General: Apple Platform Security support document Security Overview Cryptography: DevForums tags: Security, Apple CryptoKit Security framework documentation Apple CryptoKit framework documentation Common Crypto man pages — For the full list of pages, run: % man -k 3cc For more information about man pages, see Reading UNIX Manual Pages. On Cryptographic Key Formats DevForums post SecItem attributes for keys DevForums post CryptoCompatibility sample code Keychain: DevForums tags: Security Security > Keychain Items documentation TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations SecItem Fundamentals DevForums post SecItem Pitfalls and Best Practices DevForums post Investigating hard-to-reproduce keychain problems DevForums post Smart cards and other secure tokens: DevForums tag: CryptoTokenKit CryptoTokenKit framework documentation Mac-specific frameworks: DevForums tags: Security Foundation, Security Interface Security Foundation framework documentation Security Interface framework documentation Related: Networking Resources — This covers high-level network security, including HTTPS and TLS. Network Extension Resources — This covers low-level network security, including VPN and content filters. Code Signing Resources Notarisation Resources Trusted Execution Resources — This includes Gatekeeper. App Sandbox Resources Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

I regularly help developers with keychain problems, both here on DevForums and for my Day Job™ in DTS. Many of these problems are caused by a fundamental misunderstanding of how the keychain works. This post is my attempt to explain that. I wrote it primarily so that Future Quinn™ can direct folks here rather than explain everything from scratch (-: If you have questions or comments about any of this, put them in a new thread and apply the Security tag so that I see it. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" SecItem: Fundamentals or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the SecItem API The SecItem API seems very simple. After all, it only has four function calls, how hard can it be? In reality, things are not that easy. Various factors contribute to making this API much trickier than it might seem at first glance. This post explains the fundamental underpinnings of the keychain. For information about specific issues, see its companion post, SecItem: Pitfalls and Best Practices. Keychain Documentation Your basic starting point should be Keychain Items. If your code runs on the Mac, also read TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations. Read the doc comments in ＜Security／SecItem.h＞. In many cases those doc comments contain critical tidbits. When you read keychain documentation [1] and doc comments, keep in mind that statements specific to iOS typically apply to iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS as well (r. 102786959). Also, they typically apply to macOS when you target the data protection keychain. Conversely, statements specific to macOS may not apply when you target the data protection keychain. [1] Except TN3137, which is very clear about this (-: Caveat Mac Developer macOS supports two different implementations: the original file-based keychain and the iOS-style data protection keychain. If you’re able to use the data protection keychain, do so. It’ll make your life easier. TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations explains this distinction in depth. The Four Freedoms^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Functions The SecItem API contains just four functions: SecItemAdd(_:_:) SecItemCopyMatching(_:_:) SecItemUpdate(_:_:) SecItemDelete(_:) These directly map to standard SQL database operations: SecItemAdd(_:_:) maps to INSERT. SecItemCopyMatching(_:_:) maps to SELECT. SecItemUpdate(_:_:) maps to UPDATE. SecItemDelete(_:) maps to DELETE. You can think of each keychain item class (generic password, certificate, and so on) as a separate SQL table within the database. The rows of that table are the individual keychain items for that class and the columns are the attributes of those items. Note Except for the digital identity class, kSecClassIdentity, where the values are split across the certificate and key tables. See Digital Identities Aren’t Real in SecItem: Pitfalls and Best Practices. This is not an accident. The data protection keychain is actually implemented as an SQLite database. If you’re curious about its structure, examine it on the Mac by pointing your favourite SQLite inspection tool — for example, the sqlite3 command-line tool — at the keychain database in ~／Library／Keychains／UUU／keychain-2.db, where UUU is a UUID. WARNING Do not depend on the location and structure of this file. These have changed in the past and are likely to change again in the future. If you embed knowledge of them into a shipping product, it’s likely that your product will have binary compatibility problems at some point in the future. The only reason I’m mentioning them here is because I find it helpful to poke around in the file to get a better understanding of how the API works. For information about which attributes are supported by each keychain item class — that is, what columns are in each table — see the Note box at the top of Item Attribute Keys and Values. Alternatively, look at the Attribute Key Constants doc comment in ＜Security／SecItem.h＞. Uniqueness A critical part of the keychain model is uniqueness. How does the keychain determine if item A is the same as item B? It turns out that this