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BSD socket APIs and macOS entitlements
I am looking for inputs to better understand MacOS entitlements. I ask this in context of OpenJDK project, which builds and ships the JDK. The build process makes uses of make tool and thus doesn't involving building through the XCode product. The JDK itself is a Java language platform providing applications a set of standard APIs. The implementation of these standard APIs internally involves calling platform specific native library functions. In this discussion, I would like to focus on the networking functions that the implementation uses. Almost all of these networking functions and syscalls that the internal implementation uses are BSD socket related. Imagine calls to socket(), connect(), getsockopt(), setsockopt(), getaddrinfo(), sendto(), listen(), accept() and several such. The JDK that's built through make is then packaged and made available for installation. The packaging itself varies, but for this discussion, I'll focus on the .tar.gz archived packaging. Within this archive there are several executables (for example: java, javac and others) and several libraries. My understanding, based on what I have read of MacOS entitlements is that, the entitlements are set on the executable and any libraries that would be loaded and used by that executable will be evaluated against the entitlements of the executable (please correct me if I misunderstand). Reading through the list of entitlements noted here https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements, the relevant entitlements that an executable (like "java") which internally invokes BSD socket related syscalls and library functions, appear to be: com.apple.security.network.client - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements/com.apple.security.network.client com.apple.security.network.server - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements/com.apple.security.network.server com.apple.developer.networking.multicast - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements/com.apple.developer.networking.multicast Is my understanding correct that these are the relevant ones for MacOS? Are there any more entitlements that are of interest? Would it then mean that the executables (java for example) would have to enroll for these entitlements to be allowed to invoke those functions at runtime? Reading through https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements, I believe that even when an executable is configured with these entitlements, when the application is running if that executable makes use of any operations for which it has an entitlement, the user is still prompted (through a UI notification) whether or not to allow the operation. Did I understand it right? The part that isn't clear from that documentation is, if the executable hasn't been configured with a relevant entitlement, what happens when the executable invokes on such operation. Will the user see a UI notification asking permission to allow the operation (just like if an entitlement was configured)? Or does that operation just fail in some behind the scenes way? Coming back to the networking specific entitlements, I found a couple of places in the MacOS documentation where it is claimed that the com.apple.developer.networking.multicast entitlement is only applicable on iOS. In fact, the entitlement definition page for it https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements/com.apple.developer.networking.multicast says: "Your app must have this entitlement to send or receive IP multicast or broadcast on iOS. It also allows your app to browse and advertise arbitrary Bonjour service types." Yet, that same page, a few lines above, shows "macOS 10.0+". So, is com.apple.developer.networking.multicast entitlement necessary for an executable running on MacOS which deals with multicasting using BSD sockets? As a more general comment about the documentation, I see that the main entitlements page here https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements categorizes some of these entitlements under specific categories, for example, notice how some entitlements are categorized under "App Clips". I think it would be useful if there was a category for "BSD sockets" and under that it would list all relevant entitlements that are applicable, even if it means repeating the entitlement names across different categories. I think that will make it easier to identify the relevant entitlements. Finally, more as a long term question, how does one watch or keep track of these required entitlements for these operations. What I mean is, is it expected that application developers keep visiting the macos documentation, like these pages, to know that a new entitlement is now required in a new macos (update) release? Or are there other ways to keep track of it? For example, if a newer macos requires a new entitlement, then when (an already built) executable is run on that version of macos, perhaps generate a notification or some kind of explicit error which makes it clear what entitlement is missing? I have read through https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/diagnosing-issues-with-entitlements but that page focuses on identifying such issues when a executable is being built and doesn't explain the case where an executable has already been shipped with X entitlements and a new Y entitlement is now required to run on a newer version of macos.
