Hello,
I have been playing around the the SimpleURLFilter sample code. I keep getting this error upon installed the filter profile on the device:
mapError unexpected error domain NEVPNConnectionErrorDomainPlugin code 7
which then causes this error:
Received filter status change: <FilterStatus: 'stopped' errorMessage: 'The operation couldn’t be completed. (NetworkExtension.NEURLFilterManager.Error error 14.)'>
I can't find much info about code 7.
Here is the configuration I am trying to run:
<Configuration: pirServerURL: 'http://MyComputer.local:8080' pirAuthenticationToken: 'AAAA' pirPrivacyPassIssuerURL: 'http://MyComputer.local:8080' enabled: 'true' shouldFailClosed: 'true' controlProviderBundleIdentifier: 'krpaul.SimpleURLFilter.SimpleURLFilterExtension' prefilterFetchInterval: '2700.0'>
Networking
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But the NMI and NDI of Samsung's Wi Fi Aware are not the same MAC address. May I ask Apple engineers why they are different from Samsung?
We currently supporting proxy app with Tunnel.appEx and PacketTunnelProvider.
Some users report about constant error "The VPN session failed because an internal error occurred." on VPN start (which fails rapidly).
This error occur mostly after user updated app with active VPN.
Rebooting device solves the problem and it doesnt come again, but it is still very frustrating.
I can provide any required info about app setup to solve this issue if you need. Thanks
We’re having an iPad issue accessing the local network with iPadOS 26.3. We have an automation system that tests our app on an iPad using accessibility tags. the XCTest test code sends messages from the iPad via TCP/IP to setup external test equipment. The messages abruptly stopped transmitting across the iPad blood-brain barrier with iPadOS 26.3 (26.2.1 and earlier works fine).
The technique that worked involved installing a helper app with the same bundleID as our app, allowing the helper app to access the network, and when our app runs it has network access through the helper. It’s clever and kludgey.
Forums that we referenced in the past:
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/663858
TN3179: Understanding local network privacy | Apple Developer Documentation
I suspect that something was changed in 26.3 that closed our window. I need two things: ID what is different in 26.3 and fix the automation system. If there’s a new way for XCUITest code to access the local network I’m happy to try it out.
I am trying to migrate an app to use Network framework for p2p connection. I came across this great article for migrating to Network framework however this doesnt use the new structured concurrency. This being introduced with iOS 26, there doesnt seem to be any sample code available on how to use the new classes. I am particularly interested in code samples showing how to add TLS with PSK encryption support and handling of switching between Wifi and peer to peer interface with the new structured concurrency supported classes. Are there any good resources I can refer on this other than the WWDC video?
Greetings.I have an app today that uses multipeer connectivity extensively. Currently, when the user switches away from the app, MPC disconnects the session(s) - this is by design apparently (per other feedback). I'd like to hear if anyone has experimented with iOS9 multitasking / multipeer and whether MPC sessions can stay alive?Thanks
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Tags:
Background Tasks
Multipeer Connectivity
Core Bluetooth
I've had a Unreal Engine project that uses libwebsocket to make a websocket connection with SSL to a server. Recently I made a build using Unreal Engine 5.4.4 on MacOS Sequoia 15.5 and XCode 16.4 and for some reason the websocket connection now fails because it can't get the local issuer certificate. It fails to access the root certificate store on my device (Even though, running the project in the Unreal Editor works fine, it's only when making a packaged build with XCode that it breaks)
I am not sure why this is suddenly happening now. If I run it in the Unreal editor on my macOS it works fine and connects. But when I make a packaged build which uses XCode to build, it can't get the local issuer certificate. I tried different code signing options, such as sign to run locally or just using sign automatically with a valid team, but I'm not sure if code signing is the cause of this issue or not.
This app is only for development and not meant to be published, so that's why I had been using sign to run locally, and that used to work fine but not anymore.
Any guidance would be appreciated, also any information on what may have changed that now causes this certificate issue to happen.
