My application advertises service uuid FC66 and 00410b66-2553-48d7-cf18-000000002154 in advertising data, and "loading" as local name in response data in foreground.
But iOS cut local name to "loadi" and add Hashed UUID data 0100000000000000000000000600000000 to response data.
Why iOS add hashed uuid data? Is it because my 128-bit uuid format is wrong?
We want to advertise the complete local name data.
How to avoid this problem?
Networking
RSS for tagExplore the networking protocols and technologies used by the device to connect to Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices, and cellular data services.
Selecting any option will automatically load the page
Post
Replies
Boosts
Views
Activity
Hi!
I wrote an internal used backup command line tool which is in use since several years.
Today I got an error while sending an email: “Failed: ioOnClosedChannel”.
I assume that the latest macOS updates did break my app. On the server I use macOS 15.7 and on my development machine macOS 26.
Here is the related code:
private func sendMail() {
var a : [Email.Attachment] = []
if self.imageData != nil {
switch self.imageType {
case .tiff:
a.append(Email.Attachment(name: "Statistics.tif", contentType: #"image/tiff"#, contents: ByteBuffer(bytes: self.imageData!)))
case .pdf:
a.append(Email.Attachment(name: "Statistics.pdf", contentType: #"application/pdf"#, contents: ByteBuffer(bytes: self.imageData!)))
case .unknown:
fatalError("Unimplemented attachment type!")
}
}
mailHtml = mailHtml.replacingOccurrences(of: "<br>", with: "<br>\n")
let email = Email(sender: .init(name: "Backup", emailAddress: "SENDER@MYDOMAIN"),
replyTo: nil,
recipients: recipients,
cc: [],
bcc: [],
subject: self.subject,
body: .universal(plain: self.mailText, html: mailHtml),
attachments: a)
let evg = MultiThreadedEventLoopGroup(numberOfThreads: System.coreCount)
let mailer = Mailer(group: evg,
configuration: smtpConfig,
transmissionLogger: nil)
do {
print("Sending mail... ", terminator: "")
try mailer.send(email: email).wait() // <-- ERROR HERE Failed: ioOnClosedChannel
print("done.")
} catch {
print("Failed: \(error)")
}
do {
try evg.syncShutdownGracefully()
} catch {
print("Failed shutdown: \(error)")
}
}
I use https://github.com/sersoft-gmbh/swift-smtp.
Any clue about the reason of this error?
TIA,
GreatOm
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
I'm using the NEHotspostConfigurationManager to join the WiFi network of a configured accessory.
While this is all nice and dandy, I wonder why I'm still connected to said WiFi when I (force-)close the app. Wouldn't it be more useful to reconnect to the last network before?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Hi, I am making a AI-Powered app that makes api requests to the openai API. However, for security, I set up a vercel backend that handles the API calls securely, while my frontend makes a call to my vercel-hosted https endpoint. Interestingly, whenever I try to make that call on my device, an iPhone, I get this error:
Task <91AE4DE0-2845-4348-89B4-D3DD1CF51B65>.<10> finished with error [-1003] Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1003 "A server with the specified hostname could not be found." UserInfo={_kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-72000, NSUnderlyingError=0x1435783f0 {Error Domain=kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Code=-1003 "(null)" UserInfo={_kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=10, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-72000, _NSURLErrorNWResolutionReportKey=Resolved 0 endpoints in 3ms using unknown from query, _NSURLErrorNWPathKey=satisfied (Path is satisfied), interface: pdp_ip0[lte], ipv4, ipv6, dns, expensive, uses cell}}, _NSURLErrorFailingURLSessionTaskErrorKey=LocalDataTask <91AE4DE0-2845-4348-89B4-D3DD1CF51B65>.<10>, _NSURLErrorRelatedURLSessionTaskErrorKey=(
"LocalDataTask <91AE4DE0-2845-4348-89B4-D3DD1CF51B65>.<10>"
), NSLocalizedDescription=A server with the specified hostname could not be found., NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://[my endpoint], NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://[my endpoint], _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=10}
I'm completely stuck because when I directly make https requests to other api's like openai's endpoint, without the proxy, it finds the server completely fine. Running my endpoint on terminal with curl also works as intended, as I see api key usages. But for some reason, on my project, it does not work. I've looked through almost every single post I could find online, but a lot all of the solutions are outdated and unhelpful.
I'm willing to schedule a call, meeting, whatever to resolve this issue and get help more in depth as well.
At WWDC 2015 Apple announced two major enhancements to the Network Extension framework:
Network Extension providers — These are app extensions that let you insert your code at various points within the networking stack, including:
Packet tunnels via NEPacketTunnelProvider
App proxies via NEAppProxyProvider
Content filters via NEFilterDataProvider and NEFilterControlProvider
Hotspot Helper (NEHotspotHelper) — This allows you to create an app that assists the user in navigating a hotspot (a Wi-Fi network where the user must interact with the network in order to get access to the wider Internet).
Originally, using any of these facilities required authorisation from Apple. Specifically, you had to apply for, and be granted access to, a managed capability. In Nov 2016 this policy changed for Network Extension providers. Any developer can now use the Network Extension provider capability like they would any other capability.