is class dependent. For each keychain item class there is a set of attributes that form the uniqueness constraint for items of that class. That is, if you try to add item A where all of its attributes are the same as item B, the add fails with errSecDuplicateItem. For more information, see the errSecDuplicateItem page. It has lists of attributes that make up this uniqueness constraint, one for each class. These uniqueness constraints are a major source of confusion, as discussed in the Queries and the Uniqueness Constraints section of SecItem: Pitfalls and Best Practices. Parameter Blocks Understanding The SecItem API is a classic ‘parameter block’ API. All of its inputs are dictionaries, and you have to know which properties to set in each dictionary to achieve your desired result. Likewise for when you read properties in output dictionaries. There are five different property groups: The item class property, kSecClass, determines the class of item you’re operating on: kSecClassGenericPassword, kSecClassCertificate, and so on. The item attribute properties, like kSecAttrAccessGroup, map directly to keychain item attributes. The search properties, like kSecMatchLimit, control how the system runs a query. The return type properties, like kSecReturnAttributes, determine what values the query returns. The value type properties, like kSecValueRef perform multiple duties, as explained below. There are other properties that perform a variety of specific functions. For example, kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain tells macOS to use the data protection keychain instead of the file-based keychain. These properties are hard to describe in general; for the details, see the documentation for each such property. Inputs Each of the four SecItem functions take dictionary input parameters of the same type, CFDictionary, but these dictionaries are not the same. Different dictionaries support different property groups: The first parameter of SecItemAdd(_:_:) is an add dictionary. It supports all property groups except the search properties. The first parameter of SecItemCopyMatching(_:_:) is a query and return dictionary. It supports all property groups. The first parameter of SecItemUpdate(_:_:) is a pure query dictionary. It supports all property groups except the return type properties. Likewise for the only parameter of SecItemDelete(_:). The second parameter of SecItemUpdate(_:_:) is an update dictionary. It supports the item attribute and value type property groups. Outputs Two of the SecItem functions, SecItemAdd(_:_:) and SecItemCopyMatching(_:_:), return values. These output parameters are of type CFTypeRef because the type of value you get back depends on the return type properties you supply in the input dictionary: If you supply a single return type property, except kSecReturnAttributes, you get back a value appropriate for that return type. If you supply multiple return type properties or kSecReturnAttributes, you get back a dictionary. This supports the item attribute and value type property groups. To get a non-attribute value from this dictionary, use the value type property that corresponds to its return type property. For example, if you set kSecReturnPersistentRef in the input dictionary, use kSecValuePersistentRef to get the persistent reference from the output dictionary. In the single item case, the type of value you get back depends on the return type property and the keychain item class: For kSecReturnData you get back the keychain item’s data. This makes most sense for password items, where the data holds the password. It also works for certificate items, where you get back the DER-encoded certificate. Using this for key items is kinda sketchy. If you want to export a key, called SecKeyCopyExternalRepresentation. Using this for digital identity items is nonsensical. For kSecReturnRef you get back an object reference. This only works for keychain item classes that have an object representation, namely certificates, keys, and digital identities. You get back a SecCertificate, a SecKey, or a SecIdentity, respectively. For kSecReturnPersistentRef you get back a data value that holds the persistent reference. Value Type Subtleties There are three properties in the value type property group: kSecValueData kSecValueRef kSecValuePersistentRef Their semantics vary based on the dictionary type. For kSecValueData: In an add dictionary, this is the value of the item to add. For example, when adding a generic password item (kSecClassGenericPassword), the value of this key is a Data value containing the password. This is not supported in a query dictionary. In an update dictionary, this is the new value for the item. For kSecValueRef: In add and query dictionaries, the system infers the class property and attribute properties from the supplied object. For example, if you supply a certificate object (SecCertificate, created using SecCertificateCreateWithData), the system will infer a kSecClass value of kSecClassCertificate and various attribute values, like kSecAttrSerialNumber, from that certificate object. This is not supported in an update dictionary. For kSecValuePersistentRef: For query dictionaries, this uniquely identifies the item to operate on. This is not supported in add and update dictionaries. Revision History 2023-09-12 Fixed various bugs in the revision history. Added a paragraph explaining how to determine which attributes are supported by each keychain item class. 2023-02-22 Made minor editorial changes. 2023-01-28 First posted.

