macOS XPC Authorization

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XPC Authorization

Apple also proposes another way to authenticate if the connecting process has permissions to call the an exposed XPC method.

When an application needs to execute actions as a privileged user, instead of running the app as a privileged user it usually installs as root a HelperTool as an XPC service that could be acalled from the app to perform those actions. However, the app calling the service should have enough authorization.

ShuoldAcceptNewConnection always YES

An example could be found in EvenBetterAuthorizationSample. In App/AppDelegate.m it tries to connect to the HelperTool. And in HelperTool/HelperTool.m the function shouldAcceptNewConnection won't check any of the requirements indicated previously. It'll always return YES:

- (BOOL)listener:(NSXPCListener *)listener shouldAcceptNewConnection:(NSXPCConnection *)newConnection
    // Called by our XPC listener when a new connection comes in.  We configure the connection
    // with our protocol and ourselves as the main object.
{
    assert(listener == self.listener);
    #pragma unused(listener)
    assert(newConnection != nil);

    newConnection.exportedInterface = [NSXPCInterface interfaceWithProtocol:@protocol(HelperToolProtocol)];
    newConnection.exportedObject = self;
    [newConnection resume];
    
    return YES;
}

For more information about how to properly configure this check:

{% content-ref url="macos-xpc-connecting-process-check.md" %} macos-xpc-connecting-process-check.md {% endcontent-ref %}

Application rights

However, there is some authorization going on when a method from the HelperTool is called.

The function applicationDidFinishLaunching from App/AppDelegate.m will create an empty authorization reference after the app has started. This should always work.
Then, it will try to add some rights to that authorization reference calling setupAuthorizationRights:

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)note
{
    [...]
    err = AuthorizationCreate(NULL, NULL, 0, &self->_authRef);
    if (err == errAuthorizationSuccess) {
        err = AuthorizationMakeExternalForm(self->_authRef, &extForm);
    }
    if (err == errAuthorizationSuccess) {
        self.authorization = [[NSData alloc] initWithBytes:&extForm length:sizeof(extForm)];
    }
    assert(err == errAuthorizationSuccess);
    
    // If we successfully connected to Authorization Services, add definitions for our default 
    // rights (unless they're already in the database).
    
    if (self->_authRef) {
        [Common setupAuthorizationRights:self->_authRef];
    }
    
    [self.window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
}

The function setupAuthorizationRights from Common/Common.m will store in the auth database /var/db/auth.db the rights of the application. Note how it will only add the rights that aren't yet in the database:

+ (void)setupAuthorizationRights:(AuthorizationRef)authRef
    // See comment in header.
{
    assert(authRef != NULL);
    [Common enumerateRightsUsingBlock:^(NSString * authRightName, id authRightDefault, NSString * authRightDesc) {
        OSStatus    blockErr;
        
        // First get the right.  If we get back errAuthorizationDenied that means there's 
        // no current definition, so we add our default one.
        
        blockErr = AuthorizationRightGet([authRightName UTF8String], NULL);
        if (blockErr == errAuthorizationDenied) {
            blockErr = AuthorizationRightSet(
                authRef,                                    // authRef
                [authRightName UTF8String],                 // rightName
                (__bridge CFTypeRef) authRightDefault,      // rightDefinition
                (__bridge CFStringRef) authRightDesc,       // descriptionKey
                NULL,                                       // bundle (NULL implies main bundle)
                CFSTR("Common")                             // localeTableName
            );
            assert(blockErr == errAuthorizationSuccess);
        } else { 
            // A right already exists (err == noErr) or any other error occurs, we 
            // assume that it has been set up in advance by the system administrator or
            // this is the second time we've run.  Either way, there's nothing more for 
            // us to do.
        }
    }];
}

The function enumerateRightsUsingBlock is the one used to get applications permissions, which are defined in commandInfo:

static NSString * kCommandKeyAuthRightName    = @"authRightName";
static NSString * kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault = @"authRightDefault";
static NSString * kCommandKeyAuthRightDesc    = @"authRightDescription";

+ (NSDictionary *)commandInfo
{
    static dispatch_once_t sOnceToken;
    static NSDictionary *  sCommandInfo;
    
    dispatch