Prioritize user privacy and data security in your app. Discuss best practices for data handling, user consent, and security measures to protect user information.

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Keychain is not getting opened after unlock when system.login.screensaver is updated to use authenticate-session-owner-or-admin
When we enable 3rd party authentication plugin using SFAuthorization window, then when user performs Lock Screen and then unlock the MAC. Now after unlock, if user tries to open Keychain Access, it is not getting opened. When trying to open Keychain Access, we are prompted for credentials but after providing the credentials Keychians are not getting opened. This is working on Sonoma 14.6.1 , but seeing this issue from macOS Sequoia onwards. Are there any suggested settings/actions to resolve this issue?
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362
Aug ’25
Why does my app lose Screen Recording permission after updating (adhoc signature)?
Hi everyone, I have a macOS application that uses Screen Recording permission. I build my app with an adhoc signature (not with a Developer ID certificate). For example, in version 1.0.0, I grant Screen Recording permission to the app. Later, I build a new version (1.1.0) and update by dragging the new app into the Applications folder to overwrite the previous one. However, when I launch the updated app, it asks for Screen Recording permission again, even though I have already granted it for the previous version. I don’t fully understand how TCC (Transparency, Consent, and Control) determines when permissions need to be re-granted. Can anyone explain how TCC manages permissions for updated builds, especially with adhoc signatures? Is there any way to retain permissions between updates, or any best practices to avoid having users re-authorize permissions after every update?
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270
Aug ’25
LAContext.evaluatedPolicyDomainState change between major OS versions
The header documentation for the (deprecated) LAContext.evaluatedPolicyDomainState property contains the following: @warning Please note that the value returned by this property can change exceptionally between major OS versions even if the state of biometry has not changed. I noticed that the documentation for the new LAContext.domainState property does not contain a similar warning. I also found this related thread from 2016/17. Is the domainState property not susceptible to changes between major OS versions? Or is this generally not an issue anymore?
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450
Oct ’25
Information on macOS tracking/updating of CRLs
With Let's Encrypt having completely dropped support for OCSP recently [1], I wanted to ask if macOS has a means of keeping up to date with their CRLs and if so, roughly how often this occurs? I first observed an issue where a revoked-certificate test site, "revoked.badssl.com" (cert signed by Let's Encrypt), was not getting blocked on any browser, when a revocation policy was set up using the SecPolicyCreateRevocation API, in tandem with the kSecRevocationUseAnyAvailableMethod and kSecRevocationPreferCRL flags. After further investigation, I noticed that even on a fresh install of macOS, Safari does not block this test website, while Chrome and Firefox (usually) do, due to its revoked certificate. Chrome and Firefox both have their own means of dealing with CRLs, while I assume Safari uses the system Keychain and APIs. I checked cert info for the site here [2]. It was issued on 2025-07-01 20:00 and revoked an hour later. [1] https://letsencrypt.org/2024/12/05/ending-ocsp/ [2] https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=revoked.badssl.com
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412
Sep ’25
Gate Keeper Issue
Hi, I develop a Mac application, initially on Catalina/Xcode12, but I recently upgrade to Monterey/Xcode13. I'm about to publish a new version: on Monterey all works as expected, but when I try the app on Sequoia, as a last step before uploading to the App Store, I encountered some weird security issues: The main symptom is that it's no longer possible to save any file from the app using the Save panel, although the User Select File entitlement is set to Read/Write. I've tried reinstalling different versions of the app, including the most recent downloaded from TestFlight. But, whatever the version, any try to save using the panel (e.g. on the desktop) results in a warning telling that I don't have authorization to record the file to that folder. Moreover, when I type spctl -a -t exec -v /Applications/***.app in the terminal, it returns rejected, even when the application has been installed by TestFlight. An EtreCheck report tells that my app is not signed, while codesign -dv /Applications/***.app returns a valid signature. I'm lost... It suspect a Gate Keeper problem, but I cannot found any info on the web about how this system could be reset. I tried sudo spctl --reset-default, but it returns This operation is no longer supported... I wonder if these symptoms depend on how the app is archived and could be propagated to my final users, or just related to a corrupted install of Sequoia on my local machine. My feeling is that a signature problem should have been detected by the archive validation, but how could we be sure? Any idea would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
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682
Feb ’25
Unable to add "One Time Codes" support to my app
I'm working on a Password Manager app that integrates with the AutoFill Credential Provider to provide stored passwords and OTPs to the user within Safari and other apps. Password AutoFill works perfectly. I'm unable to get iOS to register that the app supports OTPs though. I've followed the Apple documentation here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/authenticationservices/providing-one-time-passcodes-to-autofill and added "ProvidesOneTimeCodes" to the AutoFill extension's Info.plist, but iOS just doesn't seem to notice the OTP support. <key>ASCredentialProviderExtensionCapabilities</key> <dict> <key>ProvidesOneTimeCodes</key> <true/> <key>ProvidesPasswords</key> <true/> </dict> Any help would be greatly appreicated!
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394
Mar ’25
Multiple views in SFAuthorizationPluginView
Hi there, I'm trying to use SFAuthorizationPluginView in order to show some fields in the login screen, have the user click the arrow, then continue to show more fields as a second step of authentication. How can I accomplish this? Register multiple SecurityAgentPlugins each with their own mechanism and nib? Some how get MacOS to call my SFAuthorizationPluginView::view() and return a new view? Manually remove text boxes and put in new ones when button is pressed I don't believe 1 works, for the second mechanism ended up calling the first mechanism's view's view() Cheers, -Ken
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156
May ’25
Error when using SecItemAdd with kSecReturnPersistentRef and user presence kSecAttrAccessControl
I'm trying to add a generic password to the keychain and get back the persistent ID for it, and give it .userPresence access control. Unfortunately, if I include that, I get paramError back from SecItemAdd. Here's the code: @discardableResult func set(username: String, hostname: String?, password: String, comment: String? = nil) throws -> PasswordEntry { // Delete any existing matching password… if let existing = try? getEntry(forUsername: username, hostname: hostname) { try deletePassword(withID: existing.id) } // Store the new password… var label = username if let hostname { label = label + "@" + hostname } var item: [String: Any] = [ kSecClass as String : kSecClassGenericPassword, kSecAttrDescription as String : "TermPass Password", kSecAttrGeneric as String : self.bundleID.data(using: .utf8)!, kSecAttrLabel as String : label, kSecAttrAccount as String : username, kSecValueData as String : password.data(using: .utf8)!, kSecReturnData as String : true, kSecReturnPersistentRef as String: true, ] if self.synchronizable { item[kSecAttrSynchronizable as String] = kCFBooleanTrue! } if let hostname { item[kSecAttrService as String] = hostname } if let comment { item[kSecAttrComment as String] = comment } // Apply access control to require the user to prove presence when // retrieving this password… var error: Unmanaged<CFError>? guard let accessControl = SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags(nil, kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly, .userPresence, &error) else { let cfError = error!.takeUnretainedValue() as Error throw cfError } item[kSecAttrAccessControl as String] = accessControl item[kSecAttrAccessible as String] = kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly var result: AnyObject! let status = SecItemAdd(item as CFDictionary, &result) try Errors.throwIfError(osstatus: status) load() guard let secItem = result as? [String : Any], let persistentRef = secItem[kSecValuePersistentRef as String] as? Data else { throw Errors.malformedItem } let entry = PasswordEntry(id: persistentRef, username: username, hostname: hostname, password: password, comment: comment) return entry } (Note that I also tried it omitting kSecAttrAccessible, but it had no effect.) This code works fine if I omit setting kSecAttrAccessControl. Any ideas? TIA!
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162
Jul ’25
ASWebAuthenticationSession password autofill iOS 18.5 broken
I have been implementing an sdk for authenticating a user. I have noticed that on iOS 18.5, whether using SFSafariViewController, or the sdk (built on ASWebAuthenticationSession), password autofill does not work. I have confirmed it works on a different device running iOS 18.0.1. Are there any work arounds for this at this time? Specifically for ASWebAuthenticationSession?
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237
Jul ’25
EndpointSecurity app missing TCC authorization
Hi! I am trying to run the demo app(SampleEndpointApp) from the WWDC2020 presentation(link). Here are the steps I followed in order to run the app: I submitted a request for the Endpoint Security entitlement and got the approval from the Apple Support team. Created an identifier and assigned Endpoint Security capability. Updated the Bundle Identifier in ViewController.m and in the Extension target. Built and copied the app bundle to /Application folder. Ran the app, clicked "Install Extension" and got the confirmation message that everything went well. Looking into the logs, I see the following : (libEndpointSecurity.dylib) Failed to open service: 0xe00002d8: Caller lacks TCC authorization for Full Disk Access I keep getting the same message even after granting SampleEndpointApp Full Disk Access in Privacy & Security. System : macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 Could you please assist me with this issue? Andrei
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707
Feb ’25
Authorization Plugin View Still Appears After Login on Home Screen for a Few Seconds
I am developing a custom authorization plugin for macOS, and I’ve encountered an issue where the auth plugin view remains visible on the home screen for a few seconds after login. Issue Details: After entering valid credentials, I call setResult(.allow) in my plugin to proceed with login. The authentication succeeds, and macOS starts transitioning to the home screen. However, for a few seconds after login, the authorization plugin view is still visible on the home screen before it disappears. I have observed this issue even when using Apple's sample authorization plugin. Observation: This issue occurs without an external monitor (on a single built-in display). If I manually close the plugin window inside Destroy(AuthPlugin.mechanism), then the auth plugin views do not appear on the home screen, which seems to fix the issue. However, when I do this, a gray screen appears for about a second before the desktop environment fully loads. I suspect that the gray screen appears due to the time macOS takes to fully load the home screen environment after login. Questions: Why does the authorization plugin view persist on the home screen for a few seconds after login? Is manually closing the plugin window in Destroy(AuthPlugin.mechanism) the correct way to prevent this, or is there a better approach? Is my assumption that the gray screen appears due to the home screen not being fully loaded correct? If the gray screen is caused by home screen loading, is there a system notification or event I can listen to in order to know when the home screen has fully loaded?
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410
Mar ’25
SecTrustEvaluateAsyncWithError() and Certificate Transparency
For testing purposes we have code that calls SecTrustEvaluateAsyncWithError() with a trust object containing a hardcoded leaf certificate and the corresponding intermediate certificate required to form a valid chain. Because the leaf certificate has since expired we pass a date in the past via SecTrustSetVerifyDate() at wich the certificate was still valid, but trust evaluation fails: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67825 "“<redacted>” certificate is not standards compliant" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=“<redacted>” certificate is not standards compliant, NSUnderlyingError=0x600000c282a0 {Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67825 "Certificate 0 “<redacted>” has errors: Certificate Transparency validation required for this use;" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Certificate 0 “<redacted>” has errors: Certificate Transparency validation required for this use;}}} I know that App Transport Security enforces Certificate Transparency by default, but is there a way around that here?
