[Q] Has there been a change in macOS 15.3.2 and later that can explain why some UDP traffic is not seen by some Network Extensions when it is in previous macOS minor and major versions?
Networking
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hi everybody,
When I use the following code to connect to WiFi network, an error message of "error=null" or "error='Error Domain=NEHotspotConfigurationErrorDomain Code=11 "" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=}' " will occur. It has been uploaded to Feedback.
Feedback ID:
FB16819345 (WiFi-无法加入网络)
NEHotspotConfiguration *hotspotConfig = [[NEHotspotConfiguration alloc] initWithSSID:ssid passphrase:psk isWEP:NO];
[[NEHotspotConfigurationManager sharedManager] applyConfiguration:hotspotConfig completionHandler:^(NSError * _Nullable error) {
}];
Problem description
Since macOS Sequoia, our users have experienced issues with multicast traffic in our macOS app. Regularly, the app starts but cannot receive multicast, or multicast eventually stops mid-execution. The app sometimes asks again for Local Network permission, while it was already allowed so. Several versions of our app on a single machine are sometimes (but not always) shown as different instances in the System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network list. And when several instances are shown in that list, disabling one disables all of them, but it does not actually forbids the app from receiving multicast traffic. All of those issues are experienced by an increasing number of users after they update their system from macOS 14 to macOS 15 or 26, and many of them have reported networking issues during production-critical moments.
We haven't been able to find the root cause of those issues, so we built a simple test app, called "FM Mac App Test", that can reproduce multicast issues. This app creates a GCDAsyncUdpSocket socket to receive multicast packets from a piece of hardware we also develop, and displays a simple UI showing if such packets are received. The app is entitled with "Custom Network Protocol", is built against x86_64 and arm64, and is archived (signed and notarized). We can share the source code if requested.
Out of the many issues our main app exhibits, the test app showcases some:
The app asks several times for Local Network permission, even after being allowed so previously. After allowing the app's Local Network and rebooting the machine, the System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network does not show the app, and the app asks again for Local Network access.
The app shows a different Local Network Usage Description than in the project's plist.
Several versions of the app appear as different instances in the Privacy list, and behave strangely. Toggling on or off one instance toggles the others. Only one version of the app seems affected by the setting, the other versions always seem to have access to Local Network even when the toggle is set to off.
We even did see messages from different app versions in different user accounts. This seems to contradicts Apple's documentation that states user accounts have independent Privacy settings.
Can you help us understand what we are missing (in terms of build settings, entitlements, proper archiving...) so our app conforms to what macOS expects for proper Local Network behavior?
Related material
Local Network Privacy breaks Application: this issue seemed related to ours, but the fix was to ensure different versions of the app have different UUIDs. We ensured that ourselves, to no improvement.
Local Network FAQ
Technote TN3179
Steps to Reproduce
Test App is developed on Xcode 15.4 (15F31d) on macOS 14.5 (23F79), and runs on macOS 26.0.1 (25A362). We can share the source code if requested.
On a clean install of macOS Tahoe (our test setup used macOS 26.0.1 on a Mac mini M2 8GB), we upload the app (version 5.1).
We run the app, make sure the selected NIC is the proper one, and open the multicast socket. The app asks us to allow Local Network, we allow it. The alert shows a different Local Network Usage Description than the one we set in our project's plist.
The app properly shows packets are received from the console on our LAN.
We check the list in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network, it includes our app properly allowed.
We then reboot the machine. After reboot, the same list does not show the app anymore.
We run the app, it asks again about Local Network access (still with incorrect Usage Description). We allow it again, but no console packet is received yet. Only after closing and reopening the socket are the console packets received.
After a 2nd reboot, the System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network list shows correctly the app. The app seems to now run fine.
We then upload an updated version of the same app (5.2), also built and notarized. The 2nd version is simulating when we send different versions of our main app to our users. The updated version has a different UUID than the 1st version.
