In context of entitlements that are applicable on macos platform, I was discussing in another thread about the com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory and the com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit entitlements in a hardened runtime https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/775520?answerId=827440022#827440022
In that thread it was noted that:
The hardened runtime enables a bunch of additional security checks. None of them are related to networking. Some of them are very important to a Java VM author, most notably the com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit -> com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory -> com.apple.security.cs.disable-executable-page-protection cascade. My advice on that front:
This sequence is a trade off between increasing programmer convenience and decreasing security. com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit is the most secure, but requires extra work in your code.
Only set one of these entitlements, because each is a superset of its predecessor.
com.apple.security.cs.disable-executable-page-protection is rarely useful. Indeed, on Apple silicon [1] it’s the same as com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory.
If you want to investigate moving from com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory to com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit, lemme know because there are a bunch of additional resources on that topic.
What that tells me is that com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit is the recommended entitlement that retains enough security and yet provides the necessary programmer convenience for applications.
In the OpenJDK project we use both com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory and com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit entitlements for the executables shipped in the JDK (for example java). I was told in that other thread that it might be possible to just use the com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory, but there are some additional details to consider. I'm starting this thread to understand what those details are.
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I am looking at some logs that I collected through sysdiagnose and I notice several messages of the form:
...
fault 2025-03-05 01:12:04.034832 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=86764 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=86764>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:05.829696 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88001 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88001>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:06.047003 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88010 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88010>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:06.385648 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88012 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88012>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:07.135896 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88019 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88019>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:07.491316 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88021 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88021>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:07.542102 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88022 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88022>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:07.803126 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88025 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88025>
fault 2025-03-05 01:15:59.774214 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88568 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88568>
fault 2025-03-05 01:16:00.142288 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88572 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88572>
fault 2025-03-05 01:16:00.224019 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88573 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88573>
fault 2025-03-05 01:16:01.180670 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88580 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88580>
fault 2025-03-05 01:16:01.879884 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88588 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88588>
fault 2025-03-05 01:16:02.233165 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88589 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88589>
...
What's strange is that each of the message seems to say that it has identified two instances with unequal identities and yet it prints the same process for each such message. Notice:
fault 2025-03-05 01:16:02.233165 +0000 runningboardd Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<java>(502) pid=88589 AUID=502> and <anon<java>(502)(0) pid=88589>
I suspect the identity it is talking about is the one explained as designated requirement here https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Technotes/tn3127-inside-code-signing-requirements#Designated-requirement. Yet the message isn't clear why the same process would have two different identities. The type of this message is "fault", so I'm guessing that this message is pointing to some genuine issue with the executable of the process. Is that right? Any inputs on what could be wrong here?
This is from a 15.3.1 macosx aarch64 system. On that note, is runningboardd the process which is responsible for these identity checks?
Please consider this very trivial C code, which was run on 15.3.1 of macos:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include "sys/socket.h"
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <ifaddrs.h>
#include <net/if.h>
// prints out the sockaddr_in6
void print_addr(const char *msg_prefix, struct sockaddr_in6 sa6) {
char addr_text[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN] = {0};
printf("%s%s:%d, addr family=%u\n",
msg_prefix,
inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &sa6.sin6_addr, (char *) &addr_text, INET6_ADDRSTRLEN),
sa6.sin6_port,
sa6.sin6_family);
}
// creates a datagram socket
int create_dgram_socket() {
const int fd = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
if (fd < 0) {
perror("Socket creation failed");
return -1;
}
return fd;
}
int main() {
printf("current process id:%ld parent process id: %ld\n", (long) getpid(), (long) getppid());
//
// hardcode a link-local IPv6 address of a interface which is down
// ifconfig:
// ,,,
// awdl0: flags=8822<BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
// options=6460<TSO4,TSO6,CHANNEL_IO,PARTIAL_CSUM,ZEROINVERT_CSUM>
// ...
