I'm working with Apple's SimpleURLFilter sample project and consistently encountering an error when trying to implement the URL filter. Here are the details: Setup: Downloaded the official SimpleURLFilter sample project from Apple Set the developer team for both targets (main app and extension) Built and ran the PIR server on my laptop using Docker as per the sample instructions Built the iOS project on my iPhone running iOS 26.0.1 Server is accessible at my Mac's IP address on port 8080 Configuration: PIR Server URL: http://[my-mac-ip]:8080 Authentication Token: AAAA (as specified in service-config.json) Privacy Pass Issuer URL: (left empty) Fail Closed: enabled Code Changes: The only modifications I made were: Updated bundle identifiers to include my team identifier Updated PIR server's service-config.json to match: com.example.apple-samplecode.SimpleURLFilter[TEAM_ID].url.filtering Modified URLFilterControlProvider.swift: Added existingPrefilterTag: String? parameter to fetchPrefilter() method Added tag: "bloom_filter" parameter to NEURLFilterPrefilter initializer Issue: After configuring the filter and entering my passcode in Settings, I consistently see: Received filter status change: <FilterStatus: 'starting'> Received filter status change: <FilterStatus: 'stopped' errorMessage: 'The operation couldn't be completed. (NetworkExtension.NEURLFilterManager.Error error 9.)'> Questions: What does NEURLFilterManager.Error error 9 specifically indicate? Could the URLFilterControlProvider modifications be causing this issue? Are there debugging steps to get more detailed error information? Any guidance would be appreciated!

The environment: macOS 12.0 ~ 15.6 A NetworkExtension NEFilterDataProvider configured with filterSockets = YES, filterPackets = NO, and it doesn't actually block any network connection. QQMusic (download: https://y.qq.com/n/ryqq/download_detail/mac?ADTAG=YQQ) is constantly playing. Any of the following operations can reproduce the issue: Kill the NetworkExtension process and then restarted by the system. Disable the NEFilterDataProvider, and then enable it. When this problem occurs, there are two different phenomena on the NetworkExtension process: It is zombie, or is in high CPU state (100%). When the NetworkExtension process is zombie, obviously, the new network connections will enter it, and they can't be disposed by the old zombie process, so the network is disconnected. Spindump-qqmusic-ne-zombie When the NetworkExtension process is in high CPU state, its thread DispatchQueue "NEFilterExtensionProviderContext queue" is blocked in the kernel when calling close. Spindump-qqmusic-ne-cpuhigh In most cases, the network will recover after stopping QQ Music, that is the suspended zombie NetworkExtension process will exist or the cpu of it return to normal. To reproduce the issue in a simple environment, I have tried many ways to simulate the network behavior of QQMusic, but all failed. It seems that this issue is caused by UDP traffic of QQMusic, because everything is ok after blocking the UDP connections of QQMusic (the music is still playing at this time) in the NEFilterDataProvider.

I've created an application, applied for the multicast permissioning, it was granted to my bundleID and therefore my application. I've since come out with new versions of the same app, but now multicast entitlement is no longer provisioned. What must I check to identify where the problem exists? I can provide any details needed to troubleshoot.

