Hi,is there an option to mark the file or folder or item stored in user defaults ... not to be backed up when doing unencrypted backup in iTunes?We are developing iOS app that contains sensitive data. But even if we enable Data Protection for the iOS app it can be backed up on mac unencrypted using iTunes. Is there a way to allow backing up content only if the backup is encrypted?

Due to business requirements, we need to transfer our app Gem Space for iOS from our current Apple Developer account to a new account. We have a major concern regarding our users and the data associated with the app. The user data is currently stored using an App Group with the identifier, for example: "group.com.app.sharedData" According to some information we’ve found, it might be possible to complete the transfer by removing the App Group from the old account and creating a new one with the same identifier in the new account. However, other sources suggest that App Group containers are owned by the specific team, and data stored in the container may become inaccessible after the app is transferred to a different team. This raises concerns about the possibility of users losing access to their data after updating the app from the new account. Could you please clarify the expected behavior of App Groups in this case? Do we need to perform any kind of data migration, and if so, could you please provide detailed guidance on how to do it safely and without impacting user data access?

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

I am developing a sample authorization plugin to sync the user’s local password to the network password. During the process, I prompt the user to enter both their old and new passwords in custom plugin. After the user enters the information, I use the following code to sync the passwords: try record.changePassword(oldPssword, toPassword: newPassword) However, I have noticed that this is clearing all saved keychain information, such as web passwords and certificates. Is it expected behavior for record.changePassword to clear previously stored keychain data? If so, how can I overcome this issue and ensure the keychain information is preserved while syncing the password? Thank you for your help!

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

The header documentation for the (deprecated) LAContext.evaluatedPolicyDomainState property contains the following: @warning Please note that the value returned by this property can change exceptionally between major OS versions even if the state of biometry has not changed. I noticed that the documentation for the new LAContext.domainState property does not contain a similar warning. I also found this related thread from 2016/17. Is the domainState property not susceptible to changes between major OS versions? Or is this generally not an issue anymore?

I need to open p12 file from other iOS applications to import private key to my application. My app is set up to be able to open nay file with following plist <?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>CFBundleDocumentTypes</key> <array> <dict> <key>CFBundleTypeName</key> <string>Files</string> <key>LSHandlerRank</key> <string>Default</string> <key>LSItemContentTypes</key> <array> <string>public.item</string> <string>public.data</string> <string>public.content</string> </array> </dict> </array> </dict> </plist> But my don't appear in share dialog from Files or Mail app for example. There are however other third party apps that can accept this file. Some of them use Share extension which I don't have, but some of them don't have it as far as I can understand. At least they don't present any UI and open apps directly. Also I've tried to specify com.rsa.pkcs-12 UTI directly but it didn't help. Also noticed that *.crt files have similar behaviour. Am I missing something about this specific file type?

I am getting the following errors. The app used to work and now does not, even without any code changes. Any thoughts on resolving this issue? Authorization failed: Error Domain=AKAuthenticationError Code=-7026 "(null)" Us erInfo={AKClientBundleID=<bundleid>} LaunchServices: store (null) or url (null) was nil: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-54 "process may not map database" Us erInfo={NSDebugDescription=process may not map database, _LSLine=72, _LSFunction=_LSServer_GetServerStoreForConnectionWithCompletionHandler} Attempt to map database failed: permission was denied. This attempt will not be retried. Failed to initialize client context with error Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-54 "process may not map database" Us erInfo={NSDebugDescription=process may not map database, _LSLine=72, _LSFunction=_LSServer_GetServerStoreForConnectionWithCompletionHandler} Failed to get application extension record: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-54 "(null)" ASAuthorizationController credential request failed with error: Error Domain=com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError Code=1000 "(null)"

What Has Been Implemented Replaced the default loginwindow:login with a custom authorization plugin. The plugin: Performs primary OTP authentication. Displays a custom password prompt. Validates the password using Open Directory (OD) APIs. Next Scenario was handling password change Password change is simulated via: sudo pwpolicy -u robo -setpolicy "newPasswordRequired=1" On next login: Plugin retrieves the old password. OD API returns kODErrorCredentialsPasswordChangeRequired. Triggers a custom change password window to collect and set new password. Issue Observed : After changing password: The user’s login keychain resets. Custom entries under the login keychain are removed. We have tried few solutions Using API, SecKeychainChangePassword(...) Using CLI, security set-keychain-password -o oldpwd -p newpwd ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db These approaches appear to successfully change the keychain password, but: On launching Keychain Access, two password prompts appear, after authentication, Keychain Access window doesn't appear (no app visibility). Question: Is there a reliable way (API or CLI) to reset or update the user’s login keychain password from within the custom authorization plugin, so: The keychain is not reset or lost. Keychain Access works normally post-login. The password update experience is seamless. Thank you for your help and I appreciate your time and consideration

Hello Experts, I am in need of your help with this feedback from the App Reviewer. Issue Description: One or more purpose strings in the app do not sufficiently explain the use of protected resources. Purpose strings must clearly and completely describe the app's use of data and, in most cases, provide an example of how the data will be used. Next Steps: Update the location purpose string to explain how the app will use the requested information and provide a specific example of how the data will be used. See the attached screenshot. Resources: Purpose strings must clearly describe how an app uses the ability, data, or resource. The following are hypothetical examples of unclear purpose strings that would not pass review: "App would like to access your Contacts" "App needs microphone access" Feedback #2 "Regarding 5.1.1, we understand why your app needs access to location. However, the permission request alert does not sufficiently explain this to your users before accessing the location. To resolve this issue, it would be appropriate to revise the location permission request, specify why your app needs access, and provide an example of how your app will use the user's data. To learn more about purpose string requirements, watch a video from App Review with tips for writing clear purpose strings. We look forward to reviewing your app once the appropriate changes have been made." May I know how can I update my purpose string? I appealed on the first feedback by explaining what is the purpose of it but got the Feedback #2. TYIA!!

Hi Team, We are trying to understand deep sleep behaviour, can you please help us clarifying on the below questions: When will we configure Hibernate 25, is it valid for M series MacBooks? Is Hibernate 25 called deep sleep mode? What are the settings I need to do on Mac, to make my Mac go in to deep sleep? When awakening from deep sleep , what would be macOS system behaviour? If we have custom SFAuthorization plug in at system.login.screensaver, what would be the behaviour with deep sleep?

I had the following code in a program that I used to encrypt some important files. I haven't run it in a few years. It used to work, and now it seems the password is mysteriously gone from my Keychain! The return value is now errSecItemNotFound. I'm upset with myself for not backing up the key/password somewhere else. Is there anywhere this could be hiding? Did Apple move it somewhere? I know they created this "Passwords" app in recent years, but I don't see anything in there with the "account" string I used. I run the app from Xcode, so maybe it is in the "container" data somewhere? I do see keychain files under ~/Library. Maybe there is a way to look through old Time Machine backups. Ug. So stressful. Just looking for pointers on where the data might be, and why it might have disappeared. Unfortunately it was not a "guessable" password, it was a generated 256 bit key, base64 encoded. Perhaps I could crack that with brute force if I'm determined enough... public static func queryGenericPasswordAsString(account: String) throws -> String { let query: [String: Any] = [kSecClass as String: kSecClassGenericPassword, kSecMatchLimit as String: kSecMatchLimitOne, kSecAttrAccount as String: account, kSecReturnAttributes as String: true, kSecReturnData as String: true] var item: CFTypeRef? let status = SecItemCopyMatching(query as CFDictionary, &item) guard status != errSecItemNotFound else { throw KeychainError.noPassword } ... }

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.

Hello, We’ve resumed the migration process after a break. Since my colleague is no longer with us, I had to go through the steps again myself. As before, we’re trying to migrate "Sign In with Apple" users from tenant TENANT_A with client_id=CLIENT_ID_A to tenant TENANT_B with client_id=CLIENT_ID_B I followed the procedure described here: [Apple Developer Documentation](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/technotes/tn3159-migrating-sign-in-with-apple-users-for-an-app-transfer – Migrating Sign In with Apple Users, essentially repeating what my coworker previously attempted in coordination with your employee Stephanie. Here’s a summary of the steps and the issue we’re facing: STEP 1 - get authcode for TEAM A curl --location 'https://appleid.apple.com/auth/token' --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' --data-urlencode 'grant_type=client_credentials' --data-urlencode 'scope=user.migration' --data-urlencode 'client_id=pl.CLIEND_ID_A' --data-urlencode 'client_secret=<TEAM_A_SECRET>' I receive response: { "access_token": "<ACCESS_TOKEN_TEAM_A>", "token_type": "Bearer", "expires_in": 3600 } STEP 2 - get authcode for TEAB B curl --location 'https://appleid.apple.com/auth/token' --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' --data-urlencode 'grant_type=client_credentials' --data-urlencode 'scope=user.migration' --data-urlencode 'client_id=CLIENT_ID_B' --data-urlencode 'client_secret=<TEAB_B_SECRET>' I receive response: { "access_token":"<ACCESS_TOKEN_TEAB_B>", "token_type": "Bearer", "expires_in": 3600 } STEP 3 - get transfer_sub from TEAM A curl --location 'https://appleid.apple.com/auth/usermigrationinfo' --header 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN_TEAM_A>' --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' --data-urlencode 'client_id=CLIENT_ID_A' --data-urlencode 'client_secret=<TEAM_A_SECRET>' --data-urlencode 'sub=USER_SUB_FROM_TEAM_A' --data-urlencode 'target=TENANT_B' I receive response: { "transfer_sub": "USER_SUB_FROM_TEAM_B" } STEP 4 - Team B exchanges transfer identifers curl --location 'https://appleid.apple.com/auth/usermigrationinfo' --header 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN_TEAM_B' --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' --data-urlencode 'client_id=CLIENT_ID_B' --data-urlencode 'client_secret=<TEAM_B_SECRET>' I receive response: { "error": "invalid_request" } We’ve created a new client_id under tenant B and want to migrate users there. However, we skipped the step described in Step 3 of the documentation(https://developer.apple.com/documentation/technotes/tn3159-migrating-sign-in-with-apple-users-for-an-app-transfer#3-Team-A-initiates-app-transfer-to-Team-B), which involves initiating an app transfer. The reason is that this client_id is used solely for web authentication, not for a mobile app, so we don’t have an app to transfer. Based on our analysis and your documentation, it seems this flow only works if the client_id matches across both tenants, which can only be achieved through an app transfer, something we cannot proceed with. Apple previously insisted that we migrate these users, but as shown above, we’re stuck. Is there any alternative flow available, or can you assist us in completing this migration?

With Let's Encrypt having completely dropped support for OCSP recently [1], I wanted to ask if macOS has a means of keeping up to date with their CRLs and if so, roughly how often this occurs? I first observed an issue where a revoked-certificate test site, "revoked.badssl.com" (cert signed by Let's Encrypt), was not getting blocked on any browser, when a revocation policy was set up using the SecPolicyCreateRevocation API, in tandem with the kSecRevocationUseAnyAvailableMethod and kSecRevocationPreferCRL flags. After further investigation, I noticed that even on a fresh install of macOS, Safari does not block this test website, while Chrome and Firefox (usually) do, due to its revoked certificate. Chrome and Firefox both have their own means of dealing with CRLs, while I assume Safari uses the system Keychain and APIs. I checked cert info for the site here [2]. It was issued on 2025-07-01 20:00 and revoked an hour later. [1] https://letsencrypt.org/2024/12/05/ending-ocsp/ [2] https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=revoked.badssl.com

I am working on implementing mTLS authentication in my iOS app (Apple Inhouse &amp; intune MAM managed app). The SCEP client certificate is deployed on the device via Intune MDM. When I try accessing the protected endpoint via SFSafariViewController/ASWebAuthenticationSession, the certificate picker appears and the request succeeds. However, from within my app (using URLSessionDelegate), the certificate is not found (errSecItemNotFound). The didReceive challenge method is called, but my SCEP certificate is not found in the app. The certificate is visible under Settings &gt; Device Management &gt; SCEP Certificate. How can I make my iOS app access and use the SCEP certificate (installed via Intune MDM) for mTLS requests? Do I need a special entitlement, keychain access group, or configuration in Intune or Developer account to allow my app to use the certificate? Here is the sample code I am using: final class KeychainCertificateDelegate: NSObject, URLSessionDelegate { func urlSession(_ session: URLSession, didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge, completionHandler: @escaping (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) -&gt; Void) { guard challenge.protectionSpace.authenticationMethod == NSURLAuthenticationMethodClientCertificate else { completionHandler(.performDefaultHandling, nil) return } // Get the DNs the server will accept guard let expectedDNs = challenge.protectionSpace.distinguishedNames else { completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil) return } var identityRefs: CFTypeRef? = nil let err = SecItemCopyMatching([ kSecClass: kSecClassIdentity, kSecMatchLimit: kSecMatchLimitAll, kSecMatchIssuers: expectedDNs, kSecReturnRef: true, ] as NSDictionary, &amp;identityRefs) if err != errSecSuccess { completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil) return } guard let identities = identityRefs as? [SecIdentity], let identity = identities.first else { print("Identity list is empty") completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil) return } let credential = URLCredential(identity: identity, certificates: nil, persistence: .forSession) completionHandler(.useCredential, credential) } } func perform_mTLSRequest() { guard let url = URL(string: "https://sample.com/api/endpoint") else { return } var request = URLRequest(url: url) request.httpMethod = "POST" request.setValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept") request.setValue("Bearer \(bearerToken)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization") let delegate = KeychainCertificateDelegate() let session = URLSession(configuration: .ephemeral, delegate: delegate, delegateQueue: nil) let task = session.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in guard let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse, (200...299).contains(httpResponse.statusCode) else { print("Bad response") return } if let data = data { print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!) } } task.resume() }

Hi, I was testing the lockdown mode in iOS 16 and would like to know whether we can detect the lockdown mode status using any public API that Apple provides. I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Our desktop app for macos will be released in 2 channels appstore dmg package on our official website for users to download and install Now when we debug with passkey, we find that the package name of the appstore can normally arouse passkey, but the package name of the non-App Store can not arouse the passkey interface I need your help. Thank you

Hi, I am developing an app that checks if biometric authentication capabilities (Face ID and Touch ID) are available on a device. I have a few questions: Do I need to include a privacy string in my app to use the LAContext's canEvaluatePolicy function? This function checks if biometric authentication is available on the device, but does not actually trigger the authentication. From my testing, it seems like a privacy declaration is only required when using LAContext's evaluatePolicy function, which would trigger the biometric authentication. Can you confirm if this is the expected behavior across all iOS versions and iPhone models? When exactly does the biometric authentication permission pop-up appear for users - is it when calling canEvaluatePolicy or evaluatePolicy? I want to ensure my users have a seamless experience. Please let me know if you have any insights on these questions. I want to make sure I'm handling the biometric authentication functionality correctly in my app. Thank you!

Hi Forum, We’re building a security-focused SDK for iOS that includes SIM Binding and SIM Swap detection to help prevent fraud and unauthorised device access, particularly in the context of banking and fintech apps. We understand that iOS limits access to SIM-level data, and that previously available APIs (such as those in CoreTelephony, now deprecated from iOS 16 onwards) provide only limited support for these use cases. We have a few questions and would appreciate any guidance from the community or Apple engineers: Q1. Are there any best practices or Apple-recommended approaches for binding a SIM to a device or user account? Q2. Is there a reliable way to detect a SIM swap when the app is not running (e.g., via system callback, entitlement, or background mechanism)? Q3. Are fields like GID1, GID2, or ICCID accessible through any public APIs or entitlements (such as com.apple.coretelephony.IdentityAccess)? If so, what is the process to request access? Q4. For dual SIM and eSIM scenarios, is there a documented approach to identify which SIM is active or whether a SIM slot has changed? Q5. In a banking or regulated environment, is it possible for an app vendor (e.g., a bank) to acquire certain entitlements from Apple and securely expose that information to a security SDK like ours? What would be the compliant or recommended way to structure such a partnership? Thanks in advance for any insights!