// inet6 fe80::34be:50ff:fe14:ecd7%awdl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x10
// nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
// media: autoselect (<unknown type>)
// status: inactive
//
const char *ip6_addr_str = "fe80::34be:50ff:fe14:ecd7"; // link-local ipv6 address from above ifconfig output
// parse the string literal to in6_addr
struct in6_addr ip6_addr;
int rv = inet_pton(AF_INET6, ip6_addr_str, &ip6_addr);
if (rv != 1) {
fprintf(stderr, "failed to parse ipv6 addr %s\n", ip6_addr_str);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
// create a AF_INET6 SOCK_DGRAM socket
const int sock_fd = create_dgram_socket();
if (sock_fd < 0) {
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("created a socket, descriptor=%d\n", sock_fd);
// create a destination sockaddr which points to the above
// ipv6 link-local address and an arbitrary port
const int dest_port = 12345;
struct sockaddr_in6 dest_sock_addr;
memset((char *) &dest_sock_addr, 0, sizeof(struct sockaddr_in6));
dest_sock_addr.sin6_addr = ip6_addr;
dest_sock_addr.sin6_port = htons(dest_port);
dest_sock_addr.sin6_family = AF_INET6;
dest_sock_addr.sin6_scope_id = 0x10; // scopeid from the above ifconfig output
// now sendto() to that address, whose network interface is down.
// we expect sendto() to return an error
print_addr("sendto() to ", dest_sock_addr);
const char *msg = "hello";
const size_t msg_len = strlen(msg) + 1;
rv = sendto(sock_fd, msg, msg_len, 0, (struct sockaddr *) &dest_sock_addr, sizeof(dest_sock_addr));
if (rv == -1) {
perror("sendto() expectedly failed");
close(sock_fd);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("sendto() unexpectedly succeeded\n"); // should not reach here, we expect sendto() to return an error
return 0;
}
It creates a SOCK_DGRAM socket and attempts to sendto() to a link-local IPv6 address of a local network interface which is not UP. The sendto() is expected to fail with a "network is down" (or at least fail with some error). Let's see how it behaves.
Copy that code to a file called netdown.c and compile it as follows:
clang netdown.c
Now run the program:
./a.out
That results in the following output:
current process id:29290 parent process id: 21614
created a socket, descriptor=3
sendto() to fe80::34be:50ff:fe14:ecd7:14640, addr family=30
sendto() unexpectedly succeeded
(To reproduce this locally, replace the IPv6 address in that code with a link-local IPv6 address of an interface that is not UP on your system)
Notice how the sendto() returned successfully without any error giving an impression to the application code that the message has been sent. In reality, the message isn't really sent. Here's the system logs from that run:
PID Type Date & Time Process Message
debug 2025-03-13 23:36:36.830147 +0530 kernel Process (a.out) allowed via dev tool environment (/System/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/MacOS/Terminal)
debug 2025-03-13 23:36:36.833054 +0530 kernel [SPI][HIDSPI]
TX: 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
RX: 20 02 00 00 00 00 38 00 10 02 00 17 00 00 2E 00
26700 error 2025-03-13 23:36:36.838607 +0530 nehelper Failed to get the signing identifier for 29290: No such process
26700 error 2025-03-13 23:36:36.838608 +0530 nehelper Failed to get the code directory hash for 29290: No such process
default 2025-03-13 23:36:36.840070 +0530 kernel cfil_dispatch_attach_event:3507 CFIL: Failed to get effective audit token for <sockID 22289651233205710 <4f3051d7ec2dce>>
26700 error 2025-03-13 23:36:36.840678 +0530 nehelper Failed to get the signing identifier for 29290: No such process
26700 error 2025-03-13 23:36:36.840679 +0530 nehelper Failed to get the code directory hash for 29290: No such process
default 2025-03-13 23:36:36.841742 +0530 kernel cfil_hash_entry_log:6082 <CFIL: Error: sosend_reinject() failed>: [29290 ] <UDP(17) out so 891be95f39bd0385 22289651233205710 22289651233205710 age 0> lport 60244 fport 12345 laddr fe80::34be:50ff:fe14:ecd7 faddr fe80::34be:50ff:fe14:ecd7 hash D7EC2DCE
default 2025-03-13 23:36:36.841756 +0530 kernel cfil_service_inject_queue:4466 CFIL: sosend() failed 50
Notice the last line where it states the sosend() (and internal impl detail of macos) failed with error code 50, which corresponds to ENETDOWN ("Network is down"). However, like I noted, this error was never propagated back to the application from the sendto() system call.
