System Extension activation now pops up an extra "trying to modify a System Extension" prompt. Why?

My company is distributing a DriverKit System Extension as part of our software. As of recently (perhaps around a month or two ago -- I'm not sure on the exact timing), activating the System Extension only triggered one prompt to the user: the standard "System Extension Blocked" message that includes an option to open Security settings and allow the System Extension.

Now however for some reason there is suddenly a second prompt that comes before: a dialog opens with a message saying that my application is trying to "modify" a System Extension, and it asks for an admin username and password. Then once that's supplied, they get the other prompt requiring them to go into System Settings. (This new prompt is in fact the same one that appears when trying to deactivate the System Extension.)

At first I thought this was a new aspect of macOS Sonoma, but then I discovered that this prompt now appears in macOS Ventura and Monterey as well.

Why is this prompt now appearing when it wasn't there before? Did this come about as a result of a system update to Ventura and Monterey?

And more to the point, why is it there at all? Is this a bug, or is there otherwise anyway to avoid it? The user already has to enter their username and password to activate the System Extension. Why is there an additional prompt creating even more friction for this process? (Note that System Extension activation accounts for a sizeable portion of my company's macOS support requests, due to users not understanding what's going on or misunderstanding the steps necessary for activation. More friction to this process means more headaches for us!)

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Please disregard. The installation scripts were deactivating an existing kernel extension before activating, hence the extra prompt.

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Please disregard. The installation scripts were deactivating an existing kernel extension before activating, hence the extra prompt.

  • Thanks for letting us know.

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