The updated version also asks for Local Network access, this time with proper Usage Description.
A 3rd updated version of the app (5.3, also with unique UUID) behaves the same. The System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network list shows three instances of the app.
We toggle off one of the app, all of them toggle off. The 1st version of the app (5.1) does not have local network access anymore, but both 2nd and 3rd versions do, while their toggle button seems off.
We toggle on one of the app, all of them toggle on. All 3 versions have local network access.
I'm trying to invoke a 3rd party command line tool from a launch agent to connect to a server on my LAN. It seems impossible.
I have a little shell script that does what I need, and it works fine invoked in Terminal.app. The first time I run it that way I get permission prompts and I agree to them all. Subsequent invocations work.
Now I put a launch agent in ~/Library/Launch Agents. It does nothing more than invoke my shell script at some specific time daily. launchd launches it, but it fails to access the LAN, with a 'no route to host' error message.
The command line tool I'm trying to use is not a macOS-provided one, but one from MacPorts/HomeBrew (I tried both). It doesn't even matter which tool I'm using, I tried a very simple case of just using nc/netcat. If I use the macOS-provided nc, then I can access my LAN. If I install nc from MacPorts /HomeBrew, that nc cannot access my LAN.
This I've reproed on a literally brand new Mac, then updated to newest Sequoia (15.3.2), then done all I've described above.
I've ruled out DNS by working with raw IP addresses.
I've disabled gatekeeper with sudo spctl --master-disable.
I've tried using cron instead of launch agents, same results.
I've tried codesigning with codesign -dvvv /opt/homebrew/bin/nc, no help.
I've read TN3179 Understanding local network privacy.
In summary:
Terminal.app -> script -> macOS/brew nc -> internet/LAN = works
launchagent -> script -> macOS nc -> internet = works
launchagent -> script -> macOS nc -> LAN = works
launchagent -> script -> brew nc -> internet = works
launchagent -> script -> brew nc -> LAN = fails
How can I make that last case work?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
When i try to set the value ‘false’ for ‘usesClassicLoadingMode’ it is getting crashed.
The crash logs has been shared below
Ex:
let config = URLSessionConfiguration.default
if #available(iOS 18.4, *) {
config.usesClassicLoadingMode = false
}
Error log :
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFBoolean objectForKeyedSubscript:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1f655c390'
*** First throw call stack:
(0x188ae52ec 0x185f69a7c 0x188b4f67c 0x1889fcb84 0x1889fc4f0 0x191393bc8 0x1889ec8a0 0x1889ec6e4 0x191393ad0 0x191344dac 0x191344b58 0x107cfa064 0x107ce36d0 0x191343fcc 0x1891b3b18 0x1892dae58 0x189235c60 0x18921e270 0x18921d77c 0x18921a8ac 0x107ce0584 0x107cfa064 0x107ce891c 0x107ce95d8 0x107ceabcc 0x107cf5894 0x107cf4eb0 0x212f51660 0x212f4e9f8)
terminating due to uncaught exception of type NSException
Can you please provider the resolution steps
For a long time our app had this creation of a URLRequest:
var urlRequest = URLRequest(url: url, cachePolicy: .reloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData, timeoutInterval: timeout)
But since iOS 26 was released we started to get crashes in this call. It is created on a background thread.