I'm building a tool for admins in the enterprise context. The app needs to do some things as root, such as executing a script. I was hoping to implement a workflow where the user clicks a button, then will be shown the authentication prompt, enter the credentials and then execute the desired action. However, I couldn't find a way to implement this. AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges looked promising, but that's deprecated since 10.7. I've now tried to use a launch daemon that's contained in the app bundle with XPC, but that seems overly complicated and has several downsides (daemon with global machservice and the approval of a launch daemon suggests to the user that something's always running in the background). Also I'd like to stream the output of the executed scripts in real time back to the UI which seems very complicated to implement in this fashion. Is there a better way to enable an app to perform authorized privilege escalation for certain actions? What about privileged helper tools? I couldn't find any documentation about them. I know privilege escalation is not allowed in the App Store, but that's not relevant for us.

Hi, I am working on a react native module used for tis connection and I am trying to implement the possibility to use a custom certificate/Private key. I have already implemented on android but on iOS I am getting hard times, we cannot find lots of resources, api is different on macOS and iOS with subtle differences so after having tested SO, chatgpt, ... I am trying here: I even tried to use an internal api since it seems ffmpeg uses it but with no success. I have attached my current code because it does not fit here. to sump up after having inserted cert and private key I try to get a SecIdentityRef but it fails. I assume that it's not enough to simply add certain and private key... // Query for the identity with correct attributes NSDictionary *identityQuery = @{ (__bridge id)kSecClass: (__bridge id)kSecClassIdentity, (__bridge id)kSecMatchLimit: (__bridge id)kSecMatchLimitOne, (__bridge id)kSecReturnRef: @YES, (__bridge id)kSecReturnData: @YES, (__bridge id)kSecAttrLabel: @"My Certificate", //(__bridge id)kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain: @YES }; SecIdentityRef identity = NULL; status = SecItemCopyMatching((__bridge CFDictionaryRef)identityQuery, (CFTypeRef *)&identity); TcpSocketClient.txt SecItemCopyMatching with kSecClassIdentity fails, SecIdentityCreate return NULL... So please help and indicates what I am doing wrong and how I am supposed getting a SecIdentityRef. Thanks

Hi everyone, I’m working on an iOS app that uses biometric authentication to access secure keychain items and private keys stored in the Secure Enclave with some data encryption/decryption with those keys. My goal is to minimize the number of biometric prompts by reusing the authentication result within a short time window. I have the following setup: When writing the biometry-restricted keychain items and Secure Enclave keys, I use LAContext with the property LATouchIDAuthenticationMaximumAllowableReuseDuration = 1 minute, and I pass this context as the kSecUseAuthenticationContext field in the query. When retrieving these items later (in a synchronous sequence upon app launch), I pass the same instance of LAContext as the kSecUseAuthenticationContext field. The issue: If I unlock my device and the biometric reuse time has not expired (i.e., less than 1 minute), the first two actions (keychain item retrieval and Secure Enclave key retrieval) do not prompt for Face ID. However, when I attempt to decrypt data with the private key using SecKeyCreateDecryptedData, I’m prompted for Face ID even if the biometric reuse time is still valid. If the biometric reuse time has expired (more than 1 minute since last authentication), I get prompted for Face ID on the first action (keychain retrieval), and subsequent actions (including data decryption) reuse that biometric result. Question: Does this behavior mean that SecKeyCreateDecryptedData ignore the LATouchIDAuthenticationMaximumAllowableReuseDuration property of LAContext, causing an additional biometric prompt during decryption with the private key? Or is there another reason for this behavior? Is there a way to make the biometric result reusable across all these actions, including decryption? Thank you!