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504
Oct ’25
CryptoKitError
Hi, I am using CryptoKit in my app. I am getting an error sometimes with some users. I log the description to Firebase but I am not sure what is it exactly about.  CryptoKit.CryptoKitError error 2  CryptoKit.CryptoKitError error 3 I receive both of these errors. I also save debug prints to a log file and let users share them with me. Logs are line-by-line encrypted but after getting these errors in the app also decryption of log files doesn't work and it throws these errors too. I couldn't reproduce the same error by myself, and I can't reach the user's logs so I am a little blind about what triggers this. It would be helpful to understand what these errors mean. Thanks
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1.6k
May ’25
Integrating CryptoTokenKit with productsign
Hi all, I'm using a CryptoTokenKit (CTK) extension to perform code signing without having the private key stored on my laptop. The extension currently only supports the rsaSignatureDigestPKCS1v15SHA256 algorithm: func tokenSession(_ session: TKTokenSession, supports operation: TKTokenOperation, keyObjectID: TKToken.ObjectID, algorithm: TKTokenKeyAlgorithm) -> Bool { return algorithm.isAlgorithm(SecKeyAlgorithm.rsaSignatureDigestPKCS1v15SHA256) } This setup works perfectly with codesign, and signing completes without any issues. However, when I try to use productsign, the system correctly detects and delegates signing to my CTK extension, but it seems to always request rsaSignatureDigestPKCS1v15SHA1 instead: productsign --timestamp --sign <identity> unsigned.pkg signed.pkg productsign: using timestamp authority for signature productsign: signing product with identity "Developer ID Installer: <org> (<team>)" from keychain (null) ... Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-50 "algid:sign:RSA:digest-PKCS1v15:SHA1: algorithm not supported by the key" ... productsign: error: Failed to sign the product. From what I understand, older versions of macOS used SHA1 for code signing, but codesign has since moved to SHA256 (at least when legacy compatibility isn't a concern). Oddly, productsign still seems to default to SHA1, even in 2025. Is there a known way to force productsign to use SHA256 instead of SHA1 for the signature digest algorithm? Or is there some flag or configuration I'm missing? Thanks in advance!
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581
Jun ’25
How to implement the "Set Up Codes In" feature
Hello, I have a password manager app and have noticed a new feature in AutoFill &amp; Passwords called "Set Up Codes In". I see that my competitors have been able to implement this feature but cannot find any documentation on how to do this. How can I make it so my app can support this feature. Any help to pointing me to the documentation or otherwise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! //Ray
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99
Apr ’25
App auto PopUps stopping a text out and call out
Hello, I have created an app for both iOs and Android where upon speaking two trigger words, the listening app sends a text and then calls to an inputted designated phone contact. The Android version works perfectly. The iOs version also works perfectly but the iOs app emiits a PopUp for each, the text and then the call asking "Do you really want to send the text -or- make the call". Basically, I input the contact info and I spoke the trigger words. So, yes I want to send the text and make the call. So, I have to click the two PopUps then the device sends and calls. Is there a way to suppress the PopUps in any way? The app is designed for emergencies. So, a dely to anser a popup is not at all good. Maybe by telling the device to allow auto calls and texts from my app? Any and all help on this issue will be very welcomed... Thanks :)
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458
Feb ’25
Help with Entitlements for Keychain Access
Hi everyone, I’m working an Objective-C lib that performs Keychain operations, such as generating cryptographic keys and signing data. The lib will be used by my team in a Java program for macOS via JNI. When working with the traditional file-based Keychain (i.e., without access control flags), everything works smoothly, no issues at all. However, as soon as I try to generate a key using access control flags SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags, the Data Protection Keychain returns error -34018 (errSecMissingEntitlement) during SecKeyCreateRandomKey. This behavior is expected. To address this, I attempted to codesign my native dynamic library (.dylib) with an entitlement plist specifying various combinations of: keychain-access-groups com.apple.security.keychain etc. with: My Apple Development certificate Developer ID Application certificate Apple Distribution certificate None of these combinations made a difference, the error persists. I’d love to clarify: Is it supported to access Data Protection Keychain / Secure Enclave Keys in this type of use case? If so, what exact entitlements does macOS expect when calling SecKeyCreateRandomKey from a native library? I’d really appreciate any guidance or clarification. Thanks in advance! Best regards, Neil
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415
Jul ’25