestSSID")
Behavior: Delay occurs even when the Wi-Fi network is in range and credentials are correct.
I am writing to seek clarification on two technical issues related to iOS frameworks (CoreBluetooth and NetworkExtension). These observations are critical for optimizing our app's performance, and I would appreciate any official guidance or documentation references.
CoreBluetooth Scanning Frequency and Cycle
Issue:
We noticed inconsistent BLE device discovery times (ranging from 0.5s to 1.5s) despite the peripheral advertising at 2Hz (500ms interval).
Questions:
Does iOS regulate the BLE scan interval or duty cycle internally? If yes, what factors affect this behavior (e.g., foreground/background state, connected devices)?
Are there recommended practices to reduce discovery latency for peripherals with fixed advertising intervals?
Is there a way to configure scan parameters (e.g., scan window/interval) programmatically, similar to Android's BluetoothLeScanner?
Test Context:
Device: iPhone 13 mini (iOS 17.6.1)
Code: CBCentralManager.scanForPeripherals(withServices: nil, options: [CBCentralManagerScanOptionAllowDuplicatesKey: true])
NEHotspotConfigurationManager Workflow and Latency
Issue:
Using NEHotspotConfigurationManager.shared.apply(_:) to connect to Wi-Fi occasionally takes up to 8 seconds to complete.
Questions:
What is the internal workflow of the apply method? Does it include user permission checks, SSID scanning, authentication, or IP assignment steps?
Are there known scenarios where this method would block for extended periods (e.g., waiting for user interaction, network timeouts)?
Is the latency related to system-level retries or radio coexistence with other wireless activities (e.g., Bluetooth)?
Test Context:
Configuration: NEHotspotConfiguration(ssid: "TestSSID")
Behavior: Delay occurs even when the Wi-Fi network is in range and credentials are correct.
In TN3179 under "macOS considerations" there are a set of instances where local network privacy does not apply:
macOS automatically allows local network access by:
Any daemon started by launchd
Any program running as root
Command-line tools run from Terminal or over SSH, including any child processes they spawn
I am running some tests in my app that use the local network, attempting to run them from both the terminal app and from a VScode terminal and I am getting permissions prompts. After allowing these pop ups, some of the tests still fail as if networking was blocked.