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Audit token provided by NEFilterDataProvider sometimes fails to provide code object with SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes
I'm using this code to get the path of an executable from the audit token provided in NEFilterDataProvider.handleNewFlow(_:), forwarded from the Network Extension to the main app via IPC: private func securePathFromAuditToken(_ auditToken: Data) throws -> String { let secFlags = SecCSFlags() var secCode: SecCode? var status = SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes(nil, [kSecGuestAttributeAudit: auditToken] as CFDictionary, secFlags, &secCode) guard let secCode = secCode else { throw NSError(domain: NSOSStatusErrorDomain, code: Int(status)) } var secStaticCode: SecStaticCode? status = SecCodeCopyStaticCode(secCode, secFlags, &secStaticCode) guard let secStaticCode = secStaticCode else { throw NSError(domain: NSOSStatusErrorDomain, code: Int(status)) } var url: CFURL? status = SecCodeCopyPath(secStaticCode, secFlags, &url) guard let url = url as URL? else { throw NSError(domain: NSOSStatusErrorDomain, code: Int(status)) } return url.path } This code sometimes returns paths like /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/HelpData.framework/Versions/A/Resources/helpd or /Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Volumes/iOS_21A328/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Profiles/Runtimes/iOS 17.0.simruntime/Contents/Resources/RuntimeRoot/usr/libexec/mobileassetd. But sometimes the SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes fails with status 100001 which is defined in MacErrors.h as kPOSIXErrorEPERM = 100001, /* Operation not permitted */. In these cases I resort to this code, which I have read is not as secure: private func insecurePathFromAuditToken(_ auditToken: Data) throws -> String? { if auditToken.count == MemoryLayout<audit_token_t>.size { let pid = auditToken.withUnsafeBytes { buffer in audit_token_to_pid(buffer.baseAddress!.assumingMemoryBound(to: audit_token_t.self).pointee) } let pathbuf = UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>.allocate(capacity: Int(PROC_PIDPATHINFO_SIZE)) defer { pathbuf.deallocate() } let ret = proc_pidpath(pid, pathbuf, UInt32(PROC_PIDPATHINFO_SIZE)) if ret <= 0 { throw NSError(domain: NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code: Int(errno)) } return String(cString: pathbuf) } return nil } This insecure code then returns paths like /usr/libexec/trustd, /usr/libexec/rapportd, /usr/libexec/nsurlsessiond and /usr/libexec/timed. From what I can see, SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes fails for all processes in /usr/libexec. Some of these processes have executables with the same name placed in another directory, like /Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Volumes/iOS_21A328/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Profiles/Runtimes/iOS 17.0.simruntime/Contents/Resources/RuntimeRoot/usr/libexec/mobileassetd for which it succeeds, while for /usr/libexec/mobileassetd it fails. Occasionally, both the secure and the insecure methods fail and in these cases the secure one returns status code 100003, which is defined as kPOSIXErrorESRCH = 100003, /* No such process */. When can this happen? This seems to happen with both NEFilterFlow.sourceAppAuditToken and sourceProcessAuditToken. What is the problem?
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1.5k
Oct ’23
App Intent title and other localized strings not showing correctly in Shortcuts app on macOS 15
I rarely use the Shortcuts app, so it took me a while to notice that my app's app intents all show incorrectly on macOS 15. On macOS 14 and 13, they used to show correctly, but now it seems that all localized strings show the key rather than the localized value. @available(iOS 16.0, macOS 13.0, *) struct MyAppIntent: AppIntent { static let title = LocalizedStringResource("key1", comment: "") static let description = IntentDescription(LocalizedStringResource("key2", comment: "")) ... } In Localizable.xcstrings file I have defined all the strings, for instance I have associated key1 with the value Title, but while the Shortcuts app used to display Title, it now displays key1. Is this a known issue or did something change in macOS 15 that would require me to update something?
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1.3k
Feb ’25
No email notification for answers to own posts
It's been known for at least 4 months that there is no email notification for answers to own posts, like an Apple engineer confirmed here https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/656787?login=true Why does it take so long to fix a basic issue like this? How long will we have to check daily for new answers without being able to count on a simple notification?
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0
1.5k
Nov ’21
macOS keeps showing "[App] would like to access data from other apps" warning even if accepting it each time
It seems that whenever I scan the contents of ~/Library/Containers with my app, I get the warning [App] would like to access data from other apps, regardless of how often I have already allowed it. When the warning appears, the last scanned file is ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.CloudPhotosConfiguration/Data. My sample code: let openPanel = NSOpenPanel() openPanel.canChooseDirectories = true openPanel.runModal() let url = openPanel.urls[0] let enumerator = FileManager.default.enumerator(at: url, includingPropertiesForKeys: nil) while let url = enumerator?.nextObject() as? URL { print(url.path) } Is it expected that one has to allow this warning every time the app is run?