There is one exception to this rule: Network Extension app push providers, introduced by iOS 14 in 2020, still requires that Apple authorise the use of a managed capability. To apply for that, follow the link in Local push connectivity.
Also, the situation with Hotspot Helpers remains the same: Using a Hotspot Helper, requires that Apple authorise that use via a managed capability. To apply for that, follow the link in Hotspot helper.
IMPORTANT Pay attention to this quote from the documentation:
NEHotspotHelper is only useful for hotspot integration. There are
both technical and business restrictions that prevent it from being
used for other tasks, such as accessory integration or Wi-Fi based
location.
The rest of this document answers some frequently asked questions about the Nov 2016 change.
#1 — Has there been any change to the OS itself?
No, this change only affects the process by which you get the capabilities you need in order to use existing Network Extension framework facilities. Previously these were managed capabilities, meaning their use was authorised by Apple. Now, except for app push providers and Hotspot Helper, you can enable the necessary capabilities using Xcode’s Signing & Capabilities editor or the Developer website.
IMPORTANT Some Network Extension providers have other restrictions on their use. For example, a content filter can only be used on a supervised device. These restrictions are unchanged. See TN3134 Network Extension provider deployment for the details.
#2 — How exactly do I enable the Network Extension provider capability?
In the Signing & Capabilities editor, add the Network Extensions capability and then check the box that matches the provider you’re creating.
In the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles section of the Developer website, when you add or edit an App ID, you’ll see a new capability listed, Network Extensions. Enable that capability in your App ID and then regenerate the provisioning profiles based on that App ID.
A newly generated profile will include the com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension entitlement in its allowlist; this is an array with an entry for each of the supported Network Extension providers. To confirm that this is present, dump the profile as shown below.
$ security cms -D -i NETest.mobileprovision
…
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
…
<key>Entitlements</key>
<dict>
<key>com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension</key>
<array>
<string>packet-tunnel-provider</string>
<string>content-filter-provider</string>
<string>app-proxy-provider</string>
… and so on …
</array>
…
</dict>
…
</dict>
</plist>
#3 — I normally use Xcode’s Signing & Capabilities editor to manage my entitlements. Do I have to use the Developer website for this?
No. Xcode 11 and later support this capability in the Signing & Capabilities tab of the target editor (r. 28568128 ).
#4 — Can I still use Xcode’s “Automatically manage signing” option?
Yes. Once you modify your App ID to add the Network Extension provider capability, Xcode’s automatic code signing support will include the entitlement in the allowlist of any profiles that it generates based on that App ID.
#5 — What should I do if I previously applied for the Network Extension provider managed capability and I’m still waiting for a reply?
Consider your current application cancelled, and use the new process described above.
#6 — What should I do if I previously applied for the Hotspot Helper managed capability and I’m still waiting for a reply?
Apple will continue to process Hotspot Helper managed capability requests and respond to you in due course.
#7 — What if I previously applied for both Network Extension provider and Hotspot Helper managed capabilities?
Apple will ignore your request for the Network Extension provider managed capability and process it as if you’d only asked for the Hotspot Helper managed capability.
#8 — On the Mac, can Developer ID apps host Network Extension providers?
Yes, but there are some caveats:
This only works on macOS 10.15 or later.
Your Network Extension provider must be packaged as a system extension, not an app extension.
You must use the *-systemextension values for the Network Extension entitlement (com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension).
For more on this, see Exporting a Developer ID Network Extension.
#9 — After moving to the new process, my app no longer has access to the com.apple.managed.vpn.shared keychain access group. How can I regain that access?
Access to this keychain access group requires another managed capability. If you need that, please open a DTS code-level support request and we’ll take things from there.
IMPORTANT This capability is only necessary if your VPN supports configuration via a configuration profile and needs to access credentials from that profile (as discussed in the Profile Configuration section of the NETunnelProviderManager Reference). Many VPN apps don’t need this facility.
If you were previously granted the Network Extension managed capability (via the process in place before Nov 2016), make sure you mention that; restoring your access to the com.apple.managed.vpn.shared keychain access group should be straightforward in that case.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Revision History
2025-11-11 Removed the discussion of TSI assets because those are no longer a thing.
2025-09-12 Adopted the code-level support request terminology. Made other minor editorial changes.
2023-01-11 Added a discussion of Network Extension app push providers. Added a link to Exporting a Developer ID Network Extension. Added a link to TN3134. Made significant editorial changes.
2020-02-27 Fixed the formatting. Updated FAQ#3. Made minor editorial changes.
2020-02-16 Updated FAQ#8 to account for recent changes. Updated FAQ#3 to account for recent Xcode changes. Made other editorial changes.
2016-01-25 Added FAQ#9.
2016-01-6 Added FAQ#8.
2016-11-11 Added FAQ#5, FAQ#6 and FAQ#7.
2016-11-11 First posted.
I am trying to activate an application which sends my serial number to a server. The send is being blocked. The app is signed but not sandboxed.
I am running Sequoia on a recent iMac. My network firewall is off and I do not have any third party virus software. I have selected Allow Applications from App Store & Known Developers.
My local network is wifi using the eero product. There is no firewall or virus scanning installed with this product.
Under what circumstances will Mac OS block outgoing internet connections from a non-sandboxed app? How else could the outgoing connection be blocked?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
We are using the [NEHotspotHelper supportedNetworkInterfaces] to get the Wi-Fi interface in our app, but it occasionally crashes on some devices with the following stack trace:
0 CaptiveNetwork 0x0000000221d87a4c ServerConnectionGetHandlerQueue + 0 (ServerConnection.c:509)
1 CaptiveNetwork 0x0000000221d8577c CNPluginCopySupportedInterfaces + 180 (CNPlugin.c:457)
2
NetworkExtension 0x00000001b0446618 +[NEHotspotHelper supportedNetworkInterfaces] + 32 (NEHotspotHelper.m:563)
It seems like the crash is happening on apple's api of supportedNetworkInterfaces. We would like to understand the cause of the crash.
I'm using NERelayManager to set Relay configuration which all works perfectly fine.
I then do a curl with the included domain and while I see QUIC connection succeeds with relay server and H3 request goes to the server, the connection gets abruptly closed by the client with "Software caused connection abort".
Console has this information:
default 09:43:04.459517-0700 curl nw_flow_connected [C1.1.1 192.168.4.197:4433 in_progress socket-flow (satisfied (Path is satisfied), viable, interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi)] Transport protocol connected (quic)
default 09:43:04.459901-0700 curl [C1.1.1 192.168.4.197:4433 in_progress socket-flow (satisfied (Path is satisfied), viable, interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi)] event: flow:finish_transport @0.131s
default 09:43:04.460745-0700 curl nw_flow_connected [C1.1.1 192.168.4.197:4433 in_progress socket-flow (satisfied (Path is satisfied), viable, interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi)] Joined protocol connected (http3)
default 09:43:04.461049-0700 curl [C1.1.1 192.168.4.197:4433 in_progress socket-flow (satisfied (Path is satisfied), viable, interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi)] event: flow:finish_transport @0.133s
default 09:43:04.465115-0700 curl [C2 E47A3A0C-7275-4F6B-AEDF-59077ABAE34B 192.168.4.197:4433 quic, multipath service: 1, tls, definite, attribution: developer] cancel
default 09:43:04.465238-0700 curl [C2 E47A3A0C-7275-4F6B-AEDF-59077ABAE34B 192.168.4.197:4433 quic, multipath service: 1, tls, definite, attribution: developer] cancelled
[C2 FCB1CFD1-4BF9-4E37-810E-81265D141087 192.168.4.139:53898<->192.168.4.197:4433]
Connected Path: satisfied (Path is satisfied), viable, interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi
Duration: 0.121s, QUIC @0.000s took 0.000s, TLS 1.3 took 0.111s
bytes in/out: 2880/4322, packets in/out: 4/8, rtt: 0.074s, retransmitted bytes: 0, out-of-order bytes: 0
ecn packets sent/acked/marked/lost: 3/1/0/0
default 09:43:04.465975-0700 curl nw_flow_disconnected [C2 192.168.4.197:4433 cancelled multipath-socket-flow ((null))] Output protocol disconnected
default 09:43:04.469189-0700 curl nw_endpoint_proxy_receive_report [C1.1 IPv4#124bdc4d:80 in_progress proxy (satisfied (Path is satisfied), interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, proxy, uses wifi)] Privacy proxy failed with error 53 ([C1.1.1] masque Proxy: http://192.168.4.197:4433)
default 09:43:04.469289-0700 curl [C1.1.1 192.168.4.197:4433 failed socket-flow (satisfied (Path is satisfied), viable, interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, ipv6, dns, uses wifi)] event: flow:failed_connect @0.141s, error Software caused connection abort
Relay server otherwise works fine with our QUIC MASQUE clients but not with built-in macOS MASQUE client. Anything I'm missing?
multicast sockets fail to send/receive on macosx, errno 65 "no route to host".
Wireshark and Terminal.app (which have root privileges) both show incoming multicast traffic just fine.
Normal UDP broadcast sockets have no problems.
Toggling the Security&Privacy -> Local Network setting may fix the problem for some Users.
There is no pattern for when multicast socket fails.
Sometimes, recreating the sockets fix the problem.
Restart the app, sometimes multicast fails, sometimes success (intermittent, no pattern).
Reboot machine (intermittent fail)
Create a fresh new user on machine, install single version of app, give app permission. (intermittent fail, same as above).
We have all the normal entitlements / notarized app.
Similar posts here
see FB16923535, Related to FB16512666
https://forum.xojo.com/t/udp-multicast-receive-on-mac-failing-intermittant/83221
see my post from 2012 "distinguishing between SENDING sockets and RECEIVING sockets" for source code example of how we bind multicast sockets. Our other socket code is standard "Stevens, et al." code. The bind() is the call that fails in this case. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10692956/what-does-it-mean-to-bind-a-multicast-udp-socket . Note that this post from 2012 is still relevant, and that it is a workaround to a longstanding Apple bug that was never fixed. Namely, "Without this fix, multicast sending will intermittently get sendto() errno 'No route to host'. If anyone can shed light on why unplugging a DHCP gateway causes Mac OS X multicast SENDING sockets to get confused, I would love to hear it."