I know Apple made changes and has made notarizing MacOS apps mandatory, but I'm not sure if that also means a non-notarized app will now no longer have access to the root certificate store of a device, in my research I haven't found anything about that specifically, but I'm wondering if any Apple engineers might know something about this that hasn't been put out publicly.
Are the Wifi-Aware's WAEndpoint's discovered ephemeral? I'm trying to understand what's the best way to reconnect a disconnected WifiAware connection - Can I just cache the endpoint and start a new connection with the same endpoint or do I need to browse again and get a new WAEndpoint?
My use case requires both WifiAware connection to another device and the devices also need to be connected to infrastructure wifi most of the time. I'm concerned about the WifiAware's connection having any impact on infrastructure wifi. What is the impact on the infrastructure wifi here in comparison to using the Apple peer to peer wifi(That Multipeer framework or Network framework use)?
Hi everyone,
I'm currently working on a project where I need to send multicast packets across all available network interfaces using Apple Network Framework's NWConnectionGroup. Specifically, the MacBook (device I am using for sending multicast requests, MacOS: 15.1) is connected to two networks: Wi-Fi (Network 1) and Ethernet (Network 2), and I need to send multicast requests over both interfaces.
I tried using the .requiredInterface property as suggested by Eskimo in this post, but I’m running into issues.
It seems like I can't create an NWInterface object because it doesn't have any initializers.
Here is the code which I wrote:
var multicast_group_descriptor : NWMulticastGroup
var multicast_endpoint : NWEndpoint
multicast_endpoint = NWEndpoint.hostPort(host: NWEndpoint.Host("234.0.0.1"), port: NWEndpoint.Port(rawValue: 49154)!)
var connection_group : NWConnectionGroup
var multicast_params : NWParameters
multicast_params = NWParameters.udp
var interface = NWInterface(NWInterface.InterfaceType.wiredEthernet)
I get following error:
'NWInterface' cannot be constructed because it has no accessible initializers
I also experimented with the .requiredInterfaceType property. Even when I set it to .wiredEthernet and then change it to .wifi, I am still unable to send requests over the Wi-Fi network.
Here is the code I wrote:
var multicast_params : NWParameters
multicast_params = NWParameters.udp
multicast_params.allowLocalEndpointReuse = true
multicast_params.requiredInterfaceType = .wiredEthernet
var ip = multicast_params.defaultProtocolStack.internetProtocol! as! NWProtocolIP.Options
ip.disableMulticastLoopback = true
connection_group = NWConnectionGroup(with: multicast_group_descriptor, using: multicast_params)
connection_group.stateUpdateHandler = { state in
print(state)
if state == .ready {
connection_group.send(content: "Hello from machine on 15".data(using: .utf8)) { error in
print("Send to mg1 completed on wired Ethernet with error \(error?.errorCode)")
var params = connection_group.parameters
params.requiredInterfaceType = .wifi
connection_group.send(content: "Hello from machine on 15 P2 on Wi-Fi".data(using: .utf8)) { error in
print("Send to mg1 completed on Wi-Fi with error \(error?.errorCode)")
}
}
}
}
Is this expected behavior when using NWConnectionGroup? Or is there a different approach I should take to ensure multicast requests are sent over both interfaces simultaneously?
Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Harshal
My company has a server that supports ticket-based TLS session resumption (per RFC 5077).
We have done Wireshark captures that show that our iOS client app, which uses URLSession for REST and WebSocket connections to the server, is not sending the TLS "session_ticket" extension in the Client Hello package that necessary to enable ticket-based resumption with the server.
Is it expected that URLSession does not support ticket-based TLS session resumption?
If "yes", is there any way to tell URLSession to enable ticket-based session resumption? the lower-level API set_protocol_options_set_tls_tickets_enabled() hints that the overall TLS / HTTP stack on IOS does support ticket-based resumption, but I can't see how to use that low-level API with URLSession.
I can provide (lots) more technical details if necessary, but hopefully this is enough context to determine whether ticket-based TLS resumption is supported with URLSession.
Any tips / clarifications would be greatly appreciated.
On iOS 26 beta 5, it is impossible to add a VPN configuration when a passcode is set on the device. Every time, all it does is redirect to the Settings app with no prompt for passcode.
The only way around this is to disable passcode on the device so adding a VPN configuration doesn’t have to open the Settings app.
This issue happened intermittently in the past with previous iOS 26 betas and even on iOS 18, but the problem has worsened on iOS 26 beta 5 to the point where you have to turn off passcode to add a VPN.
Feedback ID: FB17974765
Hello all,
WWDC 2025 introduced Wi‑Fi Aware (NAN) support on iOS 26 for peer-to-peer discovery and direct connections, but I noticed macOS Tahoe doesn’t include it. I couldn’t find any references to Wi‑Fi Aware APIs or framework support in the macOS SDK.
Is Apple planning to bring Wi‑Fi Aware to macOS?
If so, will this come in a future update to macOS 26 (e.g., 26.x), or is it deferred to macOS 27 or beyond?
Thanks for any insights!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Apple is encouraging VPN apps on macOS to transition to Network Extension APIs, if they haven't done so yet, see:
TN3165: Packet Filter is not API
WWDC25: Filter and tunnel network traffic with NetworkExtension
Using Network Extension is fine for VPN apps that are distributed via the Mac App Store. Users get one pop-up requesting permission to add VPN configurations and that's it.
However, VPN apps that are distributed outside of the App Store (using Developer ID) cannot use Network Extension in the same way, such apps need to install a System Extension first (see TN3134: Network Extension provider deployment).
Installing a System Extension is a very poor user experience. There is a pop-up informing about a system extension, which the user has to manually enable. The main button is "OK", which only dismisses the pop-up and in such case there is little chance that the user will be able to find the correct place to enable the extension. The other button in that pop-up navigates to the correct screen in System Settings, where the user has to enable a toggle. Then there is a password prompt. Then the user has to close the System Settings and return to the app.
This whole dance is not necessary for VPN apps on the Mac App Store, because they work with "app extensions" rather than "system extensions".
As a developer of a VPN app that is distributed outside of the App Store, my options are:
Implement VPN functionality in an alternative way, without Network Extension. This is discouraged by Apple.
Use a System Extension with Network Extension. This is going to discourage my users.
I have submitted feedback to Apple: FB19631390.
But I wonder, why did Apple create this difference in the first place? Is there a chance that they will either improve the System Extension installation process or even allow "app extensions" outside of the Mac App Store?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Tags:
Extensions
Network Extension
System Extensions
Developer ID
I've had no problem running my app in a simulator or on a device, but today my app is failing on a URLRequest to my local machine (in a sim). From the same simulator I can go to Safari and manually enter the URL that the app is using (and that appears in the error message), and it works fine.
I think there was a recent Xcode update; did something change in this regard?
We are having an issue with the Local Network permission pop-up not getting triggered for our apps that need to communicate with devices via local network interfaces/addresses.
As we understand, apps using UDP should trigger this, causing macOS to prompt for access, or, if denied, fail to connect. However, we are facing issues with macOS not prompting this popup at all.
Here are important and related points:
Our application is packaged as a .app package and distributed independently (not on the App Store).
The application controls hardware that we manufacture. In order to find the hardware on the network, we send a UDP broadcast with a message for our hardware on the local network, and the hardware responds with a message back.
However, the popup (to ask for permission) never shows up. The application is not able to find the hardware device. It is interesting to note that data is still sent out to the network (without the popup) but we receive back the wrong data.
The behaviour is consistent macOS Sequoia (and above) with both Apple And Intel silicon.
Workarounds that have been tried:
Manual Authorization: One solution suggested in various blogs was to go to "Settings → Privacy and Security-> Local network", find your application and grant access. However, the application never shows up in the list here.
Firewall: No difference is seen in behaviour with firewall being ON OR OFF.
Setting NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription: We have also tried setting the Info.plist adding the NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription with a meaningful string and updating the NSBonjourServices.