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9.5k
Nov ’24
NSTextView.shouldDrawInsertionPoint doesn't work with TextKit 2
The following code only ever causes shouldDrawInsertionPoint to be printed (no drawInsertionPoint), but even if that method returns false, the blinking insertion point is still drawn. On the other hand, with TextKit 1 it works as expected. Is there a way to hide the default insertion point in TextKit 2? My app draws its own. I've filed FB13684251. class TextView: NSTextView { override var shouldDrawInsertionPoint: Bool { print("shouldDrawInsertionPoint") return false } override func drawInsertionPoint(in rect: NSRect, color: NSColor, turnedOn flag: Bool) { print("drawInsertionPoint", flag) } } ``
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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206
Aug ’25
App Store doesn't display English among available languages for my new app
I published several apps in the past that display the correct languages in the App Store, but my newest app, which has English as the default development language in Xcode, displays all languages set in Xcode except English. My other projects seem to be set up in the exact same way, except they display correctly. What could be the issue? Xcode project info: Localizable.xcstrings (English is also fully localized): App Store Connect website: App Store page (my Mac has the primary language set to Italian):
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384
1d
SKTexture initialized with system UIImage has slightly wrong aspect ratio and ignores system symbol color
On macOS, system symbols displays in a SKTexture as expected, with the correct color and aspect ratio. But on iOS they are always displayed in black, and sometimes with slightly wrong aspect ratio. Is there a solution to this problem? import SpriteKit #if os(macOS) import AppKit #else import UIKit #endif class GameScene: SKScene { override func didMove(to view: SKView) { let systemImage = "square.and.arrow.up" let width = 400.0 #if os(macOS) let image = NSImage(systemSymbolName: systemImage, accessibilityDescription: nil)!.withSymbolConfiguration(.init(hierarchicalColor: .white))! let scale = NSScreen.main!.backingScaleFactor image.size = CGSize(width: width * scale, height: width / image.size.width * image.size.height * scale) #else let image = UIImage(systemName: systemImage)!.applyingSymbolConfiguration(.init(pointSize: width))!.applyingSymbolConfiguration(.init(hierarchicalColor: .white))! #endif let texture = SKTexture(image: image) print(image.size, texture.size(), image.size.width / image.size.height) let size = CGSize(width: width, height: width / image.size.width * image.size.height) addChild(SKSpriteNode(texture: texture, size: size)) } }
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1.2k
Sep ’24
Basic app intent always showing error in Shortcuts app "The action could not run because an internal error occurred."
I have a very basic App Intent extension in my macOS app that does nothing than accepting two parameters, but running it in Shortcuts always produces the error "The action “Compare” could not run because an internal error occurred.". What am I doing wrong? struct CompareIntent: AppIntent { static let title = LocalizedStringResource("intent.compare.title") static let description = IntentDescription("intent.compare.description") static let openAppWhenRun = true @Parameter(title: "intent.compare.parameter.original") var original: String @Parameter(title: "intent.compare.parameter.modified") var modified: String func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult { return .result() } }
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1.2k
Feb ’25
FileManager.removeItem(atPath:) fails with "You don't have permission to access the file" error when trying to remove non-empty directory on NAS
A user of my app reported that when trying to remove a file it always fails with the error "file couldn't be removed because you don't have permission to access it (Cocoa Error Domain 513)". After some testing, we found out that it's caused by trying to delete non-empty directories. I'm using FileManager.removeItem(atPath:) which has worked fine for many years, but it seems that with their particular NAS, it doesn't work. I could work around this by checking if the file is a directory, and if it is, enumerating the directory and remove each contained file before removing the directory itself. But shouldn't this already be taken care of? In the source code of FileManager I see that for Darwin platforms it calls removefile(pathPtr, state, removefile_flags_t(REMOVEFILE_RECURSIVE)) so it seems that it should already work. Is the REMOVEFILE_RECURSIVE flag perhaps ignored by the device? But then, is the misleading "you don't have permission to access the file" error thrown by the device or by macOS? For the FileManager source code, see https://github.com/swiftlang/swift-foundation/blob/1d5d70997410fc8b7700c8648b10d6fc28194202/Sources/FoundationEssentials/FileManager/FileOperations.swift#L444
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249
Jul ’25
Getting clicked item index in NSPathControl with pathItems instead of pathComponentCells
Since NSPathControl.setPathComponentCells(_:) and .clickedPathComponentCell() are deprecated, I'm trying to use pathItems and clickedPathItem instead. Since I'm representing a virtual path, I cannot use the NSPathControl.url setter, but instead set pathItems directly. The problem is that in the action method it doesn't seem possible to get the index of the clicked path item, nor does it seem possible to associate any kind of data with each path item, since when the action method is called, the actual object instances stored in pathItems and also the one returned by clickedPathItem change every time. Here is the sample code that reproduces the issue: class ViewController: NSViewController {     @IBOutlet weak var pathControl: NSPathControl!          override func viewDidLoad() {         super.viewDidLoad()         pathControl.pathItems = ["a", "b", "c"].map({ title in             let item = NSPathControlItem()             item.title = title             return item         })     }     @IBAction func selectPath(_ sender: NSPathControl) {         print(sender.clickedPathItem!.description, sender.clickedPathItem!.title, sender.pathItems.description)     }      } Here is a sample output (notice how the printed addresses change every time): <NSPathControlItem: 0x6000012780a0> a [<NSPathControlItem: 0x6000012780a0>, <NSPathControlItem: 0x600001278020>, <NSPathControlItem: 0x600001278090>] <NSPathControlItem: 0x600001278070> a [<NSPathControlItem: 0x600001278070>, <NSPathControlItem: 0x600001278140>, <NSPathControlItem: 0x6000012780d0>] <NSPathControlItem: 0x60000124c030> a [<NSPathControlItem: 0x60000124c030>, <NSPathControlItem: 0x60000124c080>, <NSPathControlItem: 0x60000124c070>]
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
7
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867
Feb ’23
What's the advantage of applying settings with NEFilterDataProvider.apply(_:) over manually checking incoming network flows?
