General: DevForums tag: App Sandbox App Sandbox documentation App Sandbox Design Guide documentation — This is no longer available from Apple. There’s still some info in there that isn’t covered by the current docs but, with the latest updates, it’s pretty minimal (r. 110052019). Still, if you’re curious, you can consult an old copy [1]. App Sandbox Temporary Exception Entitlements archived documentation — To better understand the role of temporary exception entitlements, see this post. Embedding a Command-Line Tool in a Sandboxed App documentation Discovering and diagnosing App Sandbox violations (replaces the Viewing Sandbox Violation Reports DevForums post) Resolving App Sandbox Inheritance Problems DevForums post The Case for Sandboxing a Directly Distributed App DevForums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] For example, this one archived by the Wayback Machine.

Hello, I want to access the Docker socket API from inside the macOS App Sandbox. The method queries the API using curl with --unix-socket. However, the Sandbox blocks the request, as shown by the log: curl(22299) deny(1) network-outbound /Users/user/.docker/run/docker.sock Outgoing network traffic is generally allowed, but access to the Docker Unix socket is denied. Here’s the code I’m using: private func executeDockerAPI() -> String { let process = Process() let pipe = Pipe() process.executableURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/usr/bin/curl") process.arguments = [ "--unix-socket", "/Users/user/.docker/run/docker.sock", "http://127.0.0.1/containers/json" ] process.standardOutput = pipe process.standardError = pipe do { try process.run() process.waitUntilExit() let data = pipe.fileHandleForReading.readDataToEndOfFile() if let output = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) { return output } else { return "Error while decoding" } } catch { return "Error running command: \(error.localizedDescription)" } } Is there any entitlement or sandbox configuration I’m missing to allow access to /Users/user/.docker/run/docker.sock from inside the sandbox?

Hello everyone, I'm developing a macOS application that programmatically sets custom icons for folders, and I've hit a wall trying to get Finder to display the icon changes consistently. The Goal: To change a folder's icon using NSWorkspace.shared.setIcon and have Finder immediately show the new icon. What I've Tried (The Refresh Mechanism): After setting the icon, I attempt to force a Finder refresh using several sandbox-friendly techniques: Updating the Modification Date (the "touch" method): try FileManager.default.setAttributes([.modificationDate: Date()], ofItemAtPath: pathToUse) Notifying NSWorkspace: NSWorkspace.shared.noteFileSystemChanged(pathToUse) Posting Distributed Notifications: DistributedNotificationCenter.default().post(name: Notification.Name("com.apple.Finder.FolderChanged"), object: pathToUse) The Problem: This combination of methods works perfectly, but only under specific conditions: When setting a custom icon on a folder for the first time. When changing the icon of an alias. For any subsequent icon change on a regular folder, Finder stubbornly displays the old, cached icon. I've confirmed that the user can see the new icon by manually closing and reopening the folder window, but this is obviously not a user-friendly solution. Investigating a Reset with AppleScript: I've noticed that the AppleScript update command seems to force the kind of complete refresh I need: tell application "Finder" update POSIX file "/path/to/your/folder" end tell Running this seems to reset the folder's state in Finder, effectively recreating the "first-time set" scenario where my other methods work. However, the major roadblock is that I can't figure out how to reliably execute this from a sandboxed environment. I understand it likely requires specific scripting entitlements, but it's unclear which ones would be needed for this update command on a user-chosen folder, or if it's even permissible for the App Store. My Questions: Is there a reliable, sandbox-safe way to make the standard Cocoa methods (noteFileSystemChanged, updating the modification date, etc.) work for subsequent icon updates on regular folders? Am I missing a step? If not, what is the correct way to configure a sandboxed app's entitlements to safely run the tell application "Finder" to update command for a folder the user has granted access to? Any insight or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Hi, I encounter problems after updating macOS to Sequoia 15.5 with plugins loaded with dlopen and dlsym. $ file /Applications/com.gsequencer.GSequencer.app/Contents/Plugins/ladspa/cmt.dylib /Applications/com.gsequencer.GSequencer.app/Contents/Plugins/ladspa/cmt.dylib: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit bundle x86_64] [arm64:Mach-O 64-bit bundle arm64] /Applications/com.gsequencer.GSequencer.app/Contents/Plugins/ladspa/cmt.dylib (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit bundle x86_64 /Applications/com.gsequencer.GSequencer.app/Contents/Plugins/ladspa/cmt.dylib (for architecture arm64): Mach-O 64-bit bundle arm64 I am currently investigating what goes wrong. My application runs in a sandboxed environment.

I'm working on a build system similar to Bazel where each build action runs in a sandbox. The sandbox contains only the files that the user defined as input to ensure that the build action doesn't have any implicit dependencies. Bazel achieves this by creating a "symlink forest" to the original source files. This works, but I have observed fseventsd using significant CPU during a Bazel build, presumably because of all the symlinks that get created. Is there a way to disable file events for a directory or a volume? The "File System Events Programming Guide" in the Documentation Archive mentions placing an empty file named no_log in the .fseventsd directory at the root of the volume, but when testing on macOS 15.5 with APFS that appears to no longer work. Related, is a "symlink forest" the best way to create a sandbox like this? Or is there a different method one can use to provide a view of a subset of the files in a directory tree? I read up on the App Sandbox but that seems too coarse grained. Something like Linux's overlayfs would work well, and maybe one can achieve a similar functionality with firmlinks? Curious about folks thoughts here. Thanks in advance!

I am developing a background application that acts as a metadata server under MacOS written in Swift. Sandboxed clients prompt the user to select URLs which are passed to the server as security scoped bookmarks via an App Group and the metadata will be passed back. I don't want the I/O overhead of passing the complete image file data to the server. All the variations I have tried of creating security scoped bookmarks in the client and reading them from the server fail with error messages such as "The file couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format." Can anyone guide me in the right direction or is this just not possible?

First, I do not publish my application to the AppStore, but I need to customize a sandbox environment. It seems that sandbox-exec cannot configure entitlements, so I have used some other APIs, such as sandbox_compile_entitlements and sandbox_apply_container. When encountering the entitlement "com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-only", I am unsure how to correctly write sandbox profile to implement this. Can anyone help me?

So I just updated Xcode to 16.3 and updated a project to its recommended build settings which includes "Register App Groups". So I have an outside Mac App Store app that uses app groups. Here we have an action extension. I can't debug it, can't get it to run. Nothing useful in Xcode is displayed when I try... but it looks like a code signing issue when I run and have Console open. So I try to make a provisioning profile manually and set it...didn't work. I noticed now though in signing & capabilities the group id is in red...like it's invalid, or something? This was a "macOS styled" group without the "group." prefix. So am I supposed to switch it to have the group. prefix? It makes the red text go away (no warnings or anything about app groups here, just red text). So if I change it to group. prefix..does that make an entire new container?What happens on app update for installs that don't have group. prefix? Does the system transparently migrate the group? Or Am I supposed to migrate the entire group container to the identifier with group. prefix? Also how does this affect running on older version of macOS? If I go with the "group." prefix to make the red text go away,.. what happens on macOS 11.0? Got a little more than I bargained for here after midnight.

Recently, while developing a network extension on macOS, I encountered a very interesting issue. When the App Sandbox entitlement is included, the NE (Network Extension) can be called and run normally. However, when the App Sandbox is removed, with everything else remaining unchanged, an error occurs. The logs are as follows: Failed to find an app extension with identifier app.acmeVpnM.extension and extension point com.apple.networkextension.packet-tunnel: (null) Found 0 registrations for app.acmeVpnM.extension (com.apple.networkextension.packet-tunnel) If you add app sandbox, it will run normally. this is my container app entitlement this is my NE extension (without App SandBox) I want to know the reason for this. App sandbox shouldn't be mandatory. How can I make my NE run in an environment without app sandbox?

Our app needs to read server settings that are configured in the app's settings. In iPadOS 17.7.7 specifically (iPadOS 17.7.6, iPadOS 18.5, and other versions works fine) one can't retrieve any setting from the settings bundle using: if ([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"setting_hostname"] != nil) serverHostname = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"setting_hostname"]; Also, when writing a custom value in NSUserDefaults like: [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:@"Test" forKey:@"test"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; NSString* test = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"test"]; NSLog(@"%@", test); Shows an error in the console: Couldn't write values for keys ( test ) in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x3017ecc60> (Domain: <redacted_bundle_id>, User: kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, ByHost: No, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: No): setting these preferences requires user-preference-write or file-write-data sandbox access When closing the app and reopening it, and then reading the value of [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"test"]; returns null

How do I gain access to the Documents folder? Under targets, "signing and capabilities", App Sandbox, I can see the Music folder, Desktop... but not Documents.

I am building a Mac app that launch a GUI helper app and use XPC to communicate between them. Main app start a XPC Listener using NSXPCListener(machServiceName: "group.com.mycompany.myapp.xpc") Launch the helper app Helper app connect to the XPC service and listen command from main app. What I observe is the app seems can start XPC listener while I run it via Xcode. If I run the app using TestFlight build, or via the compiled debug binary (same one that I use on Xcode), it cannot start the XPC service. Here is what I see in the Console: [0x600000ef7570] activating connection: mach=true listener=true peer=false name=group.com.mycompany.myapp.xpc [0x600000ef7570] listener failed to activate: xpc_error=[1: Operation not permitted] Both main app and helper app are sandboxed and in the same App Group - if they were not, I cannot connect the helper app to main app. I can confirm the entitlement profiles did contain the app group. If I start the main app via xcode, and then launch the helper app manually via Finder, the helper app can connect to the XPC and everything work. It is not related to Release configuration, as the same binary work while I am debugging, but not when I open the binary manually. For context, the main app is a Catalyst app, and helper app is an AppKit app. To start a XPC listener on Catalyst, I had do it in a AppKit bridge via bundle. Given the app worked on Xcode, I believe this approach can work. I just cannot figure out why it only work while I am debugging. Any pointer to debug this issue is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Is it theoretically possible to: Build an app with Mac Catalyst without the App Sandbox entitlement and Distribute it outside the Mac App Store (w/ notarization)? Thank you!

Until a few days ago, I had a bit of code that could download a file from elsewhere to my home drive, "Users/eric". Today, the code downloads the file to "locat", but the following no longer works let _ = try fileManager.copyItem(atPath: locat, toPath: "/Users/eric/file.txt" ) After a careful search, I've changed the network to allow Network connections, and set User Selected and Downloads Folder to Read/Write without any luck. I am using Catalina and SwiftUI on a recent Mac (2023). As well, it was working just a few days ago. Any ideas or pointers?

I'm trying to launch a command line app from my objective C application (sandboxed) using NSTask and I keep getting "launch path not accessible" Here is the path: [task setLaunchPath:@"/usr/local/bin/codeview"]; I have set the appropriate attributes for codeview and it is working perfectly when I use it from the command line and /usr/local/bin IS in the $PATH I know I have NSTask configured correctly because this WILL work: [task setLaunchPath:@"/usr/bin/hexdump"]; With the exception being that I'm using a command already in /usr/bin. But I can't copy codeview into /usr/bin due to SIPS. I've tried moving codeview to various other non-SIPS protected locations all to no avail. Must all NSTask commands come from /usr/bin? Where might I put codeview so that it can be launched. Today I'm going to use an older computer and disable SIPS to put my command in /usr/bin and see if that works. If it does. I will do it on my main machine.

I am using macOS virtualization farmework and able to create nad and run VMS. I need to resize the disk images using hdiutil in app sandbox environment. Is that possible? i tried disabling sandbox and it worked ok. But with sandbox i get the error message device is not configured. If this cant be done in sandbox what could be the alternative way to to achive this in sandboxed app. thanks

Hello, I'm seeking some clarification regarding the use of accessibility and input monitoring APIs in sandboxed apps that are distributed through the App Store. I understand that accessibility permissions are generally restricted for App Store apps. However, I've seen several recently released apps request these permissions directly upon first launch. I'm aware that apps submitted prior to 2012 may have legacy access to certain APIs, but the ones I'm referring to appear to be recent - within the past year. While it's possible these apps were approved despite the restrictions, I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something. I also came across a recent discussion on this topic, and one post in particular stood out: Link I’d really appreciate some clarification on what's officially allowed. Specifically: Are accessibility permissions ever allowed? If so, under what circumstances? Is input monitoring permitted for apps on the App Store? (The referenced post says yes, but since it's from 2022, I just want to confirm) The linked post suggests that event generation might be allowed on the App Store, though the author hadn’t explored that privilege in detail and recommended opening a DTS tech support incident. I’ve done that and have a support case open - would it be possible to take a closer look at this? For context, my app (currently distributed outside the App Store) uses CGEventPost and CGEventCreateMouseEvent to modify mouse behavior. Thank you

Hello, I'm seeking some clarification regarding the use of accessibility and input monitoring APIs in sandboxed apps that are distributed through the App Store. I understand that accessibility permissions are generally restricted for App Store apps. However, I've seen several recently released apps request these permissions directly upon first launch. I'm aware that apps submitted prior to 2012 may have legacy access to certain APIs, but the ones I'm referring to appear to be recent - within the past year. While it's possible these apps were approved despite the restrictions, I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something. I also came across a recent discussion on this topic, and one post in particular stood out: Link I’d really appreciate some clarification on what's officially allowed. Specifically: Are accessibility permissions ever allowed? If so, under what circumstances? Is input monitoring permitted for apps on the App Store? (The referenced post says yes, but since it's from 2022, I just want to confirm) The linked post suggests that event generation might be allowed on the App Store, though the author hadn’t explored that privilege in detail and recommended opening a DTS tech support incident. I’ve done that and have a support case open - would it be possible to take a closer look at this? For context, my app (currently distributed outside the App Store) uses CGEventPost and CGEventCreateMouseEvent to modify mouse behavior. Thank you

We’re receiving increasing user reports that our macOS app is unexpectedly terminated in the background—without crash reports or user action. Our app is a sandboxed status-bar app (UIElement, NSStatusItem) running continuously, syncing data via CloudKit and Core Data. It has no main window unless opened via the status bar. Observed patterns: Happens more frequent on macOS 15 (Sonoma), though earlier versions are affected too. Often occurs when disk space is limited (~10% free), but occasionally happens with ample free space. System logs consistently show: CacheDeleteAppContainerCaches requesting termination assertion for &lt;our bundle ID&gt; No crash reports are generated, indicating macOS silently terminates our app, likely related to RunningBoard or CacheDelete purging caches during disk pressure. Since our app is meant to run persistently, these silent terminations significantly disrupt user experience. We’re seeking guidance on: Can we prevent or reduce these terminations for persistently running status bar apps? Are there recommended APIs or configurations (e.g., NSProcessInfo assertions, entitlements, LaunchAgents) to resist termination or receive notifications under low disk conditions? What are Apple’s best practices for ensuring sandboxed apps reliably run during disk pressure? We understand macOS terminates apps to reclaim space but would appreciate recommendations to improve resilience within platform guidelines. Thank you!

Hello all, I'm the developer of REHex, a hex editor which I have been distributing as an app bundle outside of the app store for a few years. REHex allows assigning various bits of metadata (comments, data types, etc) which get stored as filename.rehex-meta alongside the original filename, this works fine when the app is just a standalone bundle, however, when distributed via the app store, sandboxing seems to be mandatory, and there doesn't appear to be any obvious way to get permission to read/write such files. As fallbacks, I've considered adding support for storing the metadata as an extended attribute instead (which breaks compatibility, and won't translate when the file is on a FAT/etc filesystem or network share), or popping up the save/load dialog a second time for the user to select a .rehex-meta file, adding it to the list of whitelisted files for the application (keeps compatibility, but UX is clunky). Are there any ways I can work around this, or perhaps other methods I should consider for storing the metadata in an Apple-tolerant manner? Thanks

I have an app with two file types with the following extensions: gop (an exported type), sgf (an imported type). The Save command fails after the following sequence of events: I open a gop file, say the file "A.gop". I save this file as an sgf file, say "A.sgf". This Save As works perfectly and the document name in the document’s title bar has changed to "A.sgf". I change something in the document and then try to Save this change. This should just resave the document to "A.sgf", but "A.sgf" remains untouched. Instead I get a system alert with the message The document “A.sgf” could not be saved. A file with the name “A.gop” already exists. To save the file, either provide a different name, or move aside or delete the existing file, and try again. In the Xcode console I get the following diagnostic: NSFileSandboxingRequestRelatedItemExtension: an error was received from pboxd instead of a token. Domain: NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code: 2 [NSFileCoordinator itemAtURL:willMoveToURL:] could not get a sandbox extension. oldURL: file:///Users/francois/Desktop/A.sgf, newURL: file:///Users/francois/Desktop/A.gop The problem seems to relate to the sandbox. But I am at a loss to find a solution. (After closing the alert, I check that A.sgf did not register the change.) If I open an sgf file, say "B.sgf", save it as "B.gop", make a change in the document and then try to save this change (into "B.gop"), I hit the same problem, with "gop" and "sgf" interchanged. If, instead of saving "A.gop" as "A.sgf", I save it as "B.sgf", make a change in the document and then try to save this change into "B.sgf", I get the following system alert: The document “B.sgf” could not be saved. You don’t have permission. To view or change permissions, select the item in the Finder and choose File &gt; Get Info. And in the Xcode console I get the following diagnostic: NSFileSandboxingRequestRelatedItemExtension: an error was received from pboxd instead of a token. Domain: NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code: 2 [NSFileCoordinator itemAtURL:willMoveToURL:] could not get a sandbox extension. oldURL: file:///Users/francois/Desktop/B.sgf, newURL: file:///Users/francois/Desktop/B.gop Again the sandbox ! (After closing the alert, I check that B.sgf did not register the change.) It’s clear my code is missing something, but what?