Hi all, We've been exploring the capabilities of the Network.framework for peer-to-peer communication and have run into some behavior that we haven't been able to fully explain with the existing documentation. In our tests, we’re working with 12 iOS devices, all disconnected from Wi-Fi to force communication over Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL). While using the Network.framework to create peer-to-peer connections, we observed that the number of connected peers never exceeded 8, despite all 12 devices being active and configured identically. Some questions we’re hoping to get clarification or discussion on: Is there a known upper limit to the number of peer-to-peer connections supported via AWDL? Are there conditions under which the framework or system limits or throttles visible peers? Does AWDL behavior vary by hardware model, iOS version, or backgrounding state of the app? Is there any official documentation or guidance around peer discovery or connection limits when using NWBrowser and NWConnection in a peer-to-peer context? We’d appreciate any insights from the Apple engineering team or other developers who have worked with larger peer groups using Network.framework in peer-to-peer mode.

I've recently updated one of our CI mac mini's to Sequoia in preparation for the transition to Tahoe later this year. Most things seemed to work just fine, however I see this dialog whenever the UI Tests try to run. This application BoostBrowerUITest-Runner is auto-generated by Xcode to launch your application and then run your UI Tests. We do not have any control over it, which is why this is most surprising. I've checked the codesigning identity with codesign -d -vvvv as well as looked at it's Info.plist and indeed the usage descriptions for everything are present (again, this is autogenerated, so I'm not surprised, but just wanted to confirm the string from the dialog was coming from this app) <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>BuildMachineOSBuild</key> <string>22A380021</string> <key>CFBundleAllowMixedLocalizations</key> <true/> <key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key> <string>en</string> <key>CFBundleExecutable</key> <string>BoostBrowserUITests-Runner</string> <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key> <string>company.thebrowser.Browser2UITests.xctrunner</string> <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key> <string>6.0</string> <key>CFBundleName</key> <string>BoostBrowserUITests-Runner</string> <key>CFBundlePackageType</key> <string>APPL</string> <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key> <string>1.0</string> <key>CFBundleSignature</key> <string>????</string> <key>CFBundleSupportedPlatforms</key> <array> <string>MacOSX</string> </array> <key>CFBundleVersion</key> <string>1</string> <key>DTCompiler</key> <string>com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0</string> <key>DTPlatformBuild</key> <string>24A324</string> <key>DTPlatformName</key> <string>macosx</string> <key>DTPlatformVersion</key> <string>15.0</string> <key>DTSDKBuild</key> <string>24A324</string> <key>DTSDKName</key> <string>macosx15.0.internal</string> <key>DTXcode</key> <string>1620</string> <key>DTXcodeBuild</key> <string>16C5031c</string> <key>LSBackgroundOnly</key> <true/> <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key> <string>13.0</string> <key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key> <dict> <key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key> <true/> </dict> <key>NSAppleEventsUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSCalendarsUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSContactsUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSDesktopFolderUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSDocumentsFolderUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSDownloadsFolderUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSFileProviderDomainUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSFileProviderPresenceUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSLocationUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSMotionUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSNetworkVolumesUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSRemindersUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSRemovableVolumesUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSSystemAdministrationUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>NSSystemExtensionUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> <key>OSBundleUsageDescription</key> <string>Access is necessary for automated testing.</string> </dict> </plist> Additionally, spctl --assess --type execute BoostBrowserUITests-Runner.app return an exit code of 0 so I assume that means it can launch just fine, and applications are allowed to be run from "anywhere" in System Settings. I've found the XCUIProtectedResource.localNetwork value, but it seems to only be accessible on iOS for some reason (FB17829325). I'm trying to figure out why this is happening on this machine so I can either fix our code or fix the machine. I have an Apple script that will allow it, but it's fiddly and I'd prefer to fix this the correct way either with the machine or with fixing our testing code.

Goal : Block all outbound connections to a static list of hosts (both In-app requests and WKWebView/Safari). App & both extensions have Network Extension entitlement with content-filter-provider and filter-control-provider What’s working: Safari and WKWebView requests matching the block list are dropped. What’s broken: In-app traffic never reaches the Data Provider—those requests always succeed. Setup: • NEFilterProviderConfiguration with both Data & Control providers, filterBrowsers = true, filterSockets = true • Data Provider implements handleNewFlow for socket/browser flows • Control Provider implements handleNewFlow for browser flows • Enabled via saveToPreferences() and toggled ON in Settings

We use as content filter in our app to monitor flows, we gather data about the flow and block flows deemed suspicious. Our content filter is activated/deactivated by a UI app but the flows are reported via XPC to a separate daemon process for analysis. As of macOS 15, we are seeing cases where flows are missing or flows are not received at all by the content filter. The behaviour is not consistent, some devices seem to receive flows normally but others don't. It appears Intel devices are much less prone to showing the problem, whereas Arm devices routinely exhibit missing flows. On macOS 14 or earlier, there is no sign of missing flows. Testing on earlier beta versions of macOS 15 did not appear to show the problem, however I can't rule out if issue was present but it wasn't spotted. Experimenting with simple examples of using a content filter (e.g. QNE2FilterMac) does not appear to reproduce the issue. Questions, What has changed between macOS 14 and 15 that could be the cause of the lack of flows? Is our approach to using an app activated content filter reporting to a daemon connected via XPC unsupported?