Thread 10 Crashed:
0 libsystem_malloc.dylib 0x00000001920e309c _xzm_xzone_malloc_freelist_outlined + 864 (xzone_malloc.c:1869)
1 libswiftCore.dylib 0x0000000184030360 swift::swift_slowAllocTyped(unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long long) + 56 (Heap.cpp:110)
2 libswiftCore.dylib 0x0000000184030754 swift_allocObject + 136 (HeapObject.cpp:245)
3 Foundation 0x00000001845dab9c specialized _ArrayBuffer._consumeAndCreateNew(bufferIsUnique:minimumCapacity:growForAppend:) + 120
4 Foundation 0x00000001845daa58 specialized static _SwiftURL._makeCFURL(from:baseURL:) + 2288 (URL_Swift.swift:1192)
5 Foundation 0x00000001845da118 closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getter + 112 (URL_Swift.swift:64)
6 Foundation 0x00000001845da160 partial apply for closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getter + 20 (<compiler-generated>:0)
7 Foundation 0x00000001845da0a0 closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getterpartial apply + 16
8 Foundation 0x00000001845d9a6c protocol witness for _URLProtocol.bridgeToNSURL() in conformance _SwiftURL + 196 (<compiler-generated>:974)
9 Foundation 0x000000018470f31c URLRequest.init(url:cachePolicy:timeoutInterval:) + 92 (URLRequest.swift:44)# Live For Studio
Any idea if this crash is caused by our code or if it is a known problem in iOS 26?
I have attached one of the crash reports from Xcode:
2025-10-08_10-13-45.1128_+0200-8acf1536892bf0576f963e1534419cd29e6e10b8.crash
Hello team,
I am trying to find out a way to block urls in the chrome browser if it is found in local blocked list cache. I found URL Filter Network very much suitable for my requirement. But I see at multiple places that this solution is only for Enterprise level or MDM or supervised device. So can I run this for normal user ? as my targeting audience would be bank users. One more thing how can I test this in development environment if we need supervised devices and do we need special entitlement ?
When trying to run sample project in the simulator then getting below error
There is a problem with the Apple local network setting api, iOS18 system, you turn off the local network permissions of the APP, uninstall the APP, and then re-install, the local network permissions even if opened, there is no effect, only restart the phone is useful
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?
I can develop a PacketTunnelProvider on Mac with xcode.
I work with my self codesign.
But when I sign it with Developer ID after read https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/737894 , it still fail when I turn on the vpn .
I've been wondering what is the memory limit for network extensions. Specifically, I'm using the NEPacketTunnelProvider extension point.The various posts on this forum mention 5 MB and 6 MB for 32-bit and 64-bit respectively. However I find that (at least on iOS 10) the upper limit seems to be 15 MB. Is this the new memory limit for extensions?
When a VPN is active, RCS messaging does not work on iOS 18.
I work on an iOS VPN app, and we were very appreciative of the excludeCellularServices network flag that was released during the iOS 16 cycle. It's a great solution to ensure the VPN doesn't interfere with cellular network features from the cellular provider.
Separately - As a user, I'm excited that iOS 18 includes RCS messaging.
Unfortunately, RCS messaging is not working when our VPN is active (when checking on the iOS 18 release candidate). My guess is that RCS is not excluded from the VPN tunnel, even when excludeCellularServices is true. It seems like RCS should be added in this situation, as it is a cell provider service.
Can RCS be added as a service that is excluded from the VPN tunnel when excludeCellularServices is true? (I've also sent this via feedback assistant, as 15094270.)
I'm using a Mac Studio in a homelab context and use Homebrew to manage the installed services. The services include things that access the local network, for example Prometheus which monitors some other servers, a reverse proxy which fronts other web services on the network, and a DNS server which can use another as upstream.
Local Network Access permissions make it impossible to reliably perform unattended updates of services because an updated binary requires a GUI login to grant local network permissions (again).
I use brew services to manage the services as launchd agents, i.e. they run in a non-root GUI context. I know that I can also use sudo brew services which instead installs the services as launchd daemons, but running services as root has negative security implication and generally doesn't look like a good idea to me.
If only there was a way to disable local network access checks altogether…
Hello,
Title states it basically. I have a java program (launched via shell script) running as a service using launchd which is running as a user (not root) and it does not request Local Network permissions ever.
I feel like i'm missing something here. I combed through all of the Local Network FAQs and don't really see this use case addressed.
I do see that there is an open ticket for an API to trigger the request, but no update on that and the ticket is not visible publicly.
Is there is a way to accomplish this for java or other programs running via launchd with a user other than root? something like an entitlement or an API to seed the permission of Local Network when installing the service via launchctl etc?
I've recently updated one of our CI mac mini's to Sequoia in preparation for the transition to Tahoe later this year. Most things seemed to work just fine, however I see this dialog whenever the UI Tests try to run.
This application BoostBrowerUITest-Runner is auto-generated by Xcode to launch your application and then run your UI Tests. We do not have any control over it, which is why this is most surprising.
I've checked the codesigning identity with codesign -d -vvvv
as well as looked at it's Info.plist and indeed the usage descriptions for everything are present (again, this is autogenerated, so I'm not surprised, but just wanted to confirm the string from the dialog was coming from this app)
<?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>BuildMachineOSBuild</key>
<string>22A380021</string>
<key>CFBundleAllowMixedLocalizations</key>
<true/>
<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>en</string>
<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
<string>BoostBrowserUITests-Runner</string>
<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>company.thebrowser.Browser2UITests.xctrunner</string>
<key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
<string>6.0</string>
<key>CFBundleName</key>
<string>BoostBrowserUITests-Runner</string>
<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
<string>APPL</string>
<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
<string>1.0</string>
<key>CFBundleSignature</key>
<string>????</string>
<key>CFBundleSupportedPlatforms</key>
<array>
<string>MacOSX</string>
</array>
<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>1</string>
<key>DTCompiler</key>
<string>com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0</string>
<key>DTPlatformBuild</key>
<string>24A324</string>
<key>DTPlatformName</key>
<string>macosx</string>
<key>DTPlatformVersion</key>
<string>15.0</string>
<key>DTSDKBuild</key>
<string>24A324</string>
<key>DTSDKName</key>
<string>macosx15.0.internal</string>
<key>DTXcode</key>
<string>1620</string>
<key>DTXcodeBuild</key>
<string>16C5031c</string>
<key>LSBackgroundOnly</key>
<true/>
<key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>
<string>13.0</string>
<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
<key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
<true/>
</dict>
<key>NSAppleEventsUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSCalendarsUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSContactsUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSDesktopFolderUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSDocumentsFolderUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSDownloadsFolderUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSFileProviderDomainUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSFileProviderPresenceUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSLocationUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSMotionUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSNetworkVolumesUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSRemindersUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSRemovableVolumesUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSSystemAdministrationUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>NSSystemExtensionUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
<key>OSBundleUsageDescription</key>
<string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Additionally, spctl --assess --type execute BoostBrowserUITests-Runner.app return an exit code of 0 so I assume that means it can launch just fine, and applications are allowed to be run from "anywhere" in System Settings.
I've found the XCUIProtectedResource.localNetwork value, but it seems to only be accessible on iOS for some reason (FB17829325).
I'm trying to figure out why this is happening on this machine so I can either fix our code or fix the machine. I have an Apple script that will allow it, but it's fiddly and I'd prefer to fix this the correct way either with the machine or with fixing our testing code.
iPhone 12 pro with iOS 26.0 (23A5276f)
App: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/wifiaware/building-peer-to-peer-apps
We aim to use Wi-Fi Aware to establish file transfer between Android and Apple devices.
Apple will act as the Publisher, and Android will act as the Subscriber.
According to the pairing process outlined in the Wi-Fi Aware protocol (Figure 49 in the Wi-Fi Aware 4.0 specification), the three PASN Authentication frames have been successfully exchanged. Subsequently, Android sends the encrypted Follow-up PMF to Apple, but the Apple log shows: Failed to parse event. Please refer to the attached complete log.
We request Apple to provide a solution.
apple Log-20250808a.txt
I am trying to setup a system-wide DNS-over-TLS for iOS that can be turned off and on from within the app, and I'm struggling with the implementation details. I've searched online, searched forums here, used ChatGPT, and I'm getting conflicting information or code that is simply wrong. I can't find example code that is valid and gets me moving forward.