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887
Mar ’25
0xBAADCA11 Occurs when VoIP Call Incoming (APNs Push Notification)
I am developing a VoIP phone application(Our Phoneapp) using APNs VoIP push. I have a question regarding a behavior I discovered during testing of this application. When performing the following operations using an iPhoneSE3 with an sXGP-NW SIM inserted, 0xBAADCA11 occurs upon receiving an APNs VoIP PUSH. Do you have any information regarding this issue? 0xBAADCA11 occurs in operation 8. However, since there were no problems in operation 4 (the app works when Wi-Fi is off), I think there is no issue with the Our Phoneapp. [Configuration of system components] [VoIP Telephone] --Call to iPhone(Phoneapp)--> [Our VoIP PBX Server] -- VoIP PUSH request --> [Apple APNs Server] -- VoIP PUSH --> [Our Phoneapp (iPhoneSE3(with sXGP SIM)] [Operations] (The issue is reproducible 100% by following oparation) iPhoneSE3: Power on (iPhoneSE3 with sXGP SIM) iPhoneSE3: Wi-Fi off, connect to the internet via SIM. VoIP Telephone: Call to Our Phoneapp iPhoneSE3: Receives VoIP PUSH and Phoneapp launches. Successfully answers the call and communication is possible. (Receives VoIP push notification from APNs via sXGP SIM) iPhoneSE3: Wi-Fi is turned ON, connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. iPhoneSE3: Task kill Our Phoneapp. VoIP Telephone: Call to Our Phoneapp iPhoneSE3: iOS does not call the push notification delegate (didReceiveIncomingPushWithPayload). As a result our Phoneapp is unable to detect the incoming call, However, an ips log with 0xBAADCA11 is output. in other words, iOS received the VoIP PUSH, but Our Phoneapp dose not call CallKit, so Our Phoneapp was terminated by iOS.
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448
May ’25
Wi-Fi Aware can't pair with Android Device
Background Android phones supporting Wi-Fi Aware 4.0 should be able to connect with iPhones (iOS 26). For testing, we selected two Samsung S25 devices, which support Wi-Fi Aware 4.0. Issues we are facing Android as Publisher, iOS as Subscriber.iOS cannot discover the service. Log shows: Discovery: Dropping event, 02:14:60:76:a6:0f missing DCEA attribute. iOS as Publisher, Android as Subscriber,Android can discover the service.However, the PIN code is not displayed on iOS. From the packet capture, the publish packet does not contain the DCEA field. However, Android-to-Android devices can still pair normally, and the subsequent PASN packets include the DCEA field. It seems that the Wi-Fi Alliance only requires the DCEA to be present in the PASN packets. iOS cannot discover Android devices or complete pairing — is this caused by the DCEA field, or by other reasons?
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464
Sep ’25
Unable to upload an app with ExtensionFoundation
I have an iOS app with ExtensionFoundation. It runs well on my local device, but when I upload on the AppStore it gets rejected with: Validation failed Invalid Info.plist value. The value of the EXExtensionPointIdentifier key, AsheKube.app.a-Shell.localWebServer, in the Info.plist of “a-Shell.app/Extensions/localWebServer.appex” is invalid. Please refer to the App Extension Programming Guide at https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/Action.html#/apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014214-CH13-SW1. (ID: ae8dd1dd-8caf-4a48-9651-7a225faed4eb) The Info.plist in my Extension is: <?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>EXAppExtensionAttributes</key> <dict> <key>EXExtensionPointIdentifier</key> <string>com.example.example-extension</string> </dict> </dict> </plist> so the Info.plist that causes the issue has been automatically generated by Xcode. I can access it as well, and it says: { "BuildMachineOSBuild" => "25A354" "CFBundleDevelopmentRegion" => "en" "CFBundleDisplayName" => "localWebServerExtension" "CFBundleExecutable" => "localWebServer" "CFBundleIdentifier" => "AsheKube.app.a-Shell.localWebServerExtension" "CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion" => "6.0" "CFBundleName" => "localWebServer" "CFBundlePackageType" => "XPC!" "CFBundleShortVersionString" => "1.0" "CFBundleSupportedPlatforms" => [ 0 => "iPhoneOS" ] "CFBundleVersion" => "1" "DTCompiler" => "com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0" "DTPlatformBuild" => "23A339" "DTPlatformName" => "iphoneos" "DTPlatformVersion" => "26.0" "DTSDKBuild" => "23A339" "DTSDKName" => "iphoneos26.0" "DTXcode" => "2601" "DTXcodeBuild" => "17A400" "EXAppExtensionAttributes" => { "EXExtensionPointIdentifier" => "AsheKube.app.a-Shell.localWebServer" } "MinimumOSVersion" => "26.0" "NSHumanReadableCopyright" => "Copyright © 2025 AsheKube. All rights reserved." "UIDeviceFamily" => [ 0 => 1 1 => 2 ] "UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities" => [ 0 => "arm64" ] } What should I do to be able to upload on the AppStore?
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655
Nov ’25
ICEcard app closes when try to Face Scan via app
ICEcard app is "Emergency as a Service" platform. One of the key feature is to know about primary info, health info, or in case missing child , elderly using Face scan of registered user of app via another registered user of ICEcard app. App was working fine but last 2-3 week back got issue reported of app getting closed as soon Face scan option is selected. to simulate issue &gt; register &gt; open face scan icon at bottom home screen&gt; select any of option accident or health issue or information &gt;&gt; app closes immediately. Android app is working fine. link of app store. https://apps.apple.com/in/app/ice-card-app/id6736453602 android link for reference https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rannlab.ice_card.ice_card&amp;pcampaignid=web_share
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225
Sep ’25
Couldn't read USB device endpoints on MacOS15.3
Hi Folks, We are reading the USB device data from our app using libusb/iokit libraries. Before updating the MacOS to the 15.3 we never faced any issue but after updating OS to 15.3 Sequoia we started facing issue to access the USB device's information. We are not getting the device endpoints for the matching service and fails with below error- Error:Failed to create IOUSBHostObject. with reason: IOServiceOpen failed. Respective code snippet- service = IOServiceGetMatchingService(kIOMasterPortDefault, matchingDictionary); IOUSBHostInterface* interface = [[IOUSBHostInterface alloc] initWithIOService:service options:IOUSBHostObjectInitOptionsDeviceCapture queue:*queue error:&error interestHandler:nil]; We get the denial message during accessing the IOService error 23:17:30.691934-0800 kernel 41 duplicate reports for Sandbox: spotlightknowledged(1399) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.diagnosticd error 23:17:30.691945-0800 kernel System Policy: com.prograde.pgdrefreshpro.helpe(70515) deny(1) iokit-open-service IOUSBHostInterface Also when we checked the IOUSBHOST logs we can see pipes are stalled while running the RefreshPro app as below- 2025-02-05 22:06:31.838141-0800 0x25913e Error 0x0 0 0 kernel: (IOUSBHostFamily) AppleUSBIORequest: AppleUSBIORequest::complete: device 8 (SD PG05.5@08210000) endpoint 0x00: status 0xe0005000 (pipe stalled): 0 bytes transferred We need an assistance here to know what exactly could be the cause and how can we elevate the permissions to access the USB device on MacOS15.3. Do we need other entitlements? As we never faced such issue with our certificate and Identifier on any MacOS versions and with the current entitlements we have. Do we need to include any entitlement in the code? Thanks.
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1.2k
Mar ’25
Service Showing "Not Responding" in Activity Monitor Despite Running Threads.
I am encountering an issue with my application, BloxOneEndpoint.pkg, which includes two services: rc_service_infoblox – Runs as the root user. Controller Application – Runs as a normal user. Although a thread within rc_service_infoblox is running fine and performing its expected tasks, I notice that the service appears as "Not Responding" in Activity Monitor. Despite normal functionality, this status is concerning, as it may indicate some issue to customer. I would appreciate any insights into why this might be happening and how to resolve it. Is there a specific API or mechanism I should use to ensure the service remains in a "Running" state in Activity Monitor? Thank you for your guidance.
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351
Apr ’25
StoreKit Configuration Not Syncing to Xcode
Hello! I am attempting to add Subscriptions to an App that Is already published on the App Store. I cannot get Xcode to actually sync what is in my App Store Connect. When adding the Storekit configuration file, I go through the automatic linking process and select the proper bundleID. The configuration file says 'Synced @ [CurrentTime]' however there are no subscriptions listed in there. I have attempted deleting the file several times, creating a new subscription group. With no success. Do I need to publish the subscriptions without the features first? Upon attempting to write the supporting code that will enable these features within the app, I cannot get Xcode to identify that I have these subscriptions. I have also tried pushing these to TestFlight, still with no success. Thank you.
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1.7k
Sep ’25
What DispatchQueues should i use for my app's communication subsystem?
We would be creating N NWListener objects and M NWConnection objects in our process' communication subsystem to create server sockets, accepted client sockets on server and client sockets on clients. Both NWConnection and NWListener rely on DispatchQueue to deliver state changes, incoming connections, send/recv completions etc. What DispatchQueues should I use and why? Global Concurrent Dispatch Queue (and which QoS?) for all NWConnection and NWListener One custom concurrent queue (which QoS?) for all NWConnection and NWListener? (Does that anyways get targetted to one of the global queues?) One custom concurrent queue per NWConnection and NWListener though all targetted to Global Concurrent Dispatch Queue (and which QoS?)? One custom concurrent queue per NWConnection and NWListener though all targetted to single target custom concurrent queue? For every option above, how am I impacted in terms of parallelism, concurrency, throughput &amp; latency and how is overall system impacted (with other processes also running)? Seperate questions (sorry for the digression): Are global concurrent queues specific to a process or shared across all processes on a device? Can I safely use setSpecific on global dispatch queues in our app?
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1.1k
Jan ’26
How to create file system snapshots with fs_snapshot_create?
The online documentation for fs_snapshot_create, which is on a website which apparently I'm not allowed to link to on this forum, mentions that some entitlement is necessary, but doesn't specify which one. Searching online I found someone mentioning com.apple.developer.vfs.snapshot, but when adding this to my entitlement file and building my Xcode project, I get the error Provisioning profile "Mac Team Provisioning Profile: com.example.myApp" doesn't include the com.apple.developer.vfs.snapshot entitlement. Searching some more online, I found someone mentioning that one has to request this entitlement from DTS. Is this true? I couldn't find any official documentation. I actually want to make a snapshot of a user-selected directory so that my app can sync it to another volume while avoiding that the user makes changes during the sync process that would make the copy inconsistent. Would fs_snapshot_create be faster than traversing the chosen directory and creating clones of each nested file with filecopy and the flag COPYFILE_CLONE? Although I have the impression that only fs_snapshot_create could make a truly consistent snapshot.
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314
Jul ’25
macOS API for hardware model name?
If I go to "System Settings" -> "General" -> "About", it says "MacBook Air" and below that "M2, 2022" How can I get these strings programatically? The following C code gets me #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/sysctl.h> int main() { static const unsigned namelen = 2; int name[namelen] = {CTL_HW, HW_PRODUCT}; char buffer[256]; size_t bufferSize = sizeof(buffer); if (0 != sysctl(name, namelen, buffer, &bufferSize, NULL, 0)) { perror("sysctl"); return 1; } printf("%s\n", buffer); } the string "Mac14,2", which is the hardware model identifier. But I want to get the user-friendly model name, e.g. "MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)". How can I do this?
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1
1.2k
Mar ’25
Detect and wait until a file has been unzipped to avoid permission errors
In my app the user can select a source folder to be synced with a destination folder. The sync can also happen in response to a change in the source folder detected with FSEventStreamCreate. If the user unzips an archive in the source folder and the sync process begins before the unzip operation has completed, the sync can fail because of a "Permission denied" error. I assume this is related to the posix permissions of the extracted folder being 420 during the unzip operation and (in my case) 511 afterwards. Is there a way to detect than an unzip operation is in progress and wait until it has completed? I thought that using NSFileCoordinator would solve this issue, but unfortunately it's not the case. Since an unzip operation can last any amount of time, it's not ideal to just delay a sync by a fixed number of seconds and let the user deal with any error if the unzip operation takes longer. let openPanel = NSOpenPanel() openPanel.canChooseDirectories = true if openPanel.runModal() == .cancel { return } let url = openPanel.urls[0].appendingPathComponent("extracted", isDirectory: false) var error: NSError? NSFileCoordinator(filePresenter: nil).coordinate(readingItemAt: url, error: &error) { url in do { print(try FileManager.default.attributesOfItem(atPath: url.path).sorted(by: { $0.key.rawValue < $1.key.rawValue }).map({ ($0.key.rawValue, $0.value) })) try FileManager.default.contentsOfDirectory(at: url, includingPropertiesForKeys: nil) } catch { print(error) } } if let error = error { print("file coordinator error:", error) }
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310
Jun ’25
Callkit call blocking problem
We tested call blocking on iOS 26 and noticed something strange: the call will not be blocked if an outgoing call was made to its number before. Nevertheless, it will be blocked if we delete the outgoing call record from the Phone.app Recents. This behavior looks like a bug and is unexpected when using our application. Was this a planned callkit change in iOS 26? Is it possible to get the correct call blocking behavior back? We set blocking rules with addBlockingEntry(withNextSequentialPhoneNumber:) and this problem is not present in iOS 18 and earlier. Thank you in advance
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817
Dec ’25
Potential iOS26 regression on AASA file not download on app install
Original discussion pre iOS 26 Our app uses Auth0 with HTTPS callback, we've found the issue where AASA file is not ready immediately when app is initially launched, which is the exact issue from the above link. The issue seems mostly fixed on later versions on iOS 18, however, we are seeing some indications of a regression on iOS 26. Here's some measurement over the last week. | Platform | iOS 18 | iOS 26 | |---------------|----------|--------| | Adoption rate | 55% | 45% | | Issue seen | 1 | 5 | | Recover? | Yes | No | This only 1 iOS 18 instance was able to recover after 1 second after the first try, however, all iOS 26 instances were not able to recover in couple tens of seconds and less than 1 minute, the user eventually gave up. Is there a way to force app to update AASA file? Are there some iOS setting (like using a VPN) that could potentially downgrade the AASA fetch? Related Auth0 discussion: https://community.auth0.com/t/ios-application-not- recognizing-auth0-associated-domain/134847/27
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767
Dec ’25
How is BGContinuedProcessingTask intended to be used?