Hi, We use the iOS Keychain in our mobile app to securely store and retrieve data, which is tightly coupled with the initialization of some app features within the application. This issue is encountered during app launch We retrieve during Splash Screen UI controller at viewDidApper() The logic we use to access the Keychain is as follows: NSDate *NSDate_CD; NSString *account = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:@"SOME_KEY_ACCOUNT"]; NSString *attrgen = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:@"SOME_KEY"]; NSMutableDictionary *query = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init]; [query setObject:(__bridge id)(kSecClassGenericPassword) forKey:(__bridge id<NSCopying>)(kSecClass)]; [query setObject:attrgen forKey:(__bridge id<NSCopying>)(kSecAttrGeneric)]; [query setObject:(__bridge id)(kSecAttrAccessibleAfterFirstUnlockThisDeviceOnly) forKey:(__bridge id<NSCopying>)(kSecAttrAccessible)]; [query setObject: [NSBundle mainBundle].bundleIdentifier forKey:(__bridge id<NSCopying>)(kSecAttrService)]; [query setObject:account forKey:(__bridge id<NSCopying>)(kSecAttrAccount)]; [query setObject:@YES forKey:(__bridge id<NSCopying>)(kSecReturnAttributes)]; [query setObject:@YES forKey:(__bridge id<NSCopying>)(kSecReturnData)]; CFDictionaryRef valueAttributes = NULL; OSStatus status = SecItemCopyMatching((__bridge CFDictionaryRef)query, (CFTypeRef *)&valueAttributes); NSDictionary *attributes = (__bridge_transfer NSDictionary *)valueAttributes; if(status==errSecSuccess) { NSDate_CD = [attributes objectForKey:(__bridge id)kSecAttrCreationDate]; } else { NSLog(@"Key chain query failed"); } However, some users have reported intermittent failures during app launch. Upon investigation, we discovered that these failures are caused by exceptions thrown by the iOS Keychain, which the app is currently not handling. Unfortunately, we do not log the exception or the Keychain error code in the app logs at the moment, but we plan to implement this logging feature in the near future. For now, we are trying to better understand the nature of these errors. Could you help clarify the following Keychain errors, which might be encountered from the code above? errSecServiceNotAvailable (-25307) errSecAllocate (-108) errSecNotAvailable (-25291) If these errors are encountered, are they typically persistent or are they temporary states that could resolve on their own? Your insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Is there a way to unlock login keychain without using password and with any other authentication factor supported by 3rd party MFA options?

Hello. We are adding a Safari extension to our app and we have some questions about communication between the app and its extension. We have added the nativeMessaging permission to the extension so that it can communicate with the app and communication between both are doing very well. Our question is about the security of communications between the two. How can we be sure the native app communicates well with the correct extension? Can the Safari extension communicate with another native app or can the native app receive messages from another extension?

Why does the following code generate a public key that can't be parsed by openssl? import Security import CryptoKit func generateKeys() throws -> (privateKey: SecKey, publicKey: SecKey) { let query: [String: Any] = [ kSecAttrKeyType as String: kSecAttrKeyTypeECSECPrimeRandom, kSecAttrKeySizeInBits as String: 256, kSecAttrIsPermanent as String: false ] var error: Unmanaged<CFError>? guard let privateKey = SecKeyCreateRandomKey(query as CFDictionary, &error) else { throw error!.takeRetainedValue() } let publicKey = SecKeyCopyPublicKey(privateKey)! return (privateKey, publicKey) } extension SecKey { func exportBase64EncodedKey() -> String { var error: Unmanaged<CFError>? guard let data = SecKeyCopyExternalRepresentation(self, &error) else { fatalError("Failed to export key: \(error!.takeRetainedValue())") } return (data as Data).base64EncodedString(options: [.lineLength64Characters]) } } func printPublicKey() { let keyPair = try! generateKeys() let encodedPublicKey = keyPair.publicKey.exportBase64EncodedKey() var header = "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----" var footer = "-----END PUBLIC KEY-----" var pemKey = "\(header)\n\(encodedPublicKey)\n\(footer)\n" print(pemKey) } printPublicKey() when parsing the key I get this: openssl pkey -pubin -in new_public_key.pem -text -noout Could not find private key of Public Key from new_public_key.pem 404278EC01000000:error:1E08010C:DECODER routines:OSSL_DECODER_from_bio:unsupported:crypto/encode_decode/decoder_lib.c:102:No supported data to decode. Replacing kSecAttrKeyTypeECSECPrimeRandom with kSecAttrKeyTypeRSA and a bigger key size (e.g. 2048) gives me a working public key that can be parsed by Openssl. Thanks!