This may be a hint as to the underlying bug that Apple really needs to fix, but if it's not, then please Apple, fix the Sequoia bug first. These are probably different bugs because in one case, sendto() fails when a socket becomes "unbound" after you unplug an unrelated network cable. In this case, bind() fails, so sendto() is never even called.
Note, that we have also tried to use other implementations for network discovery, including Bonjour, CFNetwork, etc. Bonjour fails intermittently, and also suffers from both bugs mentioned above, amongst others.
Hello, I have encountered an issue with an iPhone 15PM with iOS 18.5. The NSHTTPCookieStorage failed to clear cookies, but even after clearing them, I was still able to retrieve them. However, on the same system
It is normal on iPhone 14PM. I would like to know the specific reason and whether there are any adaptation related issues. Following code:
NSHTTPCookie *cookie;
NSHTTPCookieStorage *storage = [NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage];
for (cookie in [storage cookies]) {
[storage deleteCookie:cookie];
}
I developed a Content Filter using the Network Extension, and when deployed to a batch of hosts (50 +), the installation worked for most of them, but there were six exceptions: five of them were macOS 10.15 and one of them was macOS 12.5.
The phenomenon of these 6 hosts is: in the System Settings->Network, two content filters with the same name appear. When one of the content filters with the same name is clicked, shows "Please use 'X Agent Extension' to control this content filter configuration" ('X Agent Extension' is the program I developed, this content filter can be deleted by clicking the minus sign in the lower left corner). Click on another content filter with the same name, shows 'Please use 'null' to control this content filter configuration', (but this content filter can't be removed by clicking the minus sign in the bottom left corner).
These systems are clean, use CLI 'systemextensionsctl list', and have only one systemextension in the output (this systemextension is my content filter). Online reference "https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-delete-custom-dns-profile-from-network-preference.2293322/" this paper, by closing the SIP, and delete file '/Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist', then restart the system can remove the abnormal content filters with the same name. After restarting the system and reinstalling my content filter, the two content filters with the same name disappear (only the Content Filter I reinstalled) and the exception scenario cannot be repeated.
I would like to know, why do I have two content filters with the same name, how can I avoid this phenomenon, is there a way to remove the wrong content filter without closing SIP.
We put the apple-app-site-association file at https://ourdomain.com.tr/.well-known/apple-app-site-association.
When we send a request to url, we get 200 response code every time and we can see the file. But sometimes when we try to access https://app-site-association.cdn-apple.com/a/v1/ourdomain.com.tr url with browser or CMD tool, we are facing with 404 response code.
There isn't any ip adress filter in our systems and we tried using vpn for sending same request from different locations(america and europe) but nothing changed.
In addition, can anyone provide the ip list of apple cdn servers to check the F5 Load balancer WAF logs?
CMD output:
C:\Users\Name>curl -Lv https://app-site-association.cdn-apple.com/a/v1/ourdomain.com.tr
Host app-site-association.cdn-apple.com:443 was resolved.
IPv6: (none)
IPv4: 17.253.122.197, 17.253.15.210, 17.253.122.196, 17.253.107.201, 17.253.57.203, 17.253.15.198, 17.253.57.200
Trying 17.253.122.197:443...
Connected to app-site-association.cdn-apple.com (17.253.122.197) port 443
schannel: disabled automatic use of client certificate
ALPN: curl offers http/1.1
ALPN: server accepted http/1.1
using HTTP/1.x
GET /a/v1/ourdomain.com HTTP/1.1
Host: app-site-association.cdn-apple.com
User-Agent: curl/8.9.1
Accept: /
Request completely sent off
schannel: remote party requests renegotiation
schannel: renegotiating SSL/TLS connection
schannel: SSL/TLS connection renegotiated
< HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
< Apple-Failure-Details: {"cause":"context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout exceeded while awaiting headers)"}
< Apple-Failure-Reason: SWCERR00301 Timeout
< Apple-From: https://ourdomain.com.tr/.well-known/apple-app-site-association
< Apple-Try-Direct: true
< Cache-Control: max-age=3600,public
< Content-Length: 10
< Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
< Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 12:52:04 GMT
< Expires: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 12:52:14 GMT
< Age: 1770
< Via: http/1.1 uklon5-vp-vst-004.ts.apple.com (acdn/268.14469), https/1.1 uklon5-vp-vfe-002.ts.apple.com (acdn/268.14469), http/1.1 frmrs1-edge-mx-008.ts.apple.com (acdn/268.14469), http/1.1 frmrs1-edge-fx-005.ts.apple.com (acdn/268.14469)
< X-Cache: hit-fresh, hit-stale, hit-fresh, hit-fresh
< CDNUUID: 9e72cf99-1503-4644-9ea3-173328a25c94-31496306226
< Connection: keep-alive
<
Not Found
Connection #0 to host app-site-association.cdn-apple.com left intact
Most apps perform ordinary network operations, like fetching an HTTP resource with URLSession and opening a TCP connection to a mail server with Network framework. These operations are not without their challenges, but they’re the well-trodden path.