Hello, I'm trying to adopt the new BGContinuedProcessingTask API, but I'm having a little trouble imagining how the API authors intended it be used. I saw the WWDC talk, but it lacked higher-level details about how to integrate this API, and I can't find a sample project. I notice that we can list wildcard background task identifiers in our Info.plist files now, and it appears this is to be used with continued tasks - a user might start one video encoding, then while it is ongoing, enqueue another one from the same app, and these tasks would have identifiers such as "MyApp.VideoEncoding.ABCD" and "MyApp.VideoEncoding.EFGH" to distinguish them. When it comes to implementing this, is the expectation that we: a) Register a single handler for the wildcard pattern, which then figures out how to fulfil each request from the identifier of the passed-in task instance? Or b) Register a unique handler for each instance of the wildcard pattern? Since you can't unregister handlers, any resources captured by the handler would be leaked, so you'd need to make sure you only register immediately before submission - in other words register + submit should always be called as a pair. Of course, I'd like to design my application to use this API as the authors intended it be used, but I'm just not entirely sure what that is. When I try to register a single handler for a wildcard pattern, the system rejects it at runtime (while allowing registrations for each instance of the pattern, indicating that at least my Info.plist is configured correctly). That points towards option B. If it is option B, it's potentially worth calling that out in documentation - or even better, perhaps introduce a new call just for BGContinuedProcessingTask instead of the separate register + submit calls? Thanks for your insight. K Aside: Also, it would be really nice if the handler closure would be async. Currently if you need to await on something, you need to launch an unstructured Task, but that causes issues since BGContinuedProcessingTask is not Sendable, so you can't pass it in to that Task to do things like update the title or mark the BGTask as complete.
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662
Dec ’25
Security scoped bookmarks not valid anymore in macOS 14.7.5 / 13.7.5
Security scoped bookmarks that were created before updating to macOS 14.7.5 cannot be resolved anymore after updating to macOS 14.7.5. Reproduction: Sandboxed app on macOS version 14.7.4 Create and store a security scoped bookmark to a user selected folder: let url: URL = <user selected url from NSOpenPanel> let data = try url.bookmarkData(options: [.withSecurityScope], includingResourceValuesForKeys: nil, relativeTo: nil) <persistently store data> Update to macOS 14.7.5 Resolve the previously stored bookmark: let data: Data = <restore data from persistent storage> var stale: Bool = true let url = try URL(resolvingBookmarkData: data, options: [.withSecurityScope], relativeTo: nil, bookmarkDataIsStale: &stale) Expected: The bookmark is resolved correctly and the resulting url can be used to access the folder/file in the sandboxed app after starting access. Observed: URL(resolvingBookmarkData:) throws an error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 "The file couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format." New security scoped bookmarks created on macOS 14.5.7 can be resolved without issue. The same appears to happen with macOS 13.7.5. Entitlements: com.apple.security.app-sandbox com.apple.security.files.bookmarks.app-scope com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write This is very disruptive, as it appears that Sandboxed apps cannot access any previously stored bookmarks anymore. Particularly after the recent ScopedBookmarkAgent issues in 14.7.1 and 15.0, which were resolved in 14.7.3/15.1 respectively: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/764435
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279
Apr ’25
When is the unverified branch of AppTransaction.shared entered?
Hi all, I am adding the following StoreKit 2 code to my app, and I don't see anything in Apple's documentation that explains the unverified case. When is that case exercised? Is it when someone has tampered with the app receipt? Or is it for more mundane things like poor network connectivity? // Apple's docstring on `shared` states: // If your app fails to get an AppTransaction by accessing the shared property, see refresh(). // Source: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/apptransaction/shared var appTransaction: VerificationResult<AppTransaction>? do { appTransaction = try await AppTransaction.shared } catch { appTransaction = try? await AppTransaction.refresh() } guard let appTransaction = appTransaction else { AppLogger.error("Couldn't get the app store transaction") return false } switch appTransaction { case .unverified(appTransaction, verificationError): // For what reasons should I expect this branch to be entered in production? return await inspectAppTransaction(appTransaction, verifiedByApple: false) case .verified(let appTransaction): return await inspectAppTransaction(appTransaction, verifiedByApple: true) } Thank you, Lou
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1
799
Apr ’25