The documentation of sendto() system call states:
man sendto
...
Locally detected errors are indicated by a return value of -1.
...
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, the number of bytes which were sent is returned. Otherwise, -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.
So I would expect sendto() to return -1, which it isn't.
The 15.3.1 source of xnu hasn't yet been published but there is the 15.3 version here https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/xnu/tree/xnu-11215.81.4 and looking at the corresponding function cfil_service_inject_queue, line 4466 (the one which is reported in the logs) https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/xnu/blob/xnu-11215.81.4/bsd/net/content_filter.c#L4466, the code there logs this error and the cfil_service_inject_queue function then returns back the error. However, looking at the call sites of the call to cfil_service_inject_queue(...), there are several places within that file which don't track the return value (representing an error value) and just ignore it. Is that intentional and does that explain this issue?
Does this deserve to be reported as a bug through feedback assistant?
Please consider this trivial C code which deals with BSD sockets. This will illustrate an issue with sendto() which seems to be impacted by the recent "Local Network" restrictions on 15.3.1 macos.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include "sys/socket.h"
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <ifaddrs.h>
#include <net/if.h>
// prints out the sockaddr_in6
void print_addr(const char *msg_prefix, struct sockaddr_in6 sa6) {
char addr_text[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN] = {0};
printf("%s%s:%d, addr family=%u\n",
msg_prefix,
inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &sa6.sin6_addr, (char *) &addr_text, INET6_ADDRSTRLEN),
sa6.sin6_port,
sa6.sin6_family);
}
// creates a datagram socket
int create_dgram_socket() {
const int fd = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
if (fd < 0) {
perror("Socket creation failed");
return -1;
}
return fd;
}
// returns a string representing the current local time
char *current_time() {
time_t seconds_since_epoch;
time(&seconds_since_epoch);
char *res = ctime(&seconds_since_epoch);
const size_t len = strlen(res);
// strip off the newline character that's at the end of the ctime() output
res[len - 1] = '\0';
return res;
}
// Creates a datagram socket and then sends a messages (through sendto()) to a valid
// multicast address. This it does two times, to the exact same destination address from
// the exact same socket.
//
// Between the first and the second attempt to sendto(), there is
// a sleep of 1 second.
//
// The first time, the sendto() succeeds and claims to have sent the expected number of bytes.
// However system logs (generated through "log collect") seem to indicate that the message isn't
// actually sent (there's a "cfil_service_inject_queue:4466 CFIL: sosend() failed 65" in the logs).
//
// The second time the sendto() returns a EHOSTUNREACH ("No route to host") error.
//
// If the sleep between these two sendto() attempts is removed then both the attempts "succeed".
// However, the system logs still suggest that the message isn't actually sent.
int main() {
printf("current process id:%ld parent process id: %ld\n", (long) getpid(), (long) getppid());
// valid multicast address as specified in
// https://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv6-multicast-addresses/ipv6-multicast-addresses.xhtml
const char *ip6_addr_str = "ff01::1";
struct in6_addr ip6_addr;
int rv = inet_pton(AF_INET6, ip6_addr_str, &ip6_addr);
if (rv != 1) {
fprintf(stderr, "failed to parse ipv6 addr %s\n", ip6_addr_str);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
// create a AF_INET6 SOCK_DGRAM socket
const int sock_fd = create_dgram_socket();
if (sock_fd < 0) {
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("created a socket, descriptor=%d\n", sock_fd);
const int dest_port = 12345; // arbitrary port
struct sockaddr_in6 dest_sock_addr;
memset((char *) &dest_sock_addr, 0, sizeof(struct sockaddr_in6));
dest_sock_addr.sin6_addr = ip6_addr; // the target multicast address
dest_sock_addr.sin6_port = htons(dest_port);
dest_sock_addr.sin6_family = AF_INET6;
print_addr("test will attempt to sendto() to destination host:port -> ", dest_sock_addr);
const char *msg = "hello";
const size_t msg_len = strlen(msg) + 1;
for (int i = 1; i <= 2; i++) {
if (i != 1) {
// if not the first attempt, then sleep a while before attempting to sendto() again
int num_sleep_seconds = 1;
printf("sleeping for %d second(s) before calling sendto()\n", num_sleep_seconds);
sleep(num_sleep_seconds);
}
printf("%s attempt %d to sendto() %lu bytes\n", current_time(), i, msg_len);
const size_t num_sent = sendto(sock_fd, msg, msg_len, 0, (struct sockaddr *) &dest_sock_addr,
sizeof(dest_sock_addr));
if (num_sent == -1) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s ", current_time());
perror("sendto() failed");
close(sock_fd);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("%s attempt %d of sendto() succeeded, sent %lu bytes\n", current_time(), i, num_sent);
}
return 0;
}
What this program does is, it uses the sendto() system call to send a message over a datagram socket to a (valid) multicast address. It does this twice, from the same socket to the same target address. There is a sleep() of 1 second between these two sendto() attempts.