I am trying to connect to an accessory's WiFi network using the below code and I always see the message "connection succeded" even if I provide an incorrect passphrase. I tried with different accessories and see the same behavior. hotspotConfigurationManager.joinAccessoryHotspot(accessory, passphrase: passphrase) { error in if let error = error { print("connection failed: \(error.localizedDescription)") } else { print("connection succeeded") } }

send a request and it returns with timeout Integration Team are Using Fortigate as a firewall and NGINX for some reasons so we use VPN TO Access , requests always succeed but at once it failed with timeout in randomize request not specific one we are using URLSession as a network layer when I retry the same failed request again, it success the request cannot connect apigee Sec Team concern { app session hits the security gateway with lots of SYN step to try to initiate a new session and doesn’t wait for (SYN-ACK / ACK) steps to happen to make sure the connection initiated correctly and gateway consider it flooding attack }

Hi! My project has the Local Push Connectivity entitlement for a feature we have requiring us to send low-latency critical notifications over a local, private Wi-Fi network. We have our NEAppPushProvider creating a SSE connection using the Network framework with our hardware running a server. The server sends a keep-alive message every second. On an iPhone 16 with iOS 18+, the connection is reliable and remains stable for hours, regardless of whether the iOS app is in the foreground, background, or killed. One of our QA engineers has been testing on an iPhone 13 running iOS 16, and has notice shortly after locking the phone, specifically when not connected to power the device seems to turn off the Wi-Fi radio. So when the server sends a notification, it is not received. About 30s later, it seems to be back on. This happens on regular intervals. When looking at our log data, the provider does seem to be getting stopped, then restarted shortly after. The reason code is NEProviderStopReasonNoNetworkAvailable, which further validates that the network is getting dropped by the device in regular intervals. My questions are: Were there possibly silent changes to the framework between iOS versions that could be the reason we're seeing inconsistent behavior? Is there a connection type we could use, instead of SSE, that would prevent the device from disconnecting and reconnecting to the Wi-Fi network? Is there an alternative approach to allow us to maintain a persistent network connection with the extension or app?

Our product (rockhawk.ca) uses the Multipeer Connectivity framework for peer-to-peer communication between multiple iOS/iPadOS devices. My understanding is that MC framework communicates via three methods: 1) infrastructure wifi (i.e. multiple iOS/iPadOS devices are connected to the same wifi network), 2) peer-to-peer wifi, or 3) Bluetooth. In my experience, I don't believe I've seen MC use Bluetooth. With wifi turned off on the devices, and Bluetooth turned on, no connection is established. With wifi on and Bluetooth off, MC works and I presume either infrastructure wifi (if available) or peer-to-peer wifi are used. I'm trying to overcome two issues: Over time (since iOS 9.x), the radio transmit strength for MC over peer-to-peer wifi has decreased to the point that range is unacceptable for our use case. We need at least 150 feet range. We would like to extend this support to watchOS and the MC framework is not available. Regarding #1, I'd like to confirm that if infrastructure wifi is available, MC uses it. If infrastructure wifi is not available, MC uses peer-to-peer wifi. If this is true, then we can assure our customers that if infrastructure wifi is available at the venue, then with all devices connected to it, range will be adequate. If infrastructure wifi is not available at the venue, perhaps a mobile wifi router (battery operated) could be set up, devices connected to it, then range would be adequate. We are about to test this. Reasonable? Can we be assured that if infrastructure wifi is available, MC uses it? Regarding #2, given we are targeting minimum watchOS 7.0, would the available networking APIs and frameworks be adequate to implement our own equivalent of the MC framework so our app on iOS/iPadOS and watchOS devices could communicate? How much work? Where would I start? I'm new to implementing networking but experienced in using the MC framework. I'm assuming that I would write the networking code to use infrastructure wifi to achieve acceptable range. Many thanks! Tim