Hello Apple Support Team, We are seeing a production crash on iOS 26 devices that appears to originate from Apple system frameworks rather than application code. Crash Summary Crash signature: _xzm_xzone_malloc_freelist_outlined Crashed thread: com.apple.network.connections Frameworks involved: CFNetwork, Security, libdispatch, libsystem_malloc Affected OS: iOS 26.x App built with: Xcode 16 Devices: Multiple models (not device-specific) Reproducibility: Intermittent, higher frequency during app launch / background networking Observed Stack Trace (top frames) _xzm_xzone_malloc_freelist_outlined dispatch_data_create_alloc xpc_data_deserialize SecTrustEvaluateIfNecessary CFNetwork HTTPProtocol / HTTP3Connection com.apple.network.connections App Context The app uses URLSession for networking. Multiple third-party SDKs are integrated (Firebase Analytics, Dynatrace, Appsflyer, and similar analytics/monitoring SDKs). These SDKs perform concurrent background network requests, especially during app launch and foreground transitions. No unsafe memory operations (manual malloc/free, unsafe pointers, or custom networking stacks) are used in the app code. Key Observations The crash is predominantly observed on iOS 26 and not on earlier iOS versions. Stack traces do not include application symbols. Disabling or delaying analytics SDK initialization significantly reduces the crash rate. Reducing concurrent network requests and limiting HTTP/3 usage also mitigates the issue. This suggests a potential regression in CFNetwork / Network.framework / HTTP/3 handling combined with the new memory allocator (xzone) on iOS 26. Impact Random app termination during background networking. Occurs without a clear deterministic repro path, making it difficult to fully mitigate at the app level. Request Could you please help investigate whether this is a known iOS 26 issue related to: HTTP/3 / QUIC networking XPC deserialization Memory allocation in the new xzone allocator High-concurrency network requests We would appreciate guidance on: Recommended mitigations Whether this issue is already tracked internally Any best practices for apps integrating multiple analytics SDKs on iOS 26 Crash logs and additional diagnostics can be provided if needed. Thank you for your support. Best regards, Dhananjay

Hi, Since iOS 26 (and any other apple system with a 26 version) there is a very weird behavior in the whole apple ecosystem (iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS). I'm self-hosting a web project called mempool (https://github.com/Retropex/mempool). This project is entirely self-hosted on my own infrastructure, so I have advanced control to be sure it's just not an anti-DDoS feature that makes the bug happen. So the bug is once I visit my website, for example this page (https://mempool.guide/tx/d86192252a6631831e55f814aea901e65407b6dbda77e1abdea8ec27861e9682) the OS will lose the ability to connect to the underlying IP of the domain (mempool.guide) but the issue seems to affect only the HTTPS/HTTP port (443/80). The issue is system wide, not only is Safari. For exemple I have another domain that resolve to the same IP (haf.ovh) and if this link above trigger the bug then I will also lose the ability to connect to https://haf.ovh A temporary fix that I have is that if I turn off wifi/cellular then I turn it on again I can connect again to my server again until the bug is triggered again. I have done test with tcpdump on my server and the connection isn't making it to my server that's why I think it's an OS issue, especially given the fix above. This issue can be reproduced on any apple device out of the box with a system with >v26. All device (Mac, iPad, iPhone, vision) with version pre-26 are completely unaffected by the bug and can freely explore the website without loosing the connection macOS is less affected by this bug, it can be random with it. With iOS/iPadOS it's systematic. Another thing to note is that the same URL on firefox/chrome for iOS doesn't trigger the bug. Let me know if anyone has an idea on what's going on. Thanks, Léo.

Hello, Since the release of iOS 26.0, we are seeing DNS traffic being blocked from within our NEPacketTunnelExtension on some devices. We have not isolated exact reproduction steps, but DNS resolves successfully for a period of time after enabling "iCloud Private Relay" (varying from 1-day to 2-weeks), until it then fails as MDNSResponder then returns: mDNSResponder [Q37046] DetermineUnicastQuerySuppression: Query suppressed for <mask.hash: 'REDACTED'> Addr (blocked by policy) DNS resolution continues to fail for all domains with the above until the device is rebooted. The Packet Tunnel intentionally does not have a DNS server set and this occurs for traffic from the Extension yet off-tunnel, which needs resolution from the system DNS server (and this configuration works perfectly for a period of time before being "blocked by policy"). The following do not resolve the issue once DNS queries are being "blocked by policy" on affected devices: disconnecting then reconnecting the vpn; toggling airplane mode for 10+ seconds; switching connection between WiFi & cellular data; disabling iCloud Private Relay. We have currently only seen this on unmanaged devices running iOS 26.0 or 26.1 beta and with iCloud Private Relay enabled. We did not see this issue on iOS 16,17 nor 18. We also have not yet seen this when iCloud Private Relay is disabled nor on iOS 26.0.1, however we cannot confirm whether they too are also affected. Is there a known a bug with iOS 26.0 & 26.1 Beta 1 that could cause this? How can we prevent DNS requests from NEPacketTunnelExtension being sporadically "blocked by policy" until the device is rebooted? Many thanks in advance.

I'm currently testing URLFilter for use in a macOS product. After calling loadFromPreferences, I set the following configuration parameters: pirServerURL = URL(string: "http://localhost:8080")! pirAuthenticationToken = "AAAA" controlProviderBundleIdentifier = "{extension app bundle identifier}" However, when I call saveToPreferences, I get an Invalid Configuration error. Is there a way to determine which parameter is invalid or incorrectly set? Also, I would appreciate any macOS-specific examples of using NEURLFilterManager, as most of the documentation I’ve found seems to focus on iOS. Thank you.

I have a Vision Pro app, which I intend to use Apple-Hosted Background Assets for some of my videos after watching: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/325 I added a Apple-Hosted, Managed extension. New Target -> Background Download -> Apple-Hosted, Managed After creating an Archive, I tried uploading it to TestFlight, it complains about a DTPlatformName error in my Info.plist. So I added the following : <key>DTPlatformName</key> <string>xros</string> With which, I managed to upload the app with the extension to TestFlight. However, when I tried installing the app on TestFlight to Vision Pro, it gives me an error that says the app cannot be verified. Any help or pointers is greatly appreciated. Info.plist Entitlements

For a past few days, I have been exploring control Filter and data filter. I am unable to understand how control moves from various functions of data filter to control Filter. One thing that I am unable to figure out is that when I pass verdict as .allow in dataFilter's handleNewFlow and mark .shouldReport as true, I get inBytes and outbytes in the flow report of handle() in controlFilter. But when I pass verdict as needRules and wait till the handle is called in controlFilter when the report.event == .flowClosed, I don't get inBytes and outBytes. I am unable to understand this complete flow of network extension from the apple documentation. Can someone provide me with some flow chart or some pictorial representation or detailed explanation of network extension for iOS? Also is there some way to imitate the ..statisticsReportFrequency for iOS as it is not available for iOS?

1) Blocked page UX When a URL is blocked, the browser typically shows a generic error like “"Safari cannot open the page because it couldn’t load any data,” with no indication that the page was blocked by a policy. Is there any plan to add an API that allows developers to present a custom “blocked” page or remediation action, similar to NEFilterControlProvider’s remediationMap? Even a minimal hook (custom HTML, deep link, or support URL) would make the experience clearer for users. 2) Cross‑app link‑opening behavior With a block rule in place, direct navigation in Safari is blocked as expected. However, tapping the same URL in a messaging app (e.g., WhatsApp) opens Safari - and the page loads, not blocked. Repro steps: Configure a URL Filter extension that blocks https://example.com. Case A: Open a browser and type the URL in the address bar → blocked (expected). Case B: Tap the same URL in WhatsApp (or another messenger) → a browser opens and the page loads (unexpected). iOS version - 26.0

I have been playing around with the new URL Filtering API. I have successfully installed and configured the sample code, Installed the example app to my iPhone, and am also running the PIR server locally on my Mac. In my input.txtpb file, I simply have 2 endpoints: rows: [{ keyword: "instagram.com", value: "1" }, { keyword: "youtube.com/shorts", value: "1" }] Neither of these are blocked when I attempt to load them from either a browser, or their dedicated apps. Are there any debugging tips I should know about? Additionally, I have also noticed a few times I have left the filter running on my phone, after leaving my LAN (where the PIR server is running), suddenly throughout the day I'm having random, completely unrelated endpoints blocked on my phone. I thought this API was never supposed to produce false positives (without calling back to the PIR server for confirmation).

We have an iPad application that utilizes Multipeer Connectivity to enable local communication between devices running a copy of our app. Until recently, we were able to test this functionality in the Xcode simulator without any issues. We could easily set up multiple simulators and have them all communicate with each other. However, recently, either due to an upgrade to Xcode or MacOS, this functionality ceased working in the simulator. Surprisingly, it still functions perfectly on physical devices. If we reboot the development computer and launch the simulator immediately after the reboot (without building and sending from Xcode, but running the existing code on the device), the issue resolves. However, the moment we generate a new build and send it to the simulator from Xcode, the multipeer functionality stops working again in the simulator. The simulators won’t reconnect until a reboot of the physical Mac hardware hosting the simulator. We’ve tried the usual troubleshooting steps, such as downgrading Xcode, deleting simulators and recreating them, cleaning the build folder, and deleting derived data, but unfortunately, none of these solutions have worked. The next step is to attempt to use a previous version of MacOS (15.3) and see if that helps, but I’d prefer to avoid this if possible. Does anyone have any obvious suggestions or troubleshooting steps that might help us identify the cause of this issue?

I've been wondering what is the memory limit for network extensions. Specifically, I'm using the NEPacketTunnelProvider extension point.The various posts on this forum mention 5 MB and 6 MB for 32-bit and 64-bit respectively. However I find that (at least on iOS 10) the upper limit seems to be 15 MB. Is this the new memory limit for extensions?

I am trying to setup a system-wide DNS-over-TLS for iOS that can be turned off and on from within the app, and I'm struggling with the implementation details. I've searched online, searched forums here, used ChatGPT, and I'm getting conflicting information or code that is simply wrong. I can't find example code that is valid and gets me moving forward. I think I need to use NEDNSProxyProvider via the NetworkExtension. Does that sound correct? I have NetworkExtension -> DNS Proxy Capability set in both the main app and the DNSProxy extension. Also, I want to make sure this is even possible without an MDM. I see conflicting information, some saying this is opened up, but things like https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Technotes/tn3134-network-extension-provider-deployment saying a device needs to be managed. How do private DNS apps do this without MDM? From some responses in the forums it sounds like we need to parse the DNS requests that come in to the handleNewFlow function. Is there good sample code for this parsing? I saw some helpful information from Eskimo (for instance https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/723831 ) and Matt Eaton ( https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/665480 )but I'm still confused. So, if I have a DoT URL, is there good sample code somewhere for what startProxy, stopProxy, and handleNewFlow might look like? And valid code to call it from the main app?

On macOS Tahoe26.0, iOS 26.0 (23A5287g), Xcode 26.0 beta 3 (17A5276g) 1、Follow this tutorial Downloading asset packs hosted by Apple When i download a background asset packs hosted by Apple, Xcode callback "Download failed: The helper received an invalid server response with the status code “400”." Before downloading, I uploaded the three aar files to the Apple server using the Transporter app. Three Manifest.json content is： {"assetPackID":"bdassets2","downloadPolicy":{"onDemand":{}},"fileSelectors":[{"file":"1.jpg"},{"file":"2.pag"},{"file":"3.mp4"}],"platforms":["iOS"]} and {"assetPackID":"bdassets1","downloadPolicy":{"prefetch":{"installationEventTypes":["firstInstallation","subsequentUpdate"]}},"fileSelectors":[{"file":"1.jpg"},{"file":"2.pag"},{"file":"3.mp4"},{"directory":"a1"}],"platforms":["iOS"]} and {"assetPackID":"bdassets0","downloadPolicy":{"essential":{"installationEventTypes":["firstInstallation","subsequentUpdate"]}},"fileSelectors":[{"file":"1.jpg"},{"file":"2.pag"},{"file":"3.mp4"},{"directory":"a1"}],"platforms":["iOS"]} The same error was reported when the three aar files were obtained. I obtained it using the following code: do {       let assetPack = try await AssetPackManager.shared.assetPack(withID: "bdassets2")       try await AssetPackManager.shared.ensureLocalAvailability(of: assetPack)     } catch {       print("Download failed:", error)     } 2、Follow this tutorial Testing your asset packs locally I use this command line to start the test server：xcrun ba-serve --host 172.17.9.62 bdassets2.aar, The content displayed on the terminal is： Loading asset packs… Loading the asset pack at “bdassets2.aar”… Choose an identity in the panel to continue. Listening on port 56061… When running the project, Xcode reports an error:Download failed: Could not connect to the server. I use iPhone directly visit this website: https://172.17.9.62:56061, on the page display "Hello, world!" There are too few error messages in both of the above questions. I have no idea what the specific reasons are.I hope someone can offer some guidance. Best Regards.

Hi, Our project is a MacOS SwiftUI GUI application that bundles a System Network Extension, signed with a Developer ID certificate for distribution outside of the app store. The system network extension is used to write a packet tunnel provider. The signing of the app & network extension is handled by XCode (v16.0.0), we do not run codesign ourselves. We have no issues with XPC or the system network extension during normal usage, nor when the application is installed on a user's device for the first time. The problem only arises when the user upgrades the application. I have experienced this issue myself, as have our users. It's been reported on Apple Silicon macbooks running at least macOS 15.3.2. Much like the SimpleFirewall example (which we used as a reference), we use XPC for basic communication of state between the app and NE. These XPC connections stop working when the user installs a new version of the app, with OS logs from the process indicating that the connection is immediately invalidated. Subsequent connection attempts are also immediately invalidated. Toggling the VPN in system settings (or via the app) does not resolve the problem, nor does restarting the app, nor does deleting and reinstalling the app, nor does restarting the device. The only reliable workaround is to delete the system extension in Login Items & Extensions, under Network Extensions. No device restart is necessary to garbage collect the old extension - once the extension is reapproved by the user, the XPC issue resolves itself. This would be an acceptable workaround were it possible to automate the deleting of the system extension, but that appears deliberately not possible, and requiring our users to do this each time they update is unreasonable. When the upgraded app is opened for the first time, the OSSystemExtensionRequest request is sent, and the outcome is that the previously installed system network extension is replaced, as both the CFBundleVersion and CFBundleShortVersionString differ. When this issue is encountered, the output of systemextensionsctl list shows the later version is installed and activated. I've been able to reproduce this bug on my personal laptop, with SIP on and systemextensionsctl developer off, but on my work laptop with SIP off and systemextensionsctl developer on (where the network extension is replaced on each activation request, instead of only when the version strings differ), I do not encounter this issue, which leads me to believe it has something to do with the notarization process. We notarize the pkg using xcrun notarytool, and then staple to the pkg. This is actually the same issue described in: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/711713 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/667597 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/742992 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/728063 but it's been a while since any of these threads were updated, and we've made attempts to address it off the suggestions in the threads to no avail. Those suggestions are: Switching to a .pkg installer from a .dmg As part of the .pkg preinstall, doing all of the following: Stopping the VPN (scutil --nc stop), shutting down the app (using osascript 'quit app id'), and deleting the app (which claims to delete the network extension, but not the approval in Login Items & Extensions remains??), by running rm -rf on the bundle in /Applications As part of the .pkg postinstall: Forcing macOS to ingest the App bundle's notarization ticket using spctl --assess. Ensuring NSXPCListener.resume() is called after autoreleasepool { NEProvider.startSystemExtensionMode() } (mentioned in a forum thread above as a fix, did not help.) One thing I'm particularly interested in is the outcome of this feedback assistant ticket, as I can't view it: FB11086599. It was shared on this forum in the first thread above, and supposedly describes the same issue. I almost find it hard to believe that this issue has been around for this many years without a workaround (there's system network extension apps out there that appear to work fine when updating, are they not using XPC?), so I wonder if there's a fix described in that FB ticket. Since I can't view that above feedback ticket, I've created my own: FB17032197

For a long time our app had this creation of a URLRequest: var urlRequest = URLRequest(url: url, cachePolicy: .reloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData, timeoutInterval: timeout) But since iOS 26 was released we started to get crashes in this call. It is created on a background thread. Thread 10 Crashed: 0 libsystem_malloc.dylib 0x00000001920e309c _xzm_xzone_malloc_freelist_outlined + 864 (xzone_malloc.c:1869) 1 libswiftCore.dylib 0x0000000184030360 swift::swift_slowAllocTyped(unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long long) + 56 (Heap.cpp:110) 2 libswiftCore.dylib 0x0000000184030754 swift_allocObject + 136 (HeapObject.cpp:245) 3 Foundation 0x00000001845dab9c specialized _ArrayBuffer._consumeAndCreateNew(bufferIsUnique:minimumCapacity:growForAppend:) + 120 4 Foundation 0x00000001845daa58 specialized static _SwiftURL._makeCFURL(from:baseURL:) + 2288 (URL_Swift.swift:1192) 5 Foundation 0x00000001845da118 closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getter + 112 (URL_Swift.swift:64) 6 Foundation 0x00000001845da160 partial apply for closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getter + 20 (<compiler-generated>:0) 7 Foundation 0x00000001845da0a0 closure #1 in _SwiftURL._nsurl.getterpartial apply + 16 8 Foundation 0x00000001845d9a6c protocol witness for _URLProtocol.bridgeToNSURL() in conformance _SwiftURL + 196 (<compiler-generated>:974) 9 Foundation 0x000000018470f31c URLRequest.init(url:cachePolicy:timeoutInterval:) + 92 (URLRequest.swift:44)# Live For Studio Any idea if this crash is caused by our code or if it is a known problem in iOS 26? I have attached one of the crash reports from Xcode: 2025-10-08_10-13-45.1128_+0200-8acf1536892bf0576f963e1534419cd29e6e10b8.crash

Hello, I have been playing around the the SimpleURLFilter sample code. I keep getting this error upon installed the filter profile on the device: mapError unexpected error domain NEVPNConnectionErrorDomainPlugin code 7 which then causes this error: Received filter status change: <FilterStatus: 'stopped' errorMessage: 'The operation couldn’t be completed. (NetworkExtension.NEURLFilterManager.Error error 14.)'> I can't find much info about code 7. Here is the configuration I am trying to run: <Configuration: pirServerURL: 'http://MyComputer.local:8080' pirAuthenticationToken: 'AAAA' pirPrivacyPassIssuerURL: 'http://MyComputer.local:8080' enabled: 'true' shouldFailClosed: 'true' controlProviderBundleIdentifier: 'krpaul.SimpleURLFilter.SimpleURLFilterExtension' prefilterFetchInterval: '2700.0'>

Hello, we are developing hardware that needs to connect to an iPhone via Wi-Fi to send requests to a server. On Android, we have managed to create a programmatic local hotspot within the app to facilitate connection and improve the user experience. On iOS, however, Personal Hotspot must be manually enabled from the system settings, and the user must manually enter the SSID and password, which significantly degrades the UX. My questions are: Is there a workaround, unofficial method, or private API to generate a local hotspot from an app on iOS, similar to what can be done on Android? Is there an alternative within the MFi program or through specific frameworks to facilitate a quick and automatic connection between the hardware and the iPhone without relying on the manual Personal Hotspot? Are there any best practices for improving the local Wi-Fi connection experience between an accessory and an iPhone in the absence of hotspot controls? I would appreciate any guidance, experience, or resources that would help me better understand the feasible options in iOS for scenarios where fast and direct communication between hardware and mobile devices via Wi-Fi is required.

I encountered an undesired DNS behaviour when using L2TP/ipsec VPN. I have DHCP configured Wi-Fi connection, which send dns servers and search domain (192.168.0.10, lan) VPN sends its own DNS server (10.0.0.2), search domain (intranet) is added manually in VPN DNS config settings. I expect, when VPN is connected, to be still able to resolve local names, i.e some-host.lan. However, they become unresolvable. quick check shows that the remote dns server is used to resolve local names. shilishper@mac ~ % host -v some-host.lan Trying "some-host.lan" Host some-host.lan not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) Received 106 bytes from 10.0.0.2#53 in 16 ms Received 106 bytes from 10.0.0.2#53 in 16 ms Actually, all dns queries are going to the remote server. I would expect that only queries for the configured domain (intranet) should go to that server. I played with the service order, but it didn't change anything. Is anything can be done about this, programmatically? PS new to macOS, but have extensive linux knowledge