I cannot find in the documentation if using NEFilterDataProvider.apply(_:) has any advantage over manually inspecting incoming flows in handleNewFlow(_:) other than being a shortcut. Or are those rules guaranteed to be applied even if the network extension crashes or similar? If it has no practical advantages, then manually inspecting each flow allows to set up more flexible dynamic rules.
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659
Oct ’23
Moving app to the trash doesn't deactivate system extension
I'm testing my NEFilterDataProvider system extension by building it in Xcode and then copying the built app into the Applications folder. When I do changes to the extension's code, obviously the system extension process currently running needs to be shut down or restarted when I launch the new app version. Increasing the app version and build numbers each time always seem to trigger the system extension update in macOS, but that's not so convenient and at the latest when publishing the update those numbers cannot just make arbitrary jumps. I've read that moving an app to the trash should uninstall any attached system extensions, and this seems to be confirmed by the alert that macOS shows when doing so, but even after clicking Continue and authenticating with Touch ID to confirm the uninstall and emptying the trash, it sometimes happens that when launching the next version of my app from the Applications folder the old system extension is still running, which I notice e.g. because the app crashes since it's using different IPC method signatures than the system extension. When checking in Activity Monitor the system extension is also still listed. Even restarting the Mac doesn't always solve the issue, so when this happens my only solution is to increase the build and version numbers to make it work, and then reset them later when moving the app to the trash correctly uninstalls the system extension again. Is this a bug or am I missing something? Or is there a workaround that doesn't involve booting into safe mode and manually uninstalling the system extension? P.S.: I just tried booting into safe mode and moving the files from /Library/SystemExtensions to the trash as suggested on discussions.apple.com, but I got an alert saying that I didn't have the privileges to do so.
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1k
Oct ’23
Control status item and login item from within app
In macOS 26 I noticed there is a section Menu Bar in System Settings which allows to toggle visibility of status items created with NSStatusItem. I'm assuming this is new, since I never noticed it before. Currently my app has a menu item that allows toggling its status item, but now I wonder whether it should always create the status item and let the user control its visibility from System Settings. Theoretically, keeping this option inside the app could lead to confusion if the user has previously disabled the status item in System Settings, then perhaps forgot about it, and then tries to enable it inside the app, but apparently nothing happens because System Settings overrides the app setting. Should I remove the option inside the app? This also makes me think of login items, which can be managed both in System Settings and inside the app via SMAppService. Some users ask why my app doesn't have a launch at login option, and I tell them that System Settings already offers that functionality. Since there is SMAppService I could offer an option inside the app that is kept in sync with System Settings, but I prefer to avoid duplicating functionality, particularly if it's something that is changed once by the user and then rarely (if ever) changed afterwards. But I wonder: why can login items be controlled by an app, and the status item cannot (at least I'm not aware of an API that allows to change the option in System Settings)? If the status item can be overridden in System Settings, why do login items behave differently?
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225
Sep ’25
App sometimes crashes when inserting String into Set with assertion ELEMENT_TYPE_OF_SET_VIOLATES_HASHABLE_REQUIREMENTS
Xcode downloaded a crash report for my app that crashed when trying to insert a String into a Set<String>. Apparently there was an assertion failure ELEMENT_TYPE_OF_SET_VIOLATES_HASHABLE_REQUIREMENTS. I assume that this assertion failure happened because the hash of the new element didn't match the hash of an equal already inserted element, but regardless, I don't understand how inserting a simple string could trigger this assertion. Here is essentially the code that leads to the crash. path is any file system directory, and basePath is a directory higher in the hierarchy, or path itself. var scanErrorPaths = Set<String>() func main() { let path = "/path/to/directory" let basePath = "/path" let fileDescriptor = open(path, O_RDONLY) if fileDescriptor < 0 { if (try? URL(fileURLWithPath: path, isDirectory: false).checkResourceIsReachable()) == true { scanErrorPaths.insert(path.relativePath(from: basePath)!) return } } extension String { func relativePath(from basePath: String) -> String? { if basePath == "" { return self } guard let index = range(of: basePath, options: .anchored)?.upperBound else { return nil } return if index == endIndex || basePath == "/" { String(self[index...]) } else if let index = self[index...].range(of: "/", options: .anchored)?.upperBound { String(self[index...]) } else { nil } } } crash.crash
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946
Oct ’25