Hello, We are facing an issue with performing a DTLS handshake when our iOS application is in the background. Our app (Vocera Collaboration Suite – VCS) uses secure DTLS-encrypted communication for incoming VoIP calls. Problem Summary: When the app is in the background and a VoIP PushKit notification arrives, we attempt to establish a DTLS handshake over our existing socket. However, the handshake consistently fails unless the app is already in the foreground. Once the app is foregrounded, the same DTLS handshake logic succeeds immediately. Key Questions: Is performing a DTLS handshake while the app is in the background technically supported by iOS? Or is this an OS-level limitation by design? If not supported, what is the Apple-recommended alternative to establish secure DTLS communication for VoIP flows without bringing the app to the foreground? Any guidance or clarification from Apple engineers or anyone who has solved a similar problem would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I've been wondering what is the memory limit for network extensions. Specifically, I'm using the NEPacketTunnelProvider extension point.The various posts on this forum mention 5 MB and 6 MB for 32-bit and 64-bit respectively. However I find that (at least on iOS 10) the upper limit seems to be 15 MB. Is this the new memory limit for extensions?

I was wondering if anybody knows if it's possible for an app to use a QR code to join a Wi-Fi network - the same functionality as the iOS 11 Camera app?I have some code reading a QR Code that looks something like - "WIFI:S:name-of-network;T:WPA;P:password;;"This QR code works perfectly in the native camera app - asking the user if they'd like to join the Wi-Fi network and successfully joining if they do.When I scan the QR code in my own code, I get the following error: canOpenURL: failed for URL: "WIFI:S:name-of-network;T:WPA;P:password;;" - error: "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -10814.)"In my app, I've got URL Schemes for "prefs" and have added "wifi" in LSApplicationQueriesSchemes.Am I doing something wrong, or is this simply not possible?If it's not possible, is there anyway to use the iOS native camera functionality within an app?

Hi, I've encountered a strange behavior in the DNS Proxy Provider extension. Our app implements both DNS Proxy Provider and Content Filter Providers extensions, configured via MDM. When the app is uninstalled, the behavior of the providers differs: For Content Filter Providers (both Filter Control and Filter Data Providers), the providers stop as expected with the stop reason: /** @const NEProviderStopReasonProviderDisabled The provider was disabled. */ case providerDisabled = 5 However, for the DNS Proxy Provider, the provider remains in the "Running" state, even though there is no app available to match the provider's bundle ID in the uploaded configuration profile. When the app is reinstalled: The Content Filter Providers start as expected. The DNS Proxy Provider stops with the stop reason: /** @const NEProviderStopReasonAppUpdate The NEProvider is being updated */ @available(iOS 13.0, *) case appUpdate = 16 At this point, the DNS Proxy Provider remains in an 'Invalid' state. Reinstalling the app a second time seems to resolve the issue, with both the DNS Proxy Provider and Content Filter Providers starting as expected. This issue seems to occur only if some time has passed after the DNS Proxy Provider entered the 'Running' state. It appears as though the system retains a stale configuration for the DNS Proxy Provider, even after the app has been removed. Steps to reproduce: Install the app and configure both DNS Proxy Provider and Content Filter Providers using MDM. Uninstall the app. Content Filter Providers are stopped as expected (NEProviderStopReason.providerDisabled = 5). DNS Proxy Provider remains in the 'Running' state. Reinstall the app. Content Filter Providers start as expected. DNS Proxy Provider stops with NEProviderStopReason.appUpdate (16) and remains 'Invalid'. Reinstall the app again. DNS Proxy Provider now starts as expected. This behavior raises concerns about how the system manages the lifecycle of DNS Proxy Provider, because DNS Proxy Provider is matched with provider bundle id in .mobileconfig file. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Any suggestions on how to address or debug this behavior would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

I encountered an undesired DNS behaviour when using L2TP/ipsec VPN. I have DHCP configured Wi-Fi connection, which send dns servers and search domain (192.168.0.10, lan) VPN sends its own DNS server (10.0.0.2), search domain (intranet) is added manually in VPN DNS config settings. I expect, when VPN is connected, to be still able to resolve local names, i.e some-host.lan. However, they become unresolvable. quick check shows that the remote dns server is used to resolve local names. shilishper@mac ~ % host -v some-host.lan Trying "some-host.lan" Host some-host.lan not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) Received 106 bytes from 10.0.0.2#53 in 16 ms Received 106 bytes from 10.0.0.2#53 in 16 ms Actually, all dns queries are going to the remote server. I would expect that only queries for the configured domain (intranet) should go to that server. I played with the service order, but it didn't change anything. Is anything can be done about this, programmatically? PS new to macOS, but have extensive linux knowledge

