My goal is to install a private key in the Keychain on macOS securely in such a way that only my app and its Network Extension can access the same key from any user on the machine. This is not an App Store app; it is installed via an Installer and additionally uses a privileged Launch Daemon XPC service to perform privileged operations during the app's lifetime.
Obviously, the Network Extension is not capable of installing such a key due to its sandbox. Currently, my app adds the key to the System Keychain via the privileged helper and uses Keychain ACLs (through SecTrustedApplicationCreateFromPath) to permit only the extension and the main app to access the key. This works fine.
Unfortunately, SecTrustedApplicationCreateFromPath is deprecated as of macOS 10.15, and so I'm trying to use its replacement, Keychain Sharing/kSecAttrAccessGroup.
I have followed this tutorial to allow my Launch Daemon to use Provisioning Profiles so that I can enable Keychain Sharing for the daemon. This works okay, as far as I can tell.
However, when I attempt to use kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain, a prerequisite to using kSecAttrAccessGroup, to generate the key (with SecKeyCreateRandomKey), I get this error:
The same code works fine when running as a regular user application, so I assume this is an issue with using keychain protection from a non-user environment. I have not been able to find any solution to this error.
To make matters worse, I have tested regular applications using kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain+kSecAttrAccessGroup and although they work perfectly within a single user account, they do not function across user accounts, even if I run them as root and explicitly use the System Keychain with SecKeychainSetPreferenceDomain(.system). Therefore, I assume keychain protection on macOS is a feature of the login keychain, which also explains why it does not work in a launch daemon.
Am I missing something? Or is what I need impossible using only non-deprecated Keychain features? I can probably resort to storing the key in a regular file which only root/my XPC service can read and having it serve the key to my app and its extension, but I'd prefer to use Keychain if possible.
Thank you.
Obviously, the Network Extension is not capable of installing such a key due to its sandbox. Currently, my app adds the key to the System Keychain via the privileged helper and uses Keychain ACLs (through SecTrustedApplicationCreateFromPath) to permit only the extension and the main app to access the key. This works fine.
Unfortunately, SecTrustedApplicationCreateFromPath is deprecated as of macOS 10.15, and so I'm trying to use its replacement, Keychain Sharing/kSecAttrAccessGroup.
I have followed this tutorial to allow my Launch Daemon to use Provisioning Profiles so that I can enable Keychain Sharing for the daemon. This works okay, as far as I can tell.
However, when I attempt to use kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain, a prerequisite to using kSecAttrAccessGroup, to generate the key (with SecKeyCreateRandomKey), I get this error:
Code Block Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-25291 "failed to generate asymmetric keypair" (errKCNotAvailable / errSecNotAvailable: / No trust results are available.) UserInfo={NSDescription=failed to generate asymmetric keypair}
The same code works fine when running as a regular user application, so I assume this is an issue with using keychain protection from a non-user environment. I have not been able to find any solution to this error.
To make matters worse, I have tested regular applications using kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain+kSecAttrAccessGroup and although they work perfectly within a single user account, they do not function across user accounts, even if I run them as root and explicitly use the System Keychain with SecKeychainSetPreferenceDomain(.system). Therefore, I assume keychain protection on macOS is a feature of the login keychain, which also explains why it does not work in a launch daemon.
Am I missing something? Or is what I need impossible using only non-deprecated Keychain features? I can probably resort to storing the key in a regular file which only root/my XPC service can read and having it serve the key to my app and its extension, but I'd prefer to use Keychain if possible.
Thank you.