If your app performs ordinary networking, see TN3151 Choosing the right networking API for recommendations as to where to start.
Some apps have extra-ordinary networking requirements. For example, apps that:
Help the user configure a Wi-Fi accessory
Require a connection to run over a specific interface
Listen for incoming connections
Building such an app is tricky because:
Networking is hard in general.
Apple devices support very dynamic networking, and your app has to work well in whatever environment it’s running in.
Documentation for the APIs you need is tucked away in man pages and doc comments.
In many cases you have to assemble these APIs in creative ways.
If you’re developing an app with extra-ordinary networking requirements, this post is for you.
Note If you have questions or comments about any of the topics discussed here, put them in a new thread here on DevForums. Make sure I see it by putting it in the App & System Services > Networking area. And feel free to add tags appropriate to the specific technology you’re using, like Foundation, CFNetwork, Network, or Network Extension.
Links, Links, and More Links
Each topic is covered in a separate post:
The iOS Wi-Fi Lifecycle describes how iOS joins and leaves Wi-Fi networks. Understanding this is especially important if you’re building an app that works with a Wi-Fi accessory.
Network Interface Concepts explains how Apple platforms manage network interfaces. If you’ve got this far, you definitely want to read this.
Network Interface Techniques offers a high-level overview of some of the more common techniques you need when working with network interfaces.
Network Interface APIs describes APIs and core techniques for working with network interfaces. It’s referenced by many other posts.
Running an HTTP Request over WWAN explains why most apps should not force an HTTP request to run over WWAN, what they should do instead, and what to do if you really need that behaviour.
If you’re building an iOS app with an embedded network server, see Showing Connection Information in an iOS Server for details on how to get the information to show to your user so they can connect to your server.
Many folks run into trouble when they try to find the device’s IP address, or other seemingly simple things, like the name of the Wi-Fi interface. Don’t Try to Get the Device’s IP Address explains why these problems are hard, and offers alternative approaches that function correctly in all network environments.
Similarly, folks also run into trouble when trying to get the host name. On Host Names explains why that’s more complex than you might think.
If you’re working with broadcasts or multicasts, see Broadcasts and Multicasts, Hints and Tips.
If you’re building an app that works with a Wi-Fi accessory, see Working with a Wi-Fi Accessory.
If you’re trying to gather network interface statistics, see Network Interface Statistics.
There are also some posts that are not part of this series but likely to be of interest if you’re working in this space:
TN3179 Understanding local network privacy discusses the local network privacy feature.
Calling BSD Sockets from Swift does what it says on the tin, that is, explains how to call BSD Sockets from Swift. When doing weird things with the network, you often find yourself having to use BSD Sockets, and that API is not easy to call from Swift. The code therein is primarily for the benefit of test projects, oh, and DevForums posts like these.
TN3111 iOS Wi-Fi API overview is a critical resource if you’re doing Wi-Fi specific stuff on iOS.
TLS For Accessory Developers tackles the tricky topic of how to communicate securely with a network-based accessory.
A Peek Behind the NECP Curtain discusses NECP, a subsystem that control which programs have access to which network interfaces.
Networking Resources has links to many other useful resources.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Revision History
2025-07-31 Added a link to A Peek Behind the NECP Curtain.
2025-03-28 Added a link to On Host Names.
2025-01-16 Added a link to Broadcasts and Multicasts, Hints and Tips. Updated the local network privacy link to point to TN3179. Made other minor editorial changes.
2024-04-30 Added a link to Network Interface Statistics.
2023-09-14 Added a link to TLS For Accessory Developers.
2023-07-23 First posted.
We are currently working on a zero-configuration networking compliant device thru avahi-daemon.
Our Device want to have multiple Instance name for different services.
Example
InstanceA._ipps._tcp.local.
InstanceA._ipp._tcp.local.
InstanceB._ipps._tcp.local.
InstanceB._ipp._tcp.local.
Will BCT confuse this as multiple device connected in the network and cause it to fail? Does Bonjour only allows only a Single Instance name with multiple services?
For important background information, read Extra-ordinary Networking before reading this.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Network Interface APIs
Most developers don’t need to interact directly with network interfaces. If you do, read this post for a summary of the APIs available to you.
Before you read this, read Network Interface Concepts.
Interface List
The standard way to get a list of interfaces and their addresses is getifaddrs. To learn more about this API, see its man page.
A network interface has four fundamental attributes:
A set of flags — These are packed into a CUnsignedInt. The flags bits are declared in <net/if.h>, starting with IFF_UP.
An interface type — See Network Interface Type, below.
An interface index — Valid indexes are greater than 0.
A BSD interface name. For example, an Ethernet interface might be called en0. The interface name is shared between multiple network interfaces running over a given hardware interface. For example, IPv4 and IPv6 running over that Ethernet interface will both have the name en0.
WARNING BSD interface names are not considered API. There’s no guarantee, for example, that an iPhone’s Wi-Fi interface is en0.
You can map between the last two using if_indextoname and if_nametoindex. See the if_indextoname man page for details.
An interface may also have address information. If present, this always includes the interface address (ifa_addr) and the network mask (ifa_netmask). In addition:
Broadcast-capable interfaces (IFF_BROADCAST) have a broadcast address (ifa_broadaddr, which is an alias for ifa_dstaddr).
Point-to-point interfaces (IFF_POINTOPOINT) have a destination address (ifa_dstaddr).
Calling getifaddrs from Swift is a bit tricky. For an example of this, see QSocket: Interfaces.
IP Address List
Once you have getifaddrs working, it’s relatively easy to manipulate the results to build a list of just IP addresses, a list of IP addresses for each interface, and so on. QSocket: Interfaces has some Swift snippets that show this.
Interface List Updates
The interface list can change over time. Hardware interfaces can be added and removed, network interfaces come up and go down, and their addresses can change. It’s best to avoid caching information from getifaddrs. If thats unavoidable, use the kNotifySCNetworkChange Darwin notification to update your cache. For information about registering for Darwin notifications, see the notify man page (in section 3).
This notification just tells you that something has changed. It’s up to you to fetch the new interface list and adjust your cache accordingly.
You’ll find that this notification is sometimes posted numerous times in rapid succession. To avoid unnecessary thrashing, debounce it.
While the Darwin notification API is easy to call from Swift, Swift does not import kNotifySCNetworkChange. To fix that, define that value yourself, calling a C function to get the value:
var kNotifySCNetworkChange: UnsafePointer<CChar> {
networkChangeNotifyKey()
}
Here’s what that C function looks like:
extern const char * networkChangeNotifyKey(void) {
return kNotifySCNetworkChange;
}
Network Interface Type
There are two ways to think about a network interface’s type. Historically there were a wide variety of weird and wonderful types of network interfaces. The following code gets this legacy value for a specific BSD interface name:
func legacyTypeForInterfaceNamed(_ name: String) -> UInt8? {
var addrList: UnsafeMutablePointer<ifaddrs>? = nil
let err = getifaddrs(&addrList)
// In theory we could check `errno` here but, honestly, what are gonna
// do with that info?
guard
err >= 0,
let first = addrList
else { return nil }
defer { freeifaddrs(addrList) }
return sequence(first: first, next: { $0.pointee.ifa_next })
.compactMap { addr in
guard
let nameC = addr.pointee.ifa_name,
name == String(cString: nameC),
let sa = addr.pointee.ifa_addr,
sa.pointee.sa_family == AF_LINK,
let data = addr.pointee.ifa_data
else { return nil }
return data.assumingMemoryBound(to: if_data.self).pointee.ifi_type
}
.first
}
The values are defined in <net/if_types.h>, starting with IFT_OTHER.
However, this value is rarely useful because many interfaces ‘look like’ Ethernet and thus have a type of IFT_ETHER.
Network framework has the concept of an interface’s functional type. This is an indication of how the interface fits into the system. There are two ways to get an interface’s functional type:
If you’re using Network framework and have an NWInterface value, get the type property.
If not, call ioctl with a SIOCGIFFUNCTIONALTYPE request. The return values are defined in <net/if.h>, starting with IFRTYPE_FUNCTIONAL_UNKNOWN.
Swift does not import SIOCGIFFUNCTIONALTYPE, so it’s best to write this code in a C:
extern uint32_t functionalTypeForInterfaceNamed(const char * name) {
int fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
if (fd < 0) { return IFRTYPE_FUNCTIONAL_UNKNOWN; }
struct ifreq ifr = {};
strlcpy(ifr.ifr_name, name, sizeof(ifr.ifr_name));
bool success = ioctl(fd, SIOCGIFFUNCTIONALTYPE, &ifr) >= 0;
int junk = close(fd);
assert(junk == 0);
if ( ! success ) { return IFRTYPE_FUNCTIONAL_UNKNOWN; }
return ifr.ifr_ifru.ifru_functional_type;
}
Finally, TN3158 Resolving Xcode 15 device connection issues documents the SIOCGIFDIRECTLINK flag as a specific way to identify the network interfaces uses by Xcode for device connection traffic.
Revision History
2025-12-10 Added info about SIOCGIFDIRECTLINK.
2023-07-19 First posted.
Apology for repost. I needed to fix the tags for original thread.
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/777159
On iOS 18.3, I noted that partition "HTTPCookiePropertyKey: StoragePartition" is not observed to be set for cookies returned from the wkwebview cookie store.
Now on 18.4 beta 4 we are now seeing those same cookies are populated with a partition property. Is there documentation for this change? Is it intended to be suddenly populated in 18.4?
Now that partition property is set, HTTPCookieStorage.shared.cookies(for: serverUri) doesn't seem to return the expected cookies correctly. For context, we are using the cookies extracted from wkwebview, setting them in HTTPCookieStorage.shared and using URLSession to make network calls outside the webivew. Works fine once I forcefully set partition on the cookie to nil.
More details on what the cookie looks like here: https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/feedback/16906526
Hopefully this is on your radar?
For important background information, read Extra-ordinary Networking before reading this.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Don’t Try to Get the Device’s IP Address
I regularly see questions like:
How do I find the IP address of the device?
How do I find the IP address of the Wi-Fi interface?
How do I identify the Wi-Fi interface?
I also see a lot of really bad answers to these questions. That’s understandable, because the questions themselves don’t make sense. Networking on Apple platforms is complicated and many of the things that are ‘obviously’ true are, in fact, not true at all. For example:
There’s no single IP address that represents the device, or an interface. A device can have 0 or more interfaces, each of which can have 0 or more IP addresses, each of which can be IPv4 and IPv6.
A device can have multiple interfaces of a given type. It’s common for iPhones to have multiple WWAN interfaces, for example.
It’s not possible to give a simple answer to any of these questions, because the correct answer depends on the context. Why do you need this particular information? What are you planning to do with it?
This post describes the scenarios I most commonly encounter, with my advice on how to handle each scenario.
IMPORTANT BSD interface names, like en0, are not considered API. There’s no guarantee, for example, that an iPhone’s Wi-Fi interface is en0. If you write code that relies on a hard-coded interface name, it will fail in some situations.
Service Discovery
Some folks want to identify the Wi-Fi interface so that they can run a custom service discovery protocol over it. Before you do that, I strongly recommend that you look at Bonjour. This has a bunch of advantages:
It’s an industry standard [1].
It’s going to be more efficient on the ‘wire’.
You don’t have to implement it yourself, you can just call an API [2].
For information about the APIs available, see TN3151 Choosing the right networking API.
If you must implement your own service discovery protocol, don’t think in terms of finding the Wi-Fi interface. Rather, write your code to work with all Wi-Fi interfaces, or perhaps even all Ethernet-like interfaces. That’s what Apple’s Bonjour implementation does, and it means that things will work in odd situations [3].
To find all Wi-Fi interfaces, get the interface list and filter it for ones with the Wi-Fi functional type. To find all broadcast-capable interfaces, get the interface list and filter it for interfaces with the IFF_BROADCAST flag set. If the service you’re trying to discover only supports IPv4, filter out any IPv6-only interfaces.
For advice on how to do this, see Interface List and Network Interface Type in Network Interface APIs.
When working with multiple interfaces, it’s generally a good idea to create a socket per interface and then bind that socket to the interface. That ensures that, when you send a packet, it’ll definitely go out the interface you expect.
For more information on how to implement broadcasts correctly, see Broadcasts and Multicasts, Hints and Tips.
[1] Bonjour is an Apple term for:
RFC 3927 Dynamic Configuration of IPv4 Link-Local Addresses
RFC 6762 Multicast DNS
RFC 6763 DNS-Based Service Discovery
[2] That’s true even on non-Apple platforms. It’s even true on most embedded platforms. If you’re talking to a Wi-Fi accessory, see Working with a Wi-Fi Accessory.
[3] Even if the service you’re trying to discover can only be found on Wi-Fi, it’s possible for a user to have their iPhone on an Ethernet that’s bridged to a Wi-Fi. Why on earth would they do that? Well, security, of course. Some organisations forbid their staff from using Wi-Fi.
Logging and Diagnostics
Some folks want to log the IP address of the Wi-Fi interface, or the WWAN, or both for diagnostic purposes. This is quite feasible, with the only caveat being there may be multiple interfaces of each type.
To find all interfaces of a particular type, get the interface list and filter it for interfaces with that functional type. See Interface List and Network Interface Type in Network Interface APIs.
Interface for an Outgoing Connection
There are situations where you need to get the interface used by a particular connection. A classic example of that is FTP. When you set up a transfer in FTP, you start with a control connection to the FTP server. You then open a listener and send its IP address and port to the FTP server over your control connection. What IP address should you use?
There’s an easy answer here: Use the local IP address for the control connection. That’s the one that the server is most likely to be able to connect to.
To get the local address of a connection:
In Network framework, first get the currentPath property and then get its localEndpoint property.
In BSD Sockets, use getsockname. See its man page for details.
Now, this isn’t a particularly realistic example. Most folks don’t use FTP these days [1] but, even if they do, they use FTP passive mode, which avoids the need for this technique. However, this sort of thing still does come up in practice. I recently encountered two different variants of the same problem:
One developer was implementing VoIP software and needed to pass the devices IP address to their VoIP stack. The best IP address to use was the local IP address of their control connection to the VoIP server.
A different developer was upgrading the firmware of an accessory. They do this by starting a server within their app and sending a command to the accessory to download the firmware from that server. Again, the best IP address to use is the local address of the control connection.
[1] See the discussion in TN3151 Choosing the right networking API.
Listening for Connections
If you’re listening for incoming network connections, you don’t need to bind to a specific address. Rather, listen on all local addresses. In Network framework, this is the default for NWListener. In BSD Sockets, set the address to INADDR_ANY (IPv4) or in6addr_any (IPv6).
If you only want to listen on a specific interface, don’t try to bind to that interface’s IP address. If you do that, things will go wrong if the interface’s IP address changes. Rather, bind to the interface itself:
In Network framework, set either the requiredInterfaceType property or the requiredInterface property on the NWParameters you use to create your NWListener.
In BSD Sockets, set the IP_BOUND_IF (IPv4) or IPV6_BOUND_IF (IPv6) socket option.