Copy that code into noroutetohost.c and compile:
clang noroutetohost.c
Then run:
./a.out
This generates the following output:
current process id:58597 parent process id: 21614
created a socket, descriptor=3
test will attempt to sendto() to destination host:port ->ff01::1:14640, addr family=30
Fri Mar 14 20:34:09 2025 attempt 1 to sendto() 6 bytes
Fri Mar 14 20:34:09 2025 attempt 1 of sendto() succeeded, sent 6 bytes
sleeping for 1 second(s) before calling sendto()
Fri Mar 14 20:34:10 2025 attempt 2 to sendto() 6 bytes
Fri Mar 14 20:34:10 2025 sendto() failed: No route to host
Notice how the first call to sendto() "succeeds", even the return value (that represents the number of bytes sent) matches the number of bytes that were supposed to be sent. Then notice how the second attempt fails with a EHOSTUNREACH ("No route to host") error. Looking through the system logs, it appears that the first attempt itself has failed:
2025-03-14 20:34:09.474797 default kernel cfil_hash_entry_log:6082 <CFIL: Error: sosend_reinject() failed>: [58597 a.out] <UDP(17) out so 891be95f3a70c605 22558774573152560 22558774573152560 age 0> lport 0 fport 12345 laddr :: faddr ff01::1 hash 1003930
2025-03-14 20:34:09.474806 default kernel cfil_service_inject_queue:4466 CFIL: sosend() failed 65
(notice the time on that log messages, they match the first attempt from the program's output log)
So even though the first attempt failed, it never got reported back to the application. Then after sleeping for (an arbitrary amount of) 1 second, the second call fails with the EHOSTUNREACH. The system logs don't show any error (at least not the one similar to that previous one) for the second call.
If I remove that sleep() between those two attempts, then both the sendto() calls "succeed" (and return the expected value for the number of bytes sent). However, the system logs show that the first call (and very likely even the second) has failed with the exact same log message from the kernel like before.
If I'm not wrong then this appears to be some kind of a bug in the "local network" restrictions. Should this be reported? I can share the captured logs but I would prefer to do it privately for this one.
Another interesting thing in all this is that there's absolutely no notification to the end user (I ran this program from the Terminal) about any of the "Local Network" restrictions.
Continuing with my investigations of several issues that we have been noticing in our testing of the JDK with macosx 15.x, I have now narrowed down at least 2 separate problems for which I need help. For a quick background, starting with macosx 15.x several networking related tests within the JDK have started failing in very odd and hard to debug ways in our internal lab. Reading through the macos docs and with help from others in these forums, I have come to understand that a lot of these failures are to do with the new restrictions that have been placed for "Local Network" operations. I have read through https://developer.apple.com/documentation/technotes/tn3179-understanding-local-network-privacy and I think I understand the necessary background about these restrictions.
There's more than one issue in this area that I will need help with, so I'll split them out into separate topics in this forum. That above doc states:
macOS 15.1 fixed a number of local network privacy bugs. If you encounter local network privacy problems on macOS 15.0, retest on macOS 15.1 or later.
We did have (and continue to have) 15.0 and 15.1 macos instances within our lab which are impacted by these changes. They too show several networking related failures. However, I have decided not to look into those systems and instead focus only on 15.3.1.
People might see unexpected behavior in System Settings > Privacy & Security if they have multiple versions of the same app installed (FB15568200).
