Description Enterprise users are experiencing VPN resource access failures after upgrading to macOS Tahoe. Investigation indicates that configd (specifically IPMonitor) is incorrectly re-ranking network interfaces after a connectivity failure with probe server. This results in DNS queries routing through the physical network adapter (en0) instead of the VPN virtual adapter, even while the tunnel is active. This behaviour is not seen in previous macOS versions. Steps to Reproduce: Connect to an enterprise VPN (e.g., Ivanti Secure Access). Trigger a transient network condition where the Apple probe server is unreachable. For example make the DNS server down for 30 sec. Observe the system routing DNS queries for internal resources to the physical adapter. Expected Results The: VPN virtual interface should maintain its primary rank for enterprise DNS queries regardless of the physical adapter's probe status. Actual Results: IPMonitor detects an UplinkIssue, deprioritizes the VPN interface, and elevates the physical adapter to a higher priority rank. Technical Root Cause & Logs: The system logs show IPMonitor identifying an issue and modifying the interface priority at 16:03:54: IPMonitor Detection: The process identifies an inability to reach the Apple probe server and marks en0 with an advisory: Log snippet 2026-01-06 16:03:53.956399+0100 localhost configd[594]: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] configd[594] SetInterfaceAdvisory(en0) = UplinkIssue (2) reason='unable to reach probe server' Interface Re-ranking: Immediately following, IPMonitor recalculates the rank, placing the physical service ID at a higher priority (lower numerical rank) than the VPN service ID (net.pulsesecure...): Log snippet 2026-01-06 16:03:53.967935+0100 localhost configd[594]: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] 0. en0 serviceID=50CD9266-B097-4664-BFE6-7BAFCC5E9DC0 addr=192.168.0.128 rank=0x200000d 2026-01-06 16:03:53.967947+0100 localhost configd[594]: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] 1. en0 serviceID=net.pulsesecure.pulse.nc.main addr=192.168.0.128 rank=0x2ffffff 3.Physical adapter Is selected as Primary Interface: 2026-01-06 16:03:53.968145+0100 localhost configd[594]: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] 50CD9266-B097-4664-BFE6-7BAFCC5E9DC0 is the new primary IPv4 configd[594]: 50CD9266-B097-4664-BFE6-7BAFCC5E9DC0 is the new primary DNS Packet Trace Evidence Wireshark confirms that DNS queries for enterprise-specific DNS servers are being originated from the physical IP (192.168.0.128) instead of the virtual adapter: Time: 16:03:54.084 Source: 192.168.0.128 (Physical Adapter) Destination: 172.29.155.115 (Internal VPN DNS Server) Result: Connectivity Failure (Queries sent outside the tunnel)

I have added a Network Extension to my iOS project to use the WireGuard library. Everything was working fine up to Xcode 16, but after updating, I’m facing a build issue. The build fails with the following error: No such file or directory: '@rpath/WireGuardNetworkExtensioniOS.debug.dylib' I haven’t explicitly added any .dylib to my project. The Network Extension target builds and runs fine on Xcode 16.

Hello, I've been experimenting with the new NEURLFilter API and so far the results are kind of strange. SimpleURLFilter sample contains a bloom filter that seems to be built from this dataset in pir-service-example. I was able to run SimpleURLFilter sample and configure it to use PIRService from the example repo. I also observed the requests that iOS has been sending: requesting config and then sending /queries request. What I haven't seen is any .deny verdict for any URL. Even when calling NEURLFilter.verdict(for: url) directly I cannot see a .deny verdict. Is there anything wrong with the sample or is there a known issue with NEURLFilter in the current beta (beta 8) that prevents it from working?

We are developing a macOS VPN application using NEPacketTunnelProvider with a custom encryption protocol. We are using standard On-Demand VPN rules with Wi-Fi SSID matching but we want to add some additional feature to the native behaviour.  We want to control the 'conenect/disconnect' button status and allow the user to interact with the tunnel even when the on demand rule conditions are satisfied, is there a native way to do it? In case we need to implement our custom on-demand behaviour we need to access to this information: connected interface type ssid name and being informed when it changes so to trigger our logic, how to do it from the app side? we try to use CWWiFiClient along with ssidDidChangeForWiFiInterface monitoring, it returns just the interface name en0 and not the wifi ssid name. Is location access mandatory to access wifi SSID on macOS even if we have a NEPacketTunnelProvider? Please note that we bundle our Network Extension as an App Extension (not SystemExtension).

I was excited to find out about Wi-Fi Aware in i[Pad]OS 26 and was eager to experiment with it. But after wiping and updating two devices (an iPhone 11 Pro and a 2018 11" iPad Pro) to Beta 1 I found out that neither of them support Wi-Fi Aware 🙁. What current and past iPhone and iPad models support Wi-Fi Aware? And is there a new UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key for it, to indicate that an app requires a Wi-Fi Aware capable device?

I added a Content Filter to my app, and when running it in Xcode (Debug/Release), I get the expected permission prompt: "Would like to filter network content (Allow / Don't Allow)". However, when I install the app via TestFlight, this prompt doesn’t appear at all, and the feature doesn’t work. Is there a special configuration required for TestFlight? Has anyone encountered this issue before? Thanks!

When setting up a packet tunnel with a profile that has includeAllNetworks set to true, we seemingly cannot send any traffic inside the tunnel using any kind of an API. We've tried using BSD sockets, as we ping a host only reachable within the tunnel to establish whether we have connectivity - this does not work. When using NWConnection from the Network framework and specifying the required interface via virtualInterface from the packet tunnel, the connection state never reaches ready. Our interim solution is to, as ridiculous as it sounds, include a whole userspace networking stack so we can produce valid TCP packets just to send into our own tunnel. We require a TCP connection within our own tunnel to do some configuration during tunnel setup. Is there no better solution?

Hello Apple Support Team, We are experiencing a performance issue with HTTP/3 in our iOS application during testing. Problem Description: Network requests using HTTP/3 are significantly slower than expected. This issue occurs on both Wi-Fi and 4G networks, with both IPv4 and IPv6. The same setup worked correctly in an earlier experiment. Key Observations: The slowdown disappears when the device uses: · A personal hotspot. · Network Link Conditioner (with no limitations applied). · Internet sharing from a MacBook via USB (where traffic was also inspected with Wireshark without issues). The problem is specific to HTTP/3 and does not occur with HTTP/2. The issue is reproducible on iOS 15, 18.7, and the latest iOS 26 beta. HTTP/3 is confirmed to be active (via assumeHttp3Capable and Alt-Svc header). Crucially, the same backend endpoint works with normal performance on Android devices and using curl with HTTP/3 support from the same network. I've checked the CFNetwork logs in the Console but haven't found any suspicious errors or obvious clues that explain the slowdown. We are using a standard URLSession with basic configuration. Attempted to collect qlog diagnostics by setting the QUIC_LOG_DIRECTORY=~/ tmp environment variable, but the logs were not generated. Question: What could cause HTTP/3 performance to improve only when the device is connected through a hotspot, unrestricted Network Link Conditioner, or USB-tethered connection? The fact that Android and curl work correctly points to an issue specific to the iOS network stack. Are there known conditions or policies (e.g., related to network interface handling, QoS, or specific packet processing) that could lead to this behavior? Additionally, why might the qlog environment variable fail to produce logs, and are there other ways to obtain detailed HTTP/3 diagnostic information from iOS? Any guidance on further diagnostic steps or specific system logs to examine would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your assistance.

We are developing an iOS application that is interacting with HTTP APIs that requires us to put a unique UUID (a nonce) as an header on every request (obviously there's more than that, but that's irrilevant to the question here). If the same nonce is sent on two subsequent requests the server returns a 412 error. We should avoid generating this kind of errors as, if repeated, they may be flagged as a malicious activity by the HTTP APIs. We are using URLSession.shared.dataTaskPublisher(for: request) to call the HTTP APIs with request being generated with the unique nonce as an header. On our field tests we are seeing a few cases of the same HTTP request (same nonce) being repeated a few seconds on after the other. Our code has some retry logic only on 401 errors, but that involves a token refresh, and this is not what we are seeing from logs. We were able to replicate this behaviour on our own device using Network Link Conditioner with very bad performance, with XCode's Network inspector attached we can be certain that two HTTP requests with identical headers are actually made automatically, the first request has an "End Reason" of "Retry", the second is "Success" with Status 412. Our questions are: can we disable this behaviour? can we provide a new request for the retry (so that we can update headers)? Thanks, Francesco

My company has a server that supports ticket-based TLS session resumption (per RFC 5077). We have done Wireshark captures that show that our iOS client app, which uses URLSession for REST and WebSocket connections to the server, is not sending the TLS "session_ticket" extension in the Client Hello package that necessary to enable ticket-based resumption with the server. Is it expected that URLSession does not support ticket-based TLS session resumption? If "yes", is there any way to tell URLSession to enable ticket-based session resumption? the lower-level API set_protocol_options_set_tls_tickets_enabled() hints that the overall TLS / HTTP stack on IOS does support ticket-based resumption, but I can't see how to use that low-level API with URLSession. I can provide (lots) more technical details if necessary, but hopefully this is enough context to determine whether ticket-based TLS resumption is supported with URLSession. Any tips / clarifications would be greatly appreciated.

Recently, my application was having trouble sending udp messages after it was reinstalled. The cause of the problem was initially that I did not grant local network permissions when I reinstalled, I was aware of the problem, so udp worked fine after I granted permissions. However, the next time I repeat the previous operation, I also do not grant local network permissions, and then turn it back on in the Settings, and udp does not work properly (no messages can be sent, the system version and code have not changed). Fortunately, udp worked after rebooting the phone, and more importantly, I was able to repeat the problem many times. So I want to know if the process between when I re-uninstall the app and deny local network permissions, and when I turn it back on in Settings, is that permissions have been granted normally, and not fake, and not required a reboot to reset something for udp to take effect. I'm not sure if it's the system, or if it's a similar situation as described here, hopefully that will help me find out

Greetings.I have an app today that uses multipeer connectivity extensively. Currently, when the user switches away from the app, MPC disconnects the session(s) - this is by design apparently (per other feedback). I'd like to hear if anyone has experimented with iOS9 multitasking / multipeer and whether MPC sessions can stay alive?Thanks

I've had a Unreal Engine project that uses libwebsocket to make a websocket connection with SSL to a server. Recently I made a build using Unreal Engine 5.4.4 on MacOS Sequoia 15.5 and XCode 16.4 and for some reason the websocket connection now fails because it can't get the local issuer certificate. It fails to access the root certificate store on my device (Even though, running the project in the Unreal Editor works fine, it's only when making a packaged build with XCode that it breaks) I am not sure why this is suddenly happening now. If I run it in the Unreal editor on my macOS it works fine and connects. But when I make a packaged build which uses XCode to build, it can't get the local issuer certificate. I tried different code signing options, such as sign to run locally or just using sign automatically with a valid team, but I'm not sure if code signing is the cause of this issue or not. This app is only for development and not meant to be published, so that's why I had been using sign to run locally, and that used to work fine but not anymore. Any guidance would be appreciated, also any information on what may have changed that now causes this certificate issue to happen. I know Apple made changes and has made notarizing MacOS apps mandatory, but I'm not sure if that also means a non-notarized app will now no longer have access to the root certificate store of a device, in my research I haven't found anything about that specifically, but I'm wondering if any Apple engineers might know something about this that hasn't been put out publicly.

Eager to see the Wi-Fi Aware communication between iPhone (iOS 26) and an Android device, I tried iOS 26 beta on my iPhone16. and tried below code snippet from provided example at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/wifiaware/building-peer-to-peer-apps. Idea is to first verify discovery of Android WiFiAware service on iOS. extension WAPublishableService { public static var simulationService: WAPublishableService { allServices[simulationServiceName]! } } extension WASubscribableService { public static var simulationService: WASubscribableService { allServices[simulationServiceName]! } } struct ContentView: View { @State private var showingDevicePicker = false @State private var pairedDevices: [WAPairedDevice] = [] // To hold discovered/paired devices var body: some View { VStack { Button("Discover Devices") { showingDevicePicker = true // Trigger the device picker presentation } .sheet(isPresented: $showingDevicePicker) { DevicePicker(.wifiAware(.connecting(to: .selected([]), from: .simulationService))) { endpoint in print("Paired Endpoint: \(endpoint)") } label: { Image(systemName: "plus") Text("Add Device") } fallback: { Image(systemName: "xmark.circle") Text("Unavailable") } } List(pairedDevices) { device in Text(device.name ?? "Unknown Device") } } } } With suggested entitlement of WiFiAware and info.plist of service info. Then I had Android device with WIFiAware service publishing service (service name set '_sat-simulation._udp') from this app https://github.com/anagramrice/NAN. But above iOS app is unable to find the service published from android device. Am I missing something? Note: the above Android-NAN app seems to be working fine between Android to Another Android.

I have written the Transparent App Proxy and can capture the network flow and send it to my local server. I want to avoid any processing on the traffic outgoing from my server and establish a connection with a remote server, but instead of connecting to the remote server, it again gets captured and sent back to my local server. I am not getting any clue on how to ignore these flows originating from my server. Any pointers, API, or mechanisms that will help me?

I have a network extension that hosts a NEFilterDataProvider & NETransparentProxyProvider. One of the use case that this caters to is : Proxy some flows (depending on originating app) while Content filter is also filtering flows based on business logic. The issue I am running into happens when FilterDataProvider sees a flow & responds with filterDataVerdict(withFilterInbound: false, peekInboundBytes: 0, filterOutbound: true, peekOutboundBytes:1024 to handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEFilterFlow) [wants to peek more bytes on outbound connection before making a decision] TransparentProxyProvider sees the flow & responds with NO to handleNewFlow(_ flow: NEAppProxyFlow) as it is not interested in in proxying that flow. When this occurs, we see connection being dropped by kernel. I wanted to know if this is expected behavior. Logs when this occurs: 2026-02-06 14:57:09.725854-0600 0x17c918f Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (NetworkExtension) [com.apple.networkextension:] [Extension com.test.network]: provider rejected new flow TCP headless_shell[{length = 20, bytes = 0xe69023e655b6065e1a2f94fa508807fa43f6ac8a}] remote: 100.72.0.3:443 interface utun9 2026-02-06 14:57:09.725874-0600 0x17ca166 Debug 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (NetworkExtension) [com.apple.networkextension:] New flow verdict for D89B5B5D-793C-4940-D955-37BE33F18005: drop = NO remediate = NO needRules = NO shouldReport = YES pause = NO urlAppendString = NO filterInbound = NO peekInboundBytes = 0 filterOutbound = YES peekOutboundBytes = 1024 statisticsReportFrequency = low 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726009-0600 0x17ca24a Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Closing reads (sending SHUT_WR), closed by plugin (flow error: 0) 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726028-0600 0x17ca24a Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Closing writes, sending SHUT_RD 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726040-0600 0x17ca24a Debug 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Dropping the director 2026-02-06 14:57:09.726047-0600 0x17ca24a Default 0x0 569 0 com.test.networkextension: (libnetworkextension.dylib) [com.apple.networkextension:] (410011084): Destroying, client tx 0, client rx 0, kernel rx 0, kernel tx 0 I wanted to know how neagent is handling this when for a flow, filterDataProvider wants to look at the traffic while transparentProxy is not interested in handling that flow

We have a VPN app that uses NEPacketTunnelProvider with includeAllNetworks = true. We've encountered an issue where push notifications are not delivered over Wi-Fi while the tunnel is active in a pre-MFA quarantine state (tunnel is up but traffic is blocked on server side), regardless of whether excludeAPNS is set to true or false. Observed behavior Wi-Fi excludeAPNS = true - Notifications not delivered Wi-Fi excludeAPNS = false - Notifications not delivered Cellular excludeAPNS = true - Notifications delivered Cellular excludeAPNS = false - Notifications not delivered On cellular, the behavior matches our expectations: setting excludeAPNS = true allows APNS traffic to bypass the tunnel and notifications arrive; setting it to false routes APNS through the tunnel and notifications are blocked (as expected for a non-forwarding tunnel). On Wi-Fi, notifications fail to deliver in both cases. Our question Is this expected behavior when includeAllNetworks is enabled on Wi-Fi, or is this a known issue / bug with APNS delivery? Is there something else in the Wi-Fi networking path that includeAllNetworks affects beyond routing, which could prevent APNS from functioning even when the traffic is excluded from the tunnel? Sample Project Below is the minimal code that reproduces this issue. The project has two targets: a main app and a Network Extension. The tunnel provider captures all IPv4 and IPv6 traffic via default routes but does not forward packets — simulating a pre-MFA quarantine state. The main app configures the tunnel with includeAllNetworks = true and provides a UI toggle for excludeAPNS. PacketTunnelProvider.swift (Network Extension target): import NetworkExtension class PacketTunnelProvider: NEPacketTunnelProvider { override func startTunnel(options: [String : NSObject]?, completionHandler: @escaping (Error?) -> Void) { let settings = NEPacketTunnelNetworkSettings(tunnelRemoteAddress: "127.0.0.1") let ipv4 = NEIPv4Settings(addresses: ["198.51.100.1"], subnetMasks: ["255.255.255.0"]) ipv4.includedRoutes = [NEIPv4Route.default()] settings.ipv4Settings = ipv4 let ipv6 = NEIPv6Settings(addresses: ["fd00::1"], networkPrefixLengths: [64]) ipv6.includedRoutes = [NEIPv6Route.default()] settings.ipv6Settings = ipv6 let dns = NEDNSSettings(servers: ["198.51.100.1"]) settings.dnsSettings = dns settings.mtu = 1400 setTunnelNetworkSettings(settings) { error in if let error = error { completionHandler(error) return } self.readPackets() completionHandler(nil) } } private func readPackets() { packetFlow.readPackets { [weak self] packets, protocols in self?.readPackets() } } override func stopTunnel(with reason: NEProviderStopReason, completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void) { completionHandler() } override func handleAppMessage(_ messageData: Data, completionHandler: ((Data?) -> Void)?) { if let handler = completionHandler { handler(messageData) } } override func sleep(completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void) { completionHandler() } override func wake() { } } ContentView.swift (Main app target) — trimmed to essentials: import SwiftUI import NetworkExtension struct ContentView: View { @State private var excludeAPNs = false @State private var manager: NETunnelProviderManager? var body: some View { VStack { Toggle("Exclude APNs", isOn: $excludeAPNs) .onChange(of: excludeAPNs) { Task { await saveAndReload() } } Button("Connect") { Task { await toggleVPN() } } } .padding() .task { await loadManager() } } private func loadManager() async { let managers = try? await NETunnelProviderManager.loadAllFromPreferences() if let existing = managers?.first { manager = existing } else { let m = NETunnelProviderManager() let proto = NETunnelProviderProtocol() proto.providerBundleIdentifier = "<your-extension-bundle-id>" proto.serverAddress = "127.0.0.1" proto.includeAllNetworks = true proto.excludeAPNs = excludeAPNs m.protocolConfiguration = proto m.localizedDescription = "TestVPN" m.isEnabled = true try? await m.saveToPreferences() try? await m.loadFromPreferences() manager = m } if let proto = manager?.protocolConfiguration as? NETunnelProviderProtocol { excludeAPNs = proto.excludeAPNs } } private func saveAndReload() async { guard let manager else { return } if let proto = manager.protocolConfiguration as? NETunnelProviderProtocol { proto.includeAllNetworks = true proto.excludeAPNs = excludeAPNs } manager.isEnabled = true try? await manager.saveToPreferences() try? await manager.loadFromPreferences() } private func toggleVPN() async { guard let manager else { return } if manager.connection.status == .connected { manager.connection.stopVPNTunnel() } else { await saveAndReload() try? manager.connection.startVPNTunnel() } } } Steps to reproduce Build and run the sample project with above code on a physical iOS device. Connect to a Wi-Fi network. Set excludeAPNS = true using the toggle and tap Connect. Send a push notification to the device to a test app with remote notification capability (e.g., via a test push service or the push notification console). Observe that the notification is not delivered. Disconnect. Switch to cellular. Reconnect with the same settings. Send the same push notification — observe that it is delivered. Environment iOS 26.2 Xcode 26.2 Physical device (iPhone 15 Pro)

Hi, I’m implementing a macOS DNS Proxy as a system extension and running into a persistent activation error: OSSystemExtensionErrorDomain error 9 (validationFailed) with the message: extension category returned error This happens both on an MDM‑managed Mac and on a completely clean Mac (no MDM, fresh install). Setup macOS: 15.x (clean machine, no MDM) Xcode: 16.x Team ID: AAAAAAA111 (test) Host app bundle ID: com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy DNS Proxy system extension bundle ID: com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy The DNS Proxy is implemented as a NetworkExtension system extension, not an app extension. Host app entitlements From codesign -d --entitlements :- /Applications/NetShieldProxy.app: xml com.apple.application-identifier AAAAAAA111.com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy <key>com.apple.developer.system-extension.install</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.developer.team-identifier</key> <string>AAAAAAA111</string> <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.application-groups</key> <array> <string>group.com.example.NetShieldmac</string> </array> <key>com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-only</key> <true/> xml com.apple.application-identifier AAAAAAA111.com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy <key>com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension</key> <array> <string>dns-proxy-systemextension</string> </array> <key>com.apple.developer.team-identifier</key> <string>AAAAAAA111</string> <key>com.apple.security.application-groups</key> <array> <string>group.com.example.NetShieldmac</string> <string>group.example.NetShieldmac</string> <string>group.example.agent.enterprise.macos</string> <string>group.example.com.NetShieldmac</string> </array> DNS Proxy system extension Info.plist On the clean Mac, from: bash plutil -p "/Applications/NetShieldProxy.app/Contents/Library/SystemExtensions/com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy.systemextension/Contents/Info.plist" I get: json { "CFBundleExecutable" => "com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy", "CFBundleIdentifier" => "com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy", "CFBundleName" => "com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy", "CFBundlePackageType" => "SYSX", "CFBundleShortVersionString" => "1.0.1.8", "CFBundleSupportedPlatforms" => [ "MacOSX" ], "CFBundleVersion" => "0.1.1", "LSMinimumSystemVersion" => "13.5", "NSExtension" => { "NSExtensionPointIdentifier" => "com.apple.dns-proxy", "NSExtensionPrincipalClass" => "com_example_agent_NetShieldProxy_dnsProxy.DNSProxyProvider" }, "NSSystemExtensionUsageDescription" => "SYSTEM_EXTENSION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" } The DNSProxyProvider class inherits from NEDNSProxyProvider and is built in the system extension target. Activation code In the host app, I use: swift import SystemExtensions final class SystemExtensionActivator: NSObject, OSSystemExtensionRequestDelegate { private let extensionIdentifier = "com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy" func activate(completion: @escaping (Bool) -> Void) { let request = OSSystemExtensionRequest.activationRequest( forExtensionWithIdentifier: extensionIdentifier, queue: .main ) request.delegate = self OSSystemExtensionManager.shared.submitRequest(request) } func request(_ request: OSSystemExtensionRequest, didFailWithError error: Error) { let nsError = error as NSError print("Activation failed:", nsError) } func request(_ request: OSSystemExtensionRequest, didFinishWithResult result: OSSystemExtensionRequest.Result) { print("Result:", result.rawValue) } } Runtime behavior on a clean Mac (no MDM) config.plist is created under /Library/Application Support/NetShield (via a root shell script). A daemon runs, contacts our backend, and writes /Library/Application Support/NetShield/state.plist with a valid dnsToken and other fields. The app NetShieldProxy.app is installed via a notarized, stapled Developer ID .pkg. The extension bundle is present at: /Applications/NetShieldProxy.app/Contents/Library/SystemExtensions/com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy.systemextension. When I press Activate DNS Proxy in the UI, I see in the unified log: text NetShieldProxy: [com.example.agent:SystemExtensionActivator] Requesting activation for system extension: com.example.agent.NetShieldProxy.dnsProxy NetShieldProxy: [com.example.agent:SystemExtensionActivator] SystemExtensionActivator - activation failed: extension category returned error (domain=OSSystemExtensionErrorDomain code=9) NetShieldProxy: [com.example.agent:SystemExtensionActivator] SystemExtensionActivator - OSSystemExtensionError code enum: 9 NetShieldProxy: [com.example.agent:SystemExtensionActivator] SystemExtensionActivator - validationFailed And: bash systemextensionsctl list -> 0 extension(s) There is no prompt in Privacy & Security on this clean Mac. Question Given: The extension is packaged as a system extension (CFBundlePackageType = SYSX) with NSExtensionPointIdentifier = "com.apple.dns-proxy". Host and extension share the same Team ID and Developer ID Application cert. Entitlements on the target machine match the provisioning profile and Apple’s docs for DNS Proxy system extensions (dns-proxy-systemextension). This is happening on a clean Mac with no MDM profiles at all. What are the likely reasons for OSSystemExtensionErrorDomain error 9 (validationFailed) with "extension category returned error" in this DNS Proxy system extension scenario? Is there any additional configuration required for DNS Proxy system extensions (beyond entitlements and Info.plist) that could trigger this category-level validation failure? Any guidance or examples of a working DNS Proxy system extension configuration (host entitlements + extension Info.plist + entitlements) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, I have a few questions regarding URL Filter (iOS 26) and Content Filter Providers. URL Filter According to the WWDC26 video, URL Filter appears to be available for both consumer and enterprise deployments. This seems consistent with the classic Network Extension Provider Deployment documentation (TN3134 – August 2025), where no specific deployment restriction is mentioned. However, a more recent document (Apple Platform Deployment, September 2025) indicates the following for URL Filter: “Requires supervision on iPhone, iPad and Mac” (with a green checkmark). 👉 My question: Is URL Filter actually available for consumer use on non-supervised iPhones (deployed on Testflight and AppStore), or is supervision now required? Content Filter Providers From past experience, I remember that Content Filter Providers were only available on supervised devices. Based on the current documentation, I am questioning their usability in a consumer context, i.e. on non-supervised iPhones. In the Network Extension Provider Deployment documentation, it is stated that this is a Network Extension and that, since iOS 16, it is a “per-app on managed device” restriction. In the more recent Apple Platform Deployment document, it states for iPhone and iPad: “App needs to be installed on the user’s iOS and iPadOS device and deletion can be prevented if the device is supervised.” 👉 My understanding: Supervised device: The Content Filter Provider is installed via a host application that controls enabling/disabling the filter, and the host app can be prevented from being removed thanks to supervision. Non-supervised device: The Content Filter Provider is also installed via a host application that controls enabling/disabling the filter, but the app can be removed by the user, which would remove the filter. 👉 My question: Can Content Filter Providers be used in a consumer context on non-supervised iPhones (deployed on Testflight and AppStore), accepting that the user can uninstall the host app (and therefore remove the filter)? Thank you in advance for your feedback. Sources: TN3134 => TN3134: Network Extension provider deployment | Apple Developer Documentation Apple Platform Deployment / Filter content for Apple devices => https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/deployment/dep1129ff8d2/1/web/1.0

My application needs local network access. When it is started for the first time, the user gets a prompt to enable local network access (as expected). The application is then shown as enabled in Privacy & Security / Local Network and local network access is working. If macOS is then shutdown and restarted, local network access is blocked for the application even though it is still shown as enabled in Privacy & Security / Local Network. Local network access can be restored either by toggling permission off and on in Privacy & Security / Local Network or by disabling and enabling Wi-Fi. This behaviour is consistent on Sequoia 15.1. It happens sometimes on 15.0 and 15.0.1 but not every time. Is my application doing something wrong or is this a Sequoia issue? If it is a Sequoia issue, is there some change I can make to my application to work around it?