How do you work out what interface to use? The standard technique is to get the interface list and filter it for interfaces with the desired functional type. See Interface List and Network Interface Type in Network Interface APIs. Remember that their may be multiple interfaces of a given type. If you’re using BSD Sockets, where you can only bind to a single interface, you’ll need to create multiple listeners, one for each interface.
Listener UI
Some apps have an embedded network server and they want to populate a UI with information on how to connect to that server. This is a surprisingly tricky task to do correctly. For the details, see Showing Connection Information for a Local Server.
Outgoing Connections
In some situations you might want to force an outgoing connection to run over a specific interface. There are four common cases here:
Set the local address of a connection [1].
Force a connection to run over a specific interface.
Force a connection to run over a type of interface.
Force a connection to run over an interface with specific characteristics. For example, you want to download some large resource without exhausting the user’s cellular data allowance.
The last case should be the most common — see the Constraints section of Network Interface Techniques — but all four are useful in specific circumstances.
The following sections explain how to tackle these tasks in the most common networking APIs.
[1] This implicitly forces the connection to use the interface with that address. For an explanation as to why, see the discussion of scoped routing in Network Interface Techniques.
Network Framework
Network framework has good support for all of these cases. Set one or more of the following properties on the NWParameters object you use to create your NWConnection:
requiredLocalEndpoint property
requiredInterface property
prohibitedInterfaces property
requiredInterfaceType property
prohibitedInterfaceTypes property
prohibitConstrainedPaths property
prohibitExpensivePaths property
Foundation URL Loading System
URLSession has fewer options than Network framework but they work in a similar way: Set one or more of the following properties on the URLSessionConfiguration object you use to create your session:
allowsCellularAccess property
allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess property
allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess property
Note While these session configuration properties are also available on URLRequest, it’s better to configure this on the session.
There’s no option that forces a connection to run over a specific interface. In most cases you don’t need this — it’s better to use the allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess and allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess properties — but there are some situations where that’s necessary. For advice on this front, see Running an HTTP Request over WWAN.
BSD Sockets
BSD Sockets has very few options in this space. One thing that’s easy and obvious is setting the local address of a connection: Do that by passing the address to bind.
Alternatively, to force a connection to run over a specific interface, set the IP_BOUND_IF (IPv4) or IPV6_BOUND_IF (IPv6) socket options.
Revision History
2025-01-21 Added a link to Broadcasts and Multicasts, Hints and Tips. Made other minor editorial changes.
2023-07-18 First posted.
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.
Our application uses NEFilterPacketProvider to filter network traffic and we sometimes get a wired crash when removing/updating the network extension.
It only happens on MacOS 11-12 .
The crashing thread is always this one and it shows up after I call the completionHandler from the stopFilter func
Application Specific Information:
BUG IN CLIENT OF LIBDISPATCH: Release of a suspended object
Thread 6 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.network.connections
0 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff2039cc35 _dispatch_queue_xref_dispose.cold.1 + 24
1 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff20373808 _dispatch_queue_xref_dispose + 50
2 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff2036e2eb -[OS_dispatch_source _xref_dispose] + 17
3 libnetwork.dylib 0x00007fff242b5999 __nw_queue_context_create_source_block_invoke + 41
4 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff2036d623 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12
5 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff2036e806 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
6 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff203711b0 _dispatch_continuation_pop + 423
7 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff203811f4 _dispatch_source_invoke + 1181
8 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff20376318 _dispatch_workloop_invoke + 1784
9 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff2037ec0d _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 811
10 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00007fff2051545d _pthread_wqthread + 314
11 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00007fff2051442f start_wqthread + 15
I do have a DispatchSourceTimer but I cancel it in the stop func.
Any ideas on how to tackle this?
Hi there,
can some one help how to debug this crashes? where I can start to find root causes of this crashes. I've got lot of these NSInvalidArgumentException crashes in myapp last version
I have no idea how to reproduce these issues since it doesn't point to any specific code on myapp, so I don't know how to start
Fatal Exception: NSInvalidArgumentException
-[NWConcrete_nw_protocol_options copyWithZone:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x283391d60
Fatal Exception: NSInvalidArgumentException
-[NSConcreteHashTable lengthOfBytesUsingEncoding:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x281d4cbe0
Fatal Exception: NSInvalidArgumentException
-[_NSXPCConnectionExportedObjectTable lengthOfBytesUsingEncoding:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x2829d11d0
Fatal Exception: NSInvalidArgumentException
-[OS_dispatch_group lengthOfBytesUsingEncoding:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x281a11900
Fatal Exception: NSInvalidArgumentException
-[__NSCFData getBytes:maxLength:usedLength:encoding:options:range:remainingRange:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x28210e440
Fatal Exception: NSInvalidArgumentException
-[_NSCoreTypesetterLayoutCache copyWithZone:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x283bbc730
Thanks
com.kitabisa.ios_issue_dd3c71c96cddb5bb99874640746439d6_crash_session_de9bb41c2b7e43fa9ccfc42e0f649aa3_DNE_0_v2_stacktrace.txt