I think I need to use NEDNSProxyProvider via the NetworkExtension. Does that sound correct? I have NetworkExtension -> DNS Proxy Capability set in both the main app and the DNSProxy extension.
Also, I want to make sure this is even possible without an MDM. I see conflicting information, some saying this is opened up, but things like https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Technotes/tn3134-network-extension-provider-deployment saying a device needs to be managed. How do private DNS apps do this without MDM?
From some responses in the forums it sounds like we need to parse the DNS requests that come in to the handleNewFlow function. Is there good sample code for this parsing?
I saw some helpful information from Eskimo (for instance https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/723831 ) and Matt Eaton ( https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/665480 )but I'm still confused.
So, if I have a DoT URL, is there good sample code somewhere for what startProxy, stopProxy, and handleNewFlow might look like? And valid code to call it from the main app?
There are multiple report of crashes on URLConnectionLoader::loadWithWhatToDo. The crashed thread in the stack traces pointing to calls inside CFNetwork which seems to be internal library in iOS.
The crash has happened quite a while already (but we cannot detect when the crash started to occur) and impacted multiple iOS versions recorded from iOS 15.4 to 18.4.1 that was recorded in Xcode crash report organizer so far.
Unfortunately, we have no idea on how to reproduce it yet but the crash keeps on increasing and affect more on iOS 18 users (which makes sense because many people updated their iOS to the newer version) and we haven’t found any clue on what actually happened and how to fix it on the crash reports. What we understand is it seems to come from a network request that happened to trigger the crash but we need more information on what (condition) actually cause it and how to solve it.
Hereby, I attach sample crash report for both iOS 15 and 18.
I also have submitted a report (that include more crash reports) with number: FB17775979.
Will appreciate any insight regarding this issue and any resolution that we can do to avoid it.
iOS 15.crash
iOS 18.crash
Recently, we have observed that after upgrading to OS 15.4.1, some devices are experiencing network issues.
We are using a Network Extension with a transparent app proxy in our product. The user encounters this issue while using our client, but the issue persists even after stopping the client app.
This appears to be an OS issue.
Below is the sytem logs.
In the system logs, it says [C669.1 Hostname#546597df:443 failed transform (unsatisfied (No network route), flow divert agg: 2)] event: transform:children_failed @0.001s
In scutil --dns, it says not reachble.
DNS configuration
resolver #1
flags :
reach : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
resolver #2
domain : local
options : mdns
timeout : 5
flags :
reach : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
order : 300000
resolver #3
domain : 254.169.in-addr.arpa
options : mdns
timeout : 5
flags :
reach : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
order : 300200
resolver #4
domain : 8.e.f.ip6.arpa
options : mdns
timeout : 5
flags :
reach : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
order : 300400
resolver #5
domain : 9.e.f.ip6.arpa
options : mdns
timeout : 5
flags :
reach : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
order : 300600
resolver #6
domain : a.e.f.ip6.arpa
options : mdns
timeout : 5
flags :
reach : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
order : 300800
resolver #7
domain : b.e.f.ip6.arpa
options : mdns
timeout : 5
flags :
reach : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
order : 301000
We need to restart the system to recover from the issue.
We have a customer reporting a bunch of problems with our (Transparent Proxy Provider-based) suite. Looking at a sysdiagnose, I see that our GUI applet was killed:
Termination Reason: Namespace PORT_SPACE, Code 14123288431434181290 (Limit 305834 ports) Exceeded system-wide per-process Port Limit
Looking at the top.txt file from it, I see that it has 193,086 ports -- compared to about ~250 on one of my test systems.
Has anyone run into this? Any idea what might be causing it? (I'm still poring over the sysdiagnose, but I don't see any kernel logs around that time -- except that our process does close a dozen or so ports because of cancellation.)