I've implemented a custom system extension VPN for macOS using Packet Tunnel Provider. The VPN is configured with on-demand, and a rule to always connect whenever there's traffic: onDemandRules = [NEOnDemandRuleConnect()] As expected, if the VPN isn't active, all traffic gets blocked until it is ready. Not expected: In the following scenario, there is some 'traffic leak': Use only WiFi (not wired cable) Connect the VPN Disable the WiFi and wait for the VPN to disconnect Enable the WiFi Some packets are routed outside the VPN, and aren't being blocked Some moments after, all traffic will be blocked, and the VPN will start the 'connecting' process. Is the above scenario a 'known' issue? Can it be a race condition in the OS, where some packets can be sent after the network is brought back before the VPN process starts? Is there any way to fix this problem? P.S: I'm not using flags such as 'capture all network'

In our App, we have a network extension with a NEAppPushProvider subclass running. We run the following steps Setup a dual-band wireless router per the following: Broadcasting 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channels Same SSID names for both channels Connected to the production network to the router DHCP assigning addresses in the 10.1.x.x network Connect the mobile device to the 5 GHz network (if needed, turn off the 2.4 GHz network temporarily; once the device connects to the 5 GHz network, the 2.4 GHz network can be turned back on). Create a NEAppPushManager in the App, using the SSID from the above mentioned network and set it to the matchSSIDs property. Call saveToPreferences() on the push manager to save. A. We have UI that shows the extension has been started and it has connected to the server successfully. Walk out of the range of the 5 GHz channel of the router, but stay within range of the 2.4ghz channel. Wait for the mobile device to connect to the 2.4 GHz channel. Expected: The extension would reconnect to the 2.4ghz network. Observed: The extension does not reconnect. Checking the logs for the extension we see that the following was called in the push provider subclass. stop(with:completionHandler:) > PID: 808 | 🗒️🛑 Stopped with reason 3: "noNetworkAvailable" The expectation is that start() on the NEAppPushProvider subclass would be called. Is this an incorrect expectation? How does the NEAppPushProvider handle same network SSID roaming among various band frequencies? I looked at the documentation and did not find any settings targeting 2.4 or 5 ghz networks. Please advise on what to do.

If an app has a text filtering extension and associated server that the iPhone OS communicates with, then how can that communication be authenticated? In other words, how can the server verify that the request is valid and coming from the iPhone and not from some spoofer? If somebody reverse engineers the associated domain urls our of the app's info.plist or entitlement files and calls the server url directly, then how can the server detect this has occurred and the request is not coming from the iPhone OS of a handset on which the app is installed?

When i try to set the value ‘false’ for ‘usesClassicLoadingMode’ it is getting crashed. The crash logs has been shared below Ex: let config = URLSessionConfiguration.default if #available(iOS 18.4, *) { config.usesClassicLoadingMode = false } Error log : *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFBoolean objectForKeyedSubscript:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1f655c390' *** First throw call stack: (0x188ae52ec 0x185f69a7c 0x188b4f67c 0x1889fcb84 0x1889fc4f0 0x191393bc8 0x1889ec8a0 0x1889ec6e4 0x191393ad0 0x191344dac 0x191344b58 0x107cfa064 0x107ce36d0 0x191343fcc 0x1891b3b18 0x1892dae58 0x189235c60 0x18921e270 0x18921d77c 0x18921a8ac 0x107ce0584 0x107cfa064 0x107ce891c 0x107ce95d8 0x107ceabcc 0x107cf5894 0x107cf4eb0 0x212f51660 0x212f4e9f8) terminating due to uncaught exception of type NSException Can you please provider the resolution steps

Hi, We have an issue (https://github.com/actions/runner-images/issues/10924) raised by a user requesting to add 'local network access' permission for macOS 15 and macOS 15-arm64 image runners. Apple introduced a new LNP policy with macOS Sequoia that is not controlled by TCC or MDM. Could you please guide us on how to add 'local network access' permission for macOS 15 and macOS 15-arm64 image runners? Thanks.

I have been using networking multicast permissions in my Xamarin application for UDP device discovery, and it has been working reliably for years. However, I am now encountering an issue specific to iPadOS 18.1 (potentially also iPadOS 18, though I haven’t tested this). The issue is that my app no longer requests the required network permission on devices running iPadOS 18.1. On the other hand, the app works perfectly on iPhone and iPadOS 17.7 without any problems. Has there been any change in the networking or permissions framework in iPadOS 18.1 that could cause this behavior? I would appreciate any guidance or insights to resolve this issue. Thank you for your assistance!

Hi, I’m urgently seeking assistance with an issue in my app development. The app allows users to control which domains are routed through my relay servers (six server URLs). However, I’ve encountered a problem: When a single relay configuration (for a single server URL) contains more than 70 domains, only one configuration can be active at a time. If I manually activate another relay configuration (for another server URL), the previously activated one automatically deactivates. Is there a way to overcome this limitation? Also, is there a maximum amount of domains that can exist across the per-app relays? I’m referencing the Apple documentation here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/relays Any guidance or insights into resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance :)