Silly question: getting a user's email address(es)

Question

Created May ’25

Replies 8

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Participants 2

For login purposes, we may want to try automatically checking to see if an email address is set up in certain databases. It looks like the preferred way to do this is via ABAddressBook.shared().me(), then get the right key via in the properties? This, however, is treated as accessing the whole address book and brings up a confirmation dialogue.

However, as I thought about it, that might not be the real way we'd want -- we'd want to go through Active Directory, perhaps?

Am I making any sense, or just being incoherent? 😄

Answered by DTS Engineer in 840774022

That’s the kODAttributeTypeAltSecurityIdentities attribute. For an example of how to fetch such a thing using the Open Directory framework, see this post.

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—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

May ’25

Over the year’s macOS has limited access to the user’s email address because it’s very private information. You mentioned Active Directory, which suggests you’re working in a managed environment. Is that right?

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0

Answer 2

kithrup OP

May ’25

We might be. The specific thing we're doing is logging in via OIDC, and we can try to check various email addresses before asking the user.

I think we only really care if the user is part of a network directory, though.

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Answer 3

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

May ’25

OK. So, if you do the equivalent of this:

% dscl
Entering interactive mode... (type "help" for commands)
 > cd /Search/Users/quinn
/Search/Users/quinn > read
… lots of stuff …

does it print the email address you need? If so, in which attribute?

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0

Answer 4

kithrup OP

May ’25

Annoyingly, we don't have anything set up internally, and of course I never set up LDAP at home... (I tried once. Too annoying. Anyone got pointers?)

I'm also, as of right now, trying to figure out if there's a difference between the account name and an email address.

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Answer 5

kithrup OP

3w

Took a while, but this looks like it would do it:

AltSecurityIdentities:
 X509:<T>CN=Apple Root CA,OU=Apple Certification Authority,O=Apple Inc.,C=US<S>CN=com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.001006-08-6e1a760f-f653-4f65-b28d-2d5dd5ff9582
 PlatformSSO:foo@kithrup.com

So that's the key AltSecurityIdentities, and it looks like that then has a dictionary or array?

Now how would I get that programmatically...

0

Answer 6

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

3w

Recommended

That’s the kODAttributeTypeAltSecurityIdentities attribute. For an example of how to fetch such a thing using the Open Directory framework, see this post.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0

Answer 7

kithrup OP

3w

That link doesn't work...

0

Answer 8

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

3w

That link doesn't work...

Indeed. AFAICT the thread is still valid, but DevForums won’t display it for some reason. I’ve escalated that internally (i. 097560124).

In the meantime, here’s the relevant code snippet:

func isLocal(username: String) throws -> Bool {
    let session = ODSession()
    let node = try ODNode(session: session, type: ODNodeType(kODNodeTypeAuthentication))
    let record = try node.record(
        withRecordType: kODRecordTypeUsers,
        name: username,
        attributes: [kODAttributeTypeMetaNodeLocation] as NSArray
    )
    let locationsAny = try record.values(forAttribute: kODAttributeTypeMetaNodeLocation)
    guard
        let locations = locationsAny as? [String],
        let location = locations.first
    else {
        // … throw an error …
    }
    return location.hasPrefix("/Local/")
}

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0