Running Via terminal (WORKS): Running the application via terminal sees no issues. The application runs correctly and is able to send UDP and receive correct data (and find the devices on the network). But this is not an appropriate solution.
How can we get this bug/issue fixed in macOS Sequoia (and above)?
Are there any other solutions/workarounds that we can try on our end?
I’m developing an app designed for hospital environments, where public internet access may not be available. The app includes two components: the main app and a Local Connectivity Extension. Both rely on persistent TCP socket connections to communicate with a local server.
We’re observing a recurring issue where the extension’s socket becomes unresponsive every 1–3 hours, but only when the device is on the lock screen, even if the main app remains in the foreground.
When the screen is not locked, the connection is stable and no disconnections occur.
❗ Issue Details:
• What’s going on: The extension sends a keep-alive ping packet every second, and the server replies with a pong and a system time packet.
• The bug: The server stops receiving keep alive packets from the extension.
• On the server, we detect about 30 second gap on the server, a gap that shows no packets were received by the extension. This was confirmed via server logs and Wireshark).
• On the extension, from our logs there was no gap in sending packets. From it’s perspective, all packets were sent with no error.
• Because no packet are being received by the server, no packets will be sent to the extension. Eventually the server closes the connection due to keep-alive timeout.
• FYI we log when the NEAppPushProvider subclass sleeps and it did NOT go to sleep while we were debugging.
🧾 Example Logs:
Extension log:
2025-03-24 18:34:48.808 sendKeepAliveRequest()
2025-03-24 18:34:49.717 sendKeepAliveRequest()
2025-03-24 18:34:50.692 sendKeepAliveRequest()
... // continuous sending of the ping packet to the server, no problems here
2025-03-24 18:35:55.063 sendKeepAliveRequest()
2025-03-24 18:35:55.063 keepAliveTimer IS TIME OUT... in CoreService. // this is triggered because we did not receive any packets from the server
Server log:
2025-03-24 18:34:16.298 No keep-alive received for 16 seconds... connection ID=95b3... // this shows that there has been no packets being received by the extension
...
2025-03-24 18:34:30.298 Connection timed out on keep-alive. connection ID=95b3... // eventually closes due to no packets being received
2025-03-24 18:34:30.298 Remote Subsystem Disconnected {name=iPhone|Replica-Ext|...}
✅ Observations:
• The extension process continues running and logging keep-alive attempts.
• However, network traffic stops reaching the server, and no inbound packets are received by the extension.
• It looks like the socket becomes silently suspended or frozen, without being properly closed or throwing an error.
❓Questions:
• Do you know why this might happen within a Local Connectivity Extension, especially under foreground conditions and locked ?
• Is there any known system behavior that might cause the socket to be suspended or blocked in this way after running for a few hours?
Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
I've implemented a custom VPN system extension for macOS, utilizing Packet Tunnel Provider.
One of the users reported a problem: he was connected to the VPN, and then his Mac entered sleep mode. Upon waking, the VPN is supposed to connect automatically (because of the on-demand rules).
The VPN's status changed to 'connecting', but it remained stuck in this status.
From my extension logs, I can see that the 'startTunnelWithOption()' function was called 2 minutes after the user clicked the 'connect' button.
From the system logs, I noticed some 'suspicious' logs, but I can't be sure if they are related to the problem. Some of them are:
kernel: (Sandbox) Sandbox: nesessionmanager(562) deny(1) system-fsctl (_IO "h" 47)
entitlement com.apple.developer.endpoint-security.client not present or not true (I don't need this entitlement at the extension)
nesessionmanager: [com.apple.networkextension:] NESMVPNSession[Primary Tunnel:XXXXXX(null)]: Skip a start command from YYYYY:session in state connecting
NetworkExtension.com.***: RunningBoard doesn't recognize submitted process - treating as a anonymous process
sysextd: activateDecision found existing entry of same version: state activated_enabled, ID FAE...
Are any of the logs related to the above problem? How can I debug such issues? What info should I get from the user?
I found a problem where a process tries to connect to System Extension and connection is invalidated. XPC listener has to be disposed and initialized again.
This happens when System Extension executes tasks in following order:
NSXPCListener initialized
NSXPCListener.resume()
NSProvider.startSystemExtensionMode()
Result: Connection is invalidated and not only that the client has to retry connection, nut also System Extension must reinitialize listener (execute step 1 and 2).
However if I call
NSProvider.startSystemExtensionMode()
NSXPCListener initialized
NSXPCListener.resume()
It works as expected and even if the connection is invalidated/interrupted, client process can always reconnect and no other action is necessary in System Extension (no need to reinitialize XPC listener),
In Apple docs about NSProvider.startSystemExtensionMode() it says that this method starts handling request, but in another online article written by Scott Knight I found that startSystemExtensionMode() also starts listener server. Is that right? PLease could you add this info into the docs if it is so?
https://knight.sc/reverse%20engineering/2019/08/24/system-extension-internals.html
I would like to use following logic:
Call NSProvider.startSystemExtensionMode() only under certain circumstances - I have received some configuration that I need to process and do some setup. If I don't receive it, there is no reason to call startSystemExtensionMode() yet, I don't need to handle handleNewFlow() yet.
Connect XPC client to System Extension under certain conditions. Ideally communicate with client even though System Extension is not handling network requests yet, that is without receiving handleNewFlow().
Basically I consider XPC and System Extension handling network requests as separate things. Is that correct, are they separate and independent?
Does XPC communication really depend on calling startSystemExtensionMode()?
Another potential issue: Is it possible that XPC listener fails to validate connection when client tries to connect before System Extension manages to complete init and park the main thread in CFRunLoop?
Note: These querstions arose mostly from handling upgrades of System Extension (extension is already running, network filter is created and is connected and new version of the app upgrades System Exension).
Thanks.
(related post: How to optimize my app for for a carrier-provided satellite network? )
I am trying to implement an app so that it works under a carrier-provided satellite network.
The app uses (AS)WebAuthenticationSession for signing in. If the app is entitled to access a satellite network, will (AS)WebAuthenticationSession work as well?
How about WKWebView and SFSafariViewController?
Is there a way to test(simulate) a ultra-constrained network on a device or a simulator to see the expected behavior?
Thanks,
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Tags:
Network
Safari and Web
CFNetwork
Authentication Services
I'm struggling to understand why the async-await version of URLSession download task APIs do not call the delegate functions, whereas the old non-async version that returns a reference to the download task works just fine.
Here is my sample code:
class DownloadDelegate: NSObject, URLSessionDownloadDelegate {
func urlSession(_ session: URLSession,
downloadTask: URLSessionDownloadTask,
didWriteData bytesWritten: Int64,
totalBytesWritten: Int64,
totalBytesExpectedToWrite: Int64) {
// This only prints the percentage of the download progress.
let calculatedProgress = Float(totalBytesWritten) / Float(totalBytesExpectedToWrite)
let formatter = NumberFormatter()
formatter.numberStyle = .percent
print(formatter.string(from: NSNumber(value: calculatedProgress))!)
}
}
// Here's the VC.
final class DownloadsViewController: UIViewController {
private let url = URL(string: "https://pixabay.com/get/g0b9fa2936ff6a5078ea607398665e8151fc0c10df7db5c093e543314b883755ecd43eda2b7b5178a7e613a35541be6486885fb4a55d0777ba949aedccc807d8c_1280.jpg")!
private let delegate = DownloadDelegate()
private lazy var session = URLSession(configuration: .default, delegate: delegate, delegateQueue: nil)
// for the async-await version
private var task: Task<Void, Never>?
// for the old version
private var downloadTask: URLSessionDownloadTask?
override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillAppear(animated)
task?.cancel()
task = nil
task = Task {
let (_, _) = try! await session.download(for: URLRequest(url: url))
self.task = nil
}
// If I uncomment this, the progress listener delegate function above is called.
// downloadTask?.cancel()
// downloadTask = nil
// downloadTask = session.downloadTask(with: URLRequest(url: url))
// downloadTask?.resume()
}
}
What am I missing here?