We are developing an enterprise security solution for macOS that includes Wi-Fi awareness and network-based policy enforcement - WiFi Control.
On current macOS releases, access to the connected Wi-Fi's SSID/BSSID appears to require Location Services authorization. In many corporate environments, end users do not have local administrator privileges and cannot enable Location Services themselves. Enabling it often requires coordination with IT administrators, which can be difficult to scale in large organizations with a geographically distributed workspace.
This creates a deployment challenge for enterprise security products because network identification becomes unavailable on managed Macs, even when the device is enrolled and managed through MDM.
As far as we understand:
- MDM on macOS does not provide a mechanism equivalent to managed-device Wi-Fi control available in iOS management scenarios.
- System Extension running with elevated privileges cannot obtain the current SSID/BSSID through frameworks such as CoreWLAN even when Location Services access is granted (it requires user session).
Our questions are:
- Is there currently any supported API or entitlement that allows enterprise security products to determine the currently connected SSID/BSSID on managed macOS devices without requiring end users to enable Location Services?
- Are there plans to provide a managed-device exception, entitlement, or MDM-controlled authorization model for enterprise security vendors that need network identity information for security and compliance use cases?
- Would Apple consider exposing SSID/BSSID information to approved System Extensions or Endpoint Security-based products in managed corporate environments, while maintaining existing privacy protections for consumer devices?
We fully understand the privacy rationale behind restricting Wi-Fi information, but enterprise security and compliance solutions often need to identify trusted and untrusted networks. Today, the Location Services dependency significantly complicates deployment and usability in managed corporate environments.
Any guidance on recommended approaches or future platform direction would be greatly appreciated.
