We are seeing an issue with Jamf Pro MDM enrollment on macOS 27 running as a virtual machine using VirtualBuddy / Apple Virtualization Framework.
The VM itself successfully completes the initial User-Initiated MDM enrollment:
Enrolled via DEP: No
MDM enrollment: Yes (User Approved)
MDM server: https://slsp.jamfcloud.com/mdm/ServerURL
The VM also has valid hardware identifiers:
Model Identifier: VirtualMac2,1
Chip: Apple M3 (Virtual)
Serial Number: present
Hardware UUID: present
Provisioning UDID: present
The Jamf SCEP process completes successfully and the Bootstrap Token is also successfully sent to the Jamf MDM server with HTTP 200.
However, the device never becomes fully manageable in Jamf Pro. The Jamf Management Framework is not installed, the jamf binary is missing, MDM commands are not processed, and Jamf Pro reports the device as not managed / without MDM capability.
While investigating mdmclient and apsd, I noticed that the APNs public token remains null:
Delivering publicToken from apsd: (null)
asked for publicToken, got (null)
Looking deeper into the apsd logs shows that the failure appears to occur while macOS is attempting to create the identity required for APNs:
APSSystemTokenInfo no token info found in keychain
APSBAAClientIdentityProvider attempting to fetch BAA certs
APSBAAClientIdentityProvider fetching BAA cert
SEPClientObject: createKey
unable to generate key
SecKeyCreateRandomKey_ios failed
Code=-25308 "Failed to generate keypair"
Failed to create reference key
APSBAAClientIdentityProvider failed to obtain a BAA cert
After this failure, apsd reports that it does not have an identity available for the connection:
underlying identity provider has identity to connect? NO
user courier ready to connect? NO
told not to connect!
The APNs token consequently remains unavailable:
APSSystemTokenInfo no token info found in keychain
Cached token: (null)
No token found in keychain for environment production
setting publicToken:(null)
I also checked the VM's I/O Registry.
AppleKeyStore is present and active, and the VM exposes the expected Apple virtual platform components, including AppleVirtualPlatformIdentityService and AppleVirtualPlatformProvisioningService.
The system identifies itself as:
VirtualMac2,1
Apple M3 (Virtual)
virtual machine for ARM-v8.4 with Apple Silicon extensions
However, the APNs identity creation still fails when apsd attempts the SEP-backed key operation.
The VM otherwise appears healthy from a boot security perspective:
Secure Boot: Full Security
System Integrity Protection: Enabled
Signed System Volume: Enabled
Kernel CTRR: Enabled
This issue has also been reproducible for us across multiple macOS 27 builds, including earlier beta builds and the RC.
At this point it looks like the MDM enrollment itself succeeds, but macOS 27 inside the VM is unable to create the cryptographic identity required by APNs. Without the APNs device token, the MDM push channel never becomes functional.
Has anyone else observed the same SEPClientObject: createKey / APSBAAClientIdentityProvider failure on macOS 27 virtual machines?
I would also be interested to know whether this is a known limitation or regression in the macOS 27 Virtualization Framework / virtual platform implementation, particularly around APNs device identity generation.
Topic:
Business & Education
SubTopic:
Device Management
Tags: