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.
General
RSS for tagPrioritize user privacy and data security in your app. Discuss best practices for data handling, user consent, and security measures to protect user information.
Selecting any option will automatically load the page
Post
Replies
Boosts
Views
Activity
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,
&keyError);
if (!privateKey && 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.
Quinn, in your post "App Groups: macOS vs iOS: Fight!", you mention that an app must meet at least one of four criteria to access an app group container without user intervention:
Your app is deployed via the Mac App Store (A).
Or via TestFlight when running on macOS 15.1 or later (B).
Or the app group ID starts with your app’s Team ID (C).
Or your app’s claim to the app group is authorised by a provisioning profile embedded in the app (D) [1].
Our app is distributed directly (Developer ID), so it doesn't meet the first two criteria. We already had the app group ID set up to match the iOS ID (without our Team ID) and changing it now would affect our users already-stored data, so criteria C isn't really an option either.
That brings us to criteria D. We've added the App Groups Capability to our App ID on the Developer site and creating a Developer ID provisioning profile with this App ID. However, for some reason the App Group Capability is not included in the provisioning profile.
How then do we go about satisfying criteria D ("your app’s claim to the app group is authorised by a provisioning profile embedded in the app (D)")?
If this is impossible, how can we migrate our user's data away from the affected container?
I have a custom NSWindow that I want to exclude from screen capture by setting its sharing state to kCGWindowSharingStateSharingNone. The goal is to prevent this window from appearing in the content captured by ScreenCaptureKit.
[window setSharingType:NSWindowSharingType::NSWindowSharingNone];
However, on macOS 15.4+ (Sequoia), the window is still captured by ScreenCaptureKit and appears in the shared content.
Does anyone know if kCGWindowSharingStateSharingNone is still effective with ScreenCaptureKit on macOS 15.4 and later?
I managed to lose my password in a mixup with my password manager. It has taken me a few hours to work out how to reset it. Following the forgotten password link on the sign in page only takes you to a point where you are asked to reset the password on your iCloud user id. If they are one and the same that's ok. Mine aren't.
I eventually found the answer:
in the settings app choose developer
2 scroll to the end and choose the sandbox apple account
3. choose this and reset
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!
I have a project with a single app target that serves two environments, and two schemes, one for each env, using xcconfig files for defining environment-specific stuff.
I'm trying to figure this out for months, so I've tried multiple approaches throughout this period:
Have a single domain in "Associated domains" in Xcode, defined as webcredentials:X where X gets replaced using a value from xcconfig.
Have two domain entries in "Associated domains" webcredentials:PROD_DOMAIN and webcredentials:STAGING_DOMAIN.
Have a different order of domains
Results are very interesting: whatever I do, whatever approach I take, password autofill works on staging, but doesn't work on production. I'm aware that we need to test production on Test Flight and AppStore builds. That's how we're testing it, and it's not working. Tested on multiple devices, on multiple networks (wifi + mobile data), in multiple countries.. you name it.
The server side team has checked their implementation a dozen times; it's all configured properly, in the exact same way across environments (except bundle ID, ofc).
We tried a couple websites for validating the apple-app-site-association file, and while all of those are focused on testing universal links, they all reported that the file is configured properly. Still, password autofill doesn't work.
I prefer not to share my app's domains publicly here. Ideally I would contact Apple Developer Support directly, but they now require a test project for that, and since 'a test project' is not applicable to my issue, I'm posting here instead.
Hello everyone.
Hope this one finds you well)
I have an issue with integrating a FIDO2 server with ASAuthorizationController.
I have managed to register a user with passkey successfully, however when authenticating, the request for authentication response fails. The server can't validate signature field.
I can see 2 possible causes for the issue: ASAuthorizationPlatformPublicKeyCredentialAssertion.rawAuthenticatorData contains invalid algorithm information (the server tries ES256, which ultimately fails with false response), or I have messed up Base64URL encoding for the signature property (which is unlikely, since all other fields also require Base64URL, and the server consumes them with no issues).
So the question is, what encryption algorithm does ASAuthorizationController use? Maybe someone has other ideas regarding where to look into?
Please help. Thanks)
Hi Guys,
I want to access items.data file
from this location
**/Library/Caches/com.apple.findmy.fmipcore/Items.data **
Can anyone hlep me how to decrypt this file as this is encrypted now.
Any help on this is highly appreciated.
I want to access my own airtag data and this is the only way i believe.
Thanks in advance.
Topic:
Privacy & Security
SubTopic:
General
I must be missing something. How can an iphone that is in lockdown mode, using ONLY data, no Bluetooth connected and only one singular iPhone have seven UNLISTED items on the local network in privacy and settings?
Hi ,
I have a requirement like,
Develop an app for iPad and app uses .net core apis.
App will be in kiosk mode, and app doesn't have any type of authentication even OTP also.
As the apis will be publishing to all over internet, how can we achieve security to apis?
Kindly provide suggestions for this implementation
Hi,
We are using the MSAL library to authenticate users, with SSO authentication implemented through the Microsoft Authenticator app.