Hello, I'm exploring the Secure Enclave APIs, and I'm wondering if it's possible to "cryptographically" determine if a block of data was signed on the Secure Enclave. When I sign a block of data using the Secure Enclave (which implies using a key pair automatically generated by the enclave) and distribute the public key to others, is there any way to verify if the message was encrypted on it / its private key was generated by it? In other words, what I'm trying to achieve is to make sure that the public key hasn't been tampered with until it reaches its destination (including on-device threats, since otherwise I could've used a normal keychain item, perhaps?). For the purpose of this example, I'm not necessarily interested in figuring out if the key was signed on a certain device's enclave, but rather on any Secure Enclave. So, using something derived from the enclave's GID Key (described in the Apple Platform Security guide) would work for this.

hey everyone.!! In one of my macOS projects I am trying to fetch the files and folders available on "Desktop" and "Document" folder and trying to showing it on collection view inside the my project, but when I try to fetch the files and folder of desktop and document, I am not able to fetch it. But if i try it by setting the entitlements False, I am able to fetch it. If any have face the similar issue, or have an alternative it please suggest. NOTE:- I have tried implementing it using NSOpenPanel and it works, but it lowers the user experience.

I am in need of assistance with sandboxing the riot games client and game league of legends. I originally played on a vm from linux but after the change to the incredibly intrusive rootkit malware vanguard. I cannot play from a vm or at least it would be difficult, if this route of containerizing it on mac proves to be more difficult (which wouldn't make sense) then I will go back to spoofing the a vm to not look like a vm. This is even more infuriating because I almost exclusively play Team Fight Tactics in which there is zero cheating and cheating would give a player zero advantage. I decided I would try the Mac version of the game but apple does not sandbox applications at all like flatpak and flatseal from linux. The game has access to my entire system and can read and write to my home directory. This is a massive security risk. I originally tried checking the system settings privacy and security section but the application was not listed anywhere nor was it given access on any of the sections listed. I checked both user local and global tcc.dbs and neither had records that gave the game or client any privileges. This was concerning because tcc.db appears to be the only user facing way of managing permissions that you would think would be a bare minimum baseline and yet the game and client have full access to my system and those permissions are listed nowhere and are given no where. Ie. the default is just to let it do as it pleases even though its a game that only thing it needs to render to the screen. MacOS should properly fix this and implement proper sandboxing of applications like flatpak. I then began building a configuration scheme for sandbox-exec seeing as it was the last opportunity to correctly contain the application to only have the permissions it needs. I carefully crafted the config but it fails just as simply allowing all with allow default... (version 1) (allow default) I run the application with the following command: sandbox-exec -f ~/config.sb "/Users/Shared/Riot Games/Riot Client.app/Contents/MacOS/RiotClientServices" Below are some of the errors produced from running the client sandboxed. 00:44:09.819 (SplashScreenManager) Displaying splash screen from default-splash.html for 2000ms 00:44:09.825 app.isPackaged true 00:44:09.842 Loading page from http://127.0.0.1:51563/index.html sandbox initialization failed: Operation not permitted Failed to initialize sandbox.[0102/004409.953876:ERROR:exception_snapshot_mac.cc(139)] exception_thread not found in task [0102/004409.954838:ERROR:process_reader_mac.cc(309)] thread_get_state(4): (os/kern) invalid argument (4) [0102/004409.954852:ERROR:process_reader_mac.cc(309)] thread_get_state(4): (os/kern) invalid argument (4) [0102/004409.955178:WARNING:process_reader_mac.cc(532)] multiple MH_EXECUTE modules (/usr/libexec/rosetta/runtime, /Library/Apple/usr/libexec/oah/libRosettaRuntime) [0102/004409.955364:WARNING:process_reader_mac.cc(532)] multiple MH_EXECUTE modules (/usr/libexec/rosetta/runtime, /Users/Shared/Riot Games/Riot Client.app/Contents/Frameworks/Riot Client.app/Contents/Frameworks/Riot Client Helper (Renderer).app/Contents/MacOS/Riot Client Helper (Renderer)) [0102/004410.111422:ERROR:exception_snapshot_mac.cc(139)] exception_thread not found in task [4607:0102/004415.168524:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(991)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=6 [4607:0102/004415.187770:ERROR:network_service_instance_impl.cc(521)] Network service crashed, restarting service. 00:44:15.215 Renderer process has unexpectedly crashed or was killed: crashed (6) { reason: 'crashed', exitCode: 6 }

I don't know why? 🤷 My uuid and imi as well as ip have been leaked, I don't know what to do? Can someone help me?

I am developing apps using NWJS framework, which access devices on the local network. I am doing this on Sequoia on Macos (Desktop). I have developed other apps using NWJS before, but on earlier versions of Macos. My issue is, I am unable to give my app permission to app to access devices on local network on one of the apps. Some background: Other apps which I have used which access devices on the local network, on first-time launching, have given a prompt asking me if I want to allow or deny access to local device for the app. However, on first-time launching (and many others after that), It simply says the device cannot be reached, and I never get a prompt asking me if I want to allow or deny access to local device for my app. In its barebones proof-of-concept stage of my app, I have an iframe who's src attribute is the IP address of a device known on the network with that address. I have tried the protocol https://192.168.1.99 and http://192.168.1.99 in the src attribute. This protocol works in another app I have built where upon first-time launch, I was able to get a prompt and give it the needed permission. If I check in System Settings > Privacy and Security > Network, the app doesn't appear where I can toggle a setting. I also am unable to explicitly add my app to the list. ** This worked for one app, but not another: In researching this issue, it was recommended that I add the following keys in info.plist: com.apple.developer.networking.multicast - boolean true NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription - string description NSNearbyInteractionUsageDescription - string description This worked for one of my apps, but not another, which has a nearly identical structure. In fact, other than CFBundleIdentifier, CFBundleDisplayName and CFBundleName, info.plist is identical. Why did this work one time, and how can I get my app to prompt for permission for local network access?

I've tried all kinds of ways to get a SecKeyRef from the .p8 file I downloaded from my App Store Connect account. The key itself looks OK, as openssl gives this result: openssl asn1parse -in 359UpAdminKey.p8 0:d=0 hl=3 l= 147 cons: SEQUENCE 3:d=1 hl=2 l= 1 prim: INTEGER :00 6:d=1 hl=2 l= 19 cons: SEQUENCE 8:d=2 hl=2 l= 7 prim: OBJECT :id-ecPublicKey 17:d=2 hl=2 l= 8 prim: OBJECT :prime256v1 27:d=1 hl=2 l= 121 prim: OCTET STRING [HEX DUMP]:30... My method for creating the key is: '- (SecKeyRef)privateKeyFromP8:(NSURL *)p8FileURL error:(NSError **)error { // Read the .p8 file NSData *p8Data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:p8FileURL options:0 error:error]; if (!p8Data) { return NULL; } // Convert P8 to base64 string, removing header/footer NSString *p8String = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:p8Data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]; NSArray *lines = [p8String componentsSeparatedByString:@"\n"]; NSMutableString *base64String = [NSMutableString string]; for (NSString *line in lines) { if (![line containsString:@"PRIVATE KEY"]) { [base64String appendString:line]; } } // Decode base64 to raw key data NSData *keyData = [[NSData alloc] initWithBase64EncodedString:base64String options:0]; if (!keyData) { if (error) { *error = [NSError errorWithDomain:@"P8ImportError" code:1 userInfo:@{NSLocalizedDescriptionKey: @"Failed to decode base64 data"}]; } return NULL; } // Set up key parameters NSDictionary *attributes = @{ (__bridge NSString *)kSecAttrKeyType: (__bridge NSString *)kSecAttrKeyTypeECSECPrimeRandom, (__bridge NSString *)kSecAttrKeyClass: (__bridge NSString *)kSecAttrKeyClassPrivate, (__bridge NSString *)kSecAttrKeySizeInBits: @256 }; // Create SecKeyRef from the raw key data CFErrorRef keyError = NULL; SecKeyRef privateKey = SecKeyCreateWithData((__bridge CFDataRef)p8Data, (__bridge CFDictionaryRef)attributes, &amp;keyError); if (!privateKey &amp;&amp; keyError) { *error = (__bridge_transfer NSError *)keyError; NSError *bridgeError = (__bridge NSError *)keyError; if (error) { *error = bridgeError; // Pass the bridged error back to the caller } NSLog(@"Key Error: %@", bridgeError.localizedDescription); } return privateKey; } ` I get this error from SecKeyCreateWithData The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -50 - EC private key creation from data failed) Filed a DTS incident, but they won't be back until after the New Year. I've tried all kinds of things. Various AI chatbots, etc. Nothing seems to be working. I'm sure the problem is something elementary, but have spent hours on this with no luck. Help, please.

I am using SFAuthorizationPluginView in my Security agent plugin. My code expects that its willActivate method be called. With normal screensaver unlock, this works fine. However if I enter an invalid password, then enter the correct password, I never get the willActivate call. I have reproduced this with Quinn's LoginUIAuthPlugin from the QAuthPlugins example code. My mechanisms look like this with LoginUIAuthPlugin: mechanisms HyprAuthPlugin:invoke builtin:authenticate,privileged PKINITMechanism:auth,privileged LoginUIAuthPlugin:login CryptoTokenKit:login I would like to be able to get my plugin working properly when the user had previously entered an invalid password.

In one of our applications we use LAContext's evaluatePolicy:localizedReason:reply: to authenticate a user. This works pretty well with both username/password and Touch ID. Now we have a request to add support for smart cards and I wonder if this is possible using LAContext. Otherwise I would use Authentication Services, although that might be a bit overkill since we don't need to request any rights, we just want to see that the user has been successfully authenticated. Or is there a better way? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Marc

Hi, I've recently tested my custom AuthorizationPlugin on macOS 15 (Sequoia) and I'm seeing a significant change in rendering (or precisely not rendering) the control returned by my SFAuthorizationPluginView's subclass' viewForType method comparing to macOS 14. (I developed and tested my solution on macOS 14 earlier this year). I use SFAuthorizationPluginView to present a NSView (Custom view) which contains a NSSecureTextField and a NSImageView. I show my custom plugin after the user successfully entered username and password (or only the password if the List of Users is configured in System Settings) into the builtin fields provided by loginwindow:login, so injecting my plugin:mechanism pair into the system.login.console after loginwindow:success. (I need to run my mechanism after builtin:authenticate,privileged since my plugin relies on the authentication result coming from my custom PAM module). This setup now however doesn't seem to be working: after entering the (username and) password, the circular spinner appears and my NSView never gets rendered. I've found a workaround to place my plugin:mechanism pair after loginwindow:done, so in the end of the whole authorization chain. I tried to run the good old NameAndPassword bundle, injecting it into the place of the loginwindow:login. Controls are being rendered correctly, but if I place it even right after loginwindow:login it doesn't get rendered as my custom plugin. Is anybody aware if there's anything has intentionally been changed in macOS 15? Or may it be a bug? I guess the original intention of the SFAuthorizationPluginView class was to overwrite/redefine the UI instead of the builtin username + password field, so if I look at it that way it's expected that the view it contains only gets rendered if we use it instead of loginwindow:login. On the other hand this hasn't been the case until now. Thanks for any help!

Hi everyone, is there any ways we can remove the weak ciphers as part of TLS handshake (TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256) I checked here but still do not see anyways to print out and change the ciphers suite we want to use https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/43230 https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/700406?answerId=706382022#706382022

I'm developing a file access control system. In order to protect the file content copied out, I'm finding a way to deny user copy file content to other files. I know there are data transmission between the copied application and pboard service by XPC. But I don't know how to interrupt the data transmission. Or I can do something to stop the copied data send to the Clipboard. So is there any way to prevent the contents of a file being copied?

Hello everyone, I hope you’ll all bear with me as I get up to speed. My background is in Unix, procedural languages, mission critical databases and enterprise applications. I’ve just started heading a team with an iOS app used in healthcare that contains confidential patient information (PHI) that's governed by HIPAA and FDA cybersecurity, etc. It seems there’s some contention in the team over whether the app, SQLite db, and medical images belong in the Documents or an Application Support directory in the Library. From everything I’ve read, it seems that Apple’s intent is Library/Application Support. Two questions: Which is the correct location? And hopefully, a few compelling justifications. On one of our iPads, the app stopped displaying what was two years of data in SQLite. I haven’t yet tested for index corruption, however one of the programmers believes this resulted from an iOS update that needed space and cleared data in the cache (but that makes no sense to myself). Feedback highly appreciated. Many thanks, David Why, because somebody has to

When we enable 3rd party authentication plugin using SFAuthorization window, and during unlock the screen, we have observed the widgets are not showing the content. Attaching the screenshot for reference. We are noticing this behavior from macOS 14.7.1 and macOS 15