This feedback assistant issue and several others linked in these documentations are inaccessible (even when I login with my existing account). I think it would be good to have some facility in the feedback assistant tool/site to make such issues visible (even if read-only) to be able to watch for updates to those issues.
So now coming to the issue. Several of the networking tests in the JDK do mulicasting testing (through BSD sockets API) in order to test the Java SE multicasting socket API implementations. One repeated failure we have been seeing in our labs is an exception with the message "No route to host". It shows up as:
Process id: 58700
...
java.net.NoRouteToHostException: No route to host
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.DatagramChannelImpl.send0(Native Method)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.DatagramChannelImpl.sendFromNativeBuffer(DatagramChannelImpl.java:914)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.DatagramChannelImpl.send(DatagramChannelImpl.java:871)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.DatagramChannelImpl.send(DatagramChannelImpl.java:798)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.DatagramChannelImpl.blockingSend(DatagramChannelImpl.java:857)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.DatagramSocketAdaptor.send(DatagramSocketAdaptor.java:178)
at java.base/java.net.DatagramSocket.send(DatagramSocket.java:593)
(this is just one example stacktrace from java program)
That "send0" is implemented by the JDK by invoking the sendto() system call. In this case, the sendto() is returning a EHOSTUNREACH error which is what is then propagated to the application.
The forum text editor doesn't allow me to post long text, so I'm going to post the rest of this investigation and logs as a reply.
Is there some official documentation about the SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT environment variable and how it affects the version reported by tools like sw_vers and whether the presence of that environment variable affects APIs like NSOperatingSystemVersion?
I ask this in context of recent macOS 26 Beta version where NSOperatingSystemVersion from older versions of XCode (for example XCode 15.4) report the macOS version as 16.0.
Topic:
Developer Tools & Services
SubTopic:
Xcode
A few minutes back I filed a feedback assistant issue for this (FB18173706), but I am not sure I filed it in the correct category and I can't find a way to edit it either. So posting this message here just to have to assigned in the right category if appropriate. The issue is as follows.
On macOS 26 Tahoe Beta, "man sw_vers" has this among other details:
Previous versions of sw_vers respected the SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT environment variable to provide compatibility fallback versions for scripts which did not support the macOS 11.0+ version transition. This is no longer supported, versions returned by sw_vers will always reflect the real system version.
It says that SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT is no longer supported. That doesn't look right, because running sw_vers as follows on macOS 26 Beta results in:
SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 sw_vers
ProductName: macOS
ProductVersion: 16.0
BuildVersion: 25A5279m
i.e. setting the environment variable SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 results in sw_vers reporting the version as 16.0. Now try with SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=0, and the result is:
SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=0 sw_vers
ProductName: macOS
ProductVersion: 26.0
BuildVersion: 25A5279m
notice the output says 26.0. So it appears that SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT is supported even on macOS 26. I think the man page requires an update to match this behaviour.
I am in the middle of investigating an issue arising in the call to setsockopt syscall where it returns an undocumented and unexpected errno. As part of that, I'm looking for a way to list any socket content filters or any such extensions are in play on the system where this happens.
To do that, I ran:
systemextensionsctl list
That retuns the following output:
0 extension(s)
which seems to indicate there's no filters or extensions in play.
However, when I do:
netstat -s
among other things, it shows:
net_api:
2 interface filters currently attached
2 interface filters currently attached by OS
2 interface filters attached since boot
2 interface filters attached since boot by OS
...
4 socket filters currently attached
4 socket filters currently attached by OS
4 socket filters attached since boot
4 socket filters attached since boot by OS
What would be the right command/tool/options that I could use to list all the socket filters/extensions (and their details) that are in use and applicable when a call to setsockopt is made from an application on that system?
Edit: This is on a macosx-aarch64 with various different OS versions - 13.6.7, 14.3.1 and even 14.4.1.
I was reading through this documentation about instruments command line tool https://help.apple.com/instruments/mac/current/#/devb14ffaa5 and how it can be launched from the command line. However, unlike what the documentation states, there's no such instruments command anywhere on my macos M1 (OS version 15.6). That command gives:
$> instruments
zsh: command not found: instruments
I do have XCode installed which has the Instruments.App (GUI app) but not the command line utility:
$> ls Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/
... Instruments.app
Is that linked documentation up-to-date (it does say "latest" in the URL)? Is there some other way to install this command line utility?
There appears to be some unexplained change in behaviour in the recent version of macos 15.6.1 which is causing the BSD socket sendto() syscall to no longer send the data when the source socket is bound to a IPv4-mapped IPv6 address.
I have attached a trivial native code which reproduces the issue. What this reproducer does is explained as a comment on that code's main() function:
// Creates a AF_INET6 datagram socket, marks it as dual socket (i.e. IPV6_V6ONLY = 0),
// then binds the socket to a IPv4-mapped IPv6 address (chosen on the host where this test runs).
//
// The test then uses sendto() to send some bytes. For the sake of this test, it uses the same IPv4-mapped
// IPv6 address as the destination address to sendto(). The test then waits for (a maximum of) 15 seconds to
// receive that sent message by calling recvfrom().
//
// The test passes on macos (x64 and aarch64) hosts of versions 12.x, 13.x, 14.x and 15.x upto 15.5.
// Only on macos 15.6.1 and the recent macos 26, the test fails. Specifically, the first message that is
// sent using sendto() is never sent (and thus the recvfrom()) times out. sendto() however returns 0,
// incorrectly indicating a successful send. Interesting, if you repeat sendto() a second message from the
// same bound socket to the exact same destination address, the send message is indeed correctly sent and
// received immediately by the recvfrom(). It's only the first message which goes missing (the test uses
// unique content in each message to be sure which exact message was received and it has been observed that
// only the second message is received and the first one lost).
//
// Logs collected using "sudo log collect --last 2m" (after the test program returns) shows the following log
// message, which seem relevant:
// ...
// default kernel cfil_hash_entry_log:6088 <CFIL: Error: sosend_reinject() failed>:
// [86868 a.out] <UDP(17) out so 59faaa5dbbcef55d 127846646561221313 127846646561221313 age 0>
// lport 65051 fport 65051 laddr 192.168.1.2 faddr 192.168.1.2 hash 201AAC1
// default kernel cfil_service_inject_queue:4472 CFIL: sosend() failed 22
// ...
//
As noted, this test passes without issues on various macosx version (12 through 15.5), both x64 and aarch64 but always fails against 15.6.1. I have been told that it also fails on the recently released macos 26 but I don't have access to such host to verify it myself.
The release notes don't usually contain this level of detail, so it's hard to tell if something changed intentionally or if this is a bug. Should I report this through the feedback assistant?
Attached is the source of the reproducer, run it as:
clang dgramsend.c
./a.out
On macos 15.6.1, you will see that it will fail to send (and thus receive) the message on first attempt but the second one passes:
...
created and bound a datagram dual socket to ::ffff:192.168.1.2:65055
::ffff:192.168.1.2:65055 sendto() ::ffff:192.168.1.2:65055
---- Attempt 1 ----
sending greeting "hello 1"
sendto() succeeded, sent 8 bytes
calling recvfrom()
receive timed out
---------------------
---- Attempt 2 ----
sending greeting "hello 2"
sendto() succeeded, sent 8 bytes
calling recvfrom()
received 8 bytes: "hello 2"
---------------------
TEST FAILED
...
The output "log collect --last 2m" contains a related error (and this log message consistently shows up every time you run that reproducer):
...
default kernel cfil_hash_entry_log:6088 <CFIL: Error: sosend_reinject() failed>:
[86248 a.out] <UDP(17) out so 59faaa5dbbcef55d 127846646561221313 127846646561221313 age 0>
lport 65055 fport 65055 laddr 192.168.1.2 faddr 192.168.1.2 hash 201AAC1
default kernel cfil_service_inject_queue:4472 CFIL: sosend() failed 22
...
I don't know what it means though.
dgramsend.c
Is there any recent and a bit authoritative documentation which explains how to debug recent versions of macos kernel?
I have found some blog posts from other users but those are either outdated or don't work for some other reason. I am guessing kernel debugging is pretty common for developers working on macos itself, so I'm hoping someone in this forum would have some working instructions for that.