The problem is that once or twice a day, a prompt for forced authentication appears, indicating that silent token acquisition is failing and resulting in a requirement for forced authentication. Below are some of the logs:
=================================================
2025-08-28 11:00:05.034 [Info] [AppDelegate.swift:121] application(:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) > MSAL message: TID=751353 MSAL 1.8.1 iOS 18.5 [2025-08-28 10:00:05 - EC9D1457-2D70-4878-926F-553391EBC9D3] [MSAL] Silent flow finished. Result (null), error: -51115 error domain: MSIDErrorDomain
2025-08-28 11:00:05.034 [Info] [AppDelegate.swift:121] application(:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) > MSAL message: TID=751353 MSAL 1.8.1 iOS 18.5 [2025-08-28 10:00:05 - EC9D1457-2D70-4878-926F-553391EBC9D3] [MSAL] acquireTokenSilent returning with error: (MSALErrorDomain, -50002) Masked(not-null)
====================================================
We initially raised this issue with Microsoft, but according to them:
In the app's logs, the single one failure it contains, was when the SSO extension returned the error com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError, -6000 during a silent call. This error code is generated by the system framework (Apple), not by our code. It indicates that the framework encountered an unexpected internal issue before or after calling the SSO extension.
MSAL returning interaction_required to the client app is the most effective way to recover from this error (as you mention, after the user selects the account the app continues working as expected).
Additionally, as you also mention, the interactive call is made by switching to Authenticator (not displaying a "window" without leaving Eva Lite app), which means MSAL is not able to use the SSO extension and is using the fallback to legacy authentication.
The recommended next step is for the customer to request support directly from Apple as this is an issue on their side. Additionally, the customer can also try to update to the latest iOS, in case Apple has already fixed this issue.
=============================================
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
There is no such steps its just that this is an enterprise application which is getting used on managed devices[iPhone 14]. The device are managed using some intune policy.
Platform and Version:
iOS
Development Environment: Xcode 15, macOS 13.6.1
Run-time Configuration: iOS 18
Please let me know if there are any solutions to resolve this problem. Thank you.
Recently, we received an user enquiry regarding the inability to perform bookings for the app.
After investigation, we found that the issue appears to be caused by the failure of the Apple DeviceCheck service.
Based on our checks, approximately 0.01% of requests fail each day (e.g., on 26 June: 6 failures out of 44,544 requests) when using Apple DeviceCheck.
Could you please assist in raising the following enquiries with Apple Support?
What is the typical failure rate of Apple DeviceCheck? Are there any reliability metrics or benchmarks for its performance?
How can the failures be prevented, or is there a recommended retry mechanism to handle such failures?
Does the iOS version affect the performance or reliability of Apple DeviceCheck? Are there known issues or limitations with specific iOS versions?
How long does the token remain valid, and when should a new one be retrieved?
Does using a jailbroken device affect the functionality of Apple DeviceCheck?
We have a macOS app that has a Photos Extension, which shares documents with the app via an app group container. Historically we used to have an iOS-style group identifier (group.${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}), because we were lead by the web interface in the developer portal to believe this to be the right way to name groups.
Later with the first macOS 15 betas last year there was a bug with the operating system warning users, our app would access data from different apps, but it was our own app group container directory.
Therefore we added a macOS-style group identifier (${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}) and wrote a migration of documents to the new group container directory.
So basically we need to have access to these two app group containers for the foreseeable future.
Now with the introduction of iOS-style group identifiers for macOS, Xcode Cloud no longer archives our app for TestFlight or AppStore, because it complains:
ITMS-90286: Invalid code signing entitlements - Your application bundle’s signature contains code signing entitlements that aren’t supported on macOS. Specifically, the “[group.${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}, ${TeamIdentifier}${groupName}]” value for the com.apple.security.application-groups key in isn’t supported. This value should be a string or an array of strings, where each string is the “group” value or your Team ID, followed by a dot (“.”), followed by the group name. If you're using the “group” prefix, verify that the provisioning profile used to sign the app contains the com.apple.security.application-groups entitlement and its associated value(s).
We have included the iOS-style group identifier in the provisioning profile, generated automatically, but can't do the same for the macOS-style group identifier, because the web interface only accepts identifiers starting with "group".
How can we get Xcode Cloud to archive our app again using both group identifiers?
Thanks in advance
I'm trying to setup device attestation. I believe I have everything setup correctly but the final step of signature validation never succeeds. I've added validation on the client side for debugging and it doesn't validate using CryptoKit.
After the assertion is created, I try to validate it:
assertion = try await DCAppAttestService.shared.generateAssertion(keyId, clientDataHash: clientDataHash)
await validateAssertionLocallyForDebugging(keyId: keyId, assertionObject: assertion, clientDataHash: clientDataHash)
In the validateAssertionLocallyForDebugging method, I extract all the data from the CBOR assertionObject and then setup the parameters to validate the signature, using the key that was created from the original attestation flow, but it fails every time. I'm getting the public key from the server using a temporary debugging API.
let publicKeyData = Data(base64Encoded: publicKeyB64)!
let p256PublicKey = try P256.Signing.PublicKey(derRepresentation: publicKeyData)
let ecdsaSignature = try P256.Signing.ECDSASignature(derRepresentation: signature)
let digestToVerify = SHA256.hash(data: authenticatorData + clientDataHash)
print(" - Recreated Digest to Verify: \(Data(digestToVerify).hexDescription)")
if p256PublicKey.isValidSignature(ecdsaSignature, for: digestToVerify) {
print("[DEBUG] SUCCESS: Local signature validation passed!")
} else {
print("[DEBUG] FAILED: Local signature validation failed.")
}
I have checked my .entitlements file and it is set to development. I have checked the keyId and verified the public key. I have verified the public key X,Y, the RP ID Hash, COSE data, and pretty much anything else I could think of. I've also tried using Gemini and Claude to debug this and that just sends me in circles of trying hashed, unhashed, and double hashed clientData. I'm doing this from Xcode on an M3 macbook air to an iPhone 16 Pro Max. Do you have any ideas on why the signature is not validating with everything else appears to be working?
Thanks
Hi folks
We have a Developer ID Application which we create using electron.
We made our last release for our Application on Nov'24 which was correctly working.
Using the same code, we tried creating a notarized application again which started showing the following error while opening our Application.
Monterey-
M2-
When we directly run the dmg on the dev machine, it does not give us the prompt. But if we download it from somewhere and run, the prompt comes up even in dev machine.
We executed some commands to verify the notarization:
1- spctl --assess -vv /Applications/Refresh\ Pro.app
On both dev machine and non-dev machine, the output was "accepted"
/Applications/Refresh Pro.app: accepted
source=Notarized Developer ID
origin=Developer ID Application: Prograde Digital Incorporated (*******)
2- xcrun stapler validate /Applications/Refresh\ Pro.app
On dev machine, we executed this command and the output is as follows.
Processing: /Applications/Refresh Pro.app
The validate action worked!
3- codesign -vvv --deep --strict /Applications/Refresh\ Pro.app/
/Applications/Refresh Pro.app: valid on disk
/Applications/Refresh Pro.app: satisfies its Designated Requirement
We have created a bug attaching the dmg. Please suggest anything we can try to make the release out the door.
Bug link- https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/feedback/16811025
We are using SecPKCS12Import C API in our application to import a self seigned public key certificate. We tried to run the application for the first time on Tahoe and it failed with OSStatus -26275 error.
The release notes didn't mention any deprecation or change in the API as per https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-26-release-notes.
Are we missing anything? There are no other changes done to our application.
Hello Apple Developer Support,
I am experiencing an issue with Apple Sign-In and Private Relay across two separate organizations.
I have a web application that supports Apple Sign-In, configured under organization ID: 62P86SVLK4. Users can log in using their Apple accounts with the Hide My Email (Private Relay) feature enabled. This web application was created a long time ago and initially only had a web component.
Recently, we developed a native mobile version of this application, which also supports Apple Sign-In. However, due to business constraints, the mobile application was created under a different organization ID: T6JT35U9NW.
The Issue
Since the web and mobile applications are registered under different organizations, accounts created using Apple Sign-In with Private Relay are not recognized across both applications.
For example:
A user creates an account in the web app using Apple Sign-In with Private Relay.
When they attempt to log in to the mobile app with Apple Sign-In (also using Private Relay), authentication fails because the generated Private Relay email addresses do not match between the two organizations.
Question
Is there any way to link Private Relay accounts across these two organizations so that users who signed up on the web application can log in to the mobile application seamlessly?
I appreciate any guidance on how to resolve this issue.
Best regards,
Kamil Gronert
Hello everyone,
We recently transferred our iOS app from one Apple Developer account to another, and after the transfer, we encountered a serious issue where all previously stored Keychain data and the local database became inaccessible.
As a result, all users are automatically logged out and lose access to their locally stored data (such as chat history) once they update to the new version signed with the new Team ID.
We understand that Keychain items are tied to the App ID prefix (Team ID), which changes during an app transfer. However, we’re looking for possible workarounds or best practices to avoid user data loss.
Questions:
Is there any reliable method to maintain or migrate access to old Keychain data after an app transfer?
Would reverting the app back to the original developer account and releasing an update from there (to persist or migrate data) before transferring it again be a viable solution?
Has anyone faced a similar issue and found a practical way to handle data persistence during an app transfer?
Any guidance, technical suggestions, or shared experiences would be highly appreciated. This issue is causing major impact for our users, so we’re hoping to find a safe and supported approach.
Thank you,
Mohammed Hassan
Hi,
A user logs in to the file vault, and DisableFDEAutoLogin is false. The file vault login succeeds, but the login to the selected user fails. The user gets the login screen again. If the user puts an invalid password to try and login again, the loginwindow:FDESupport plugin will change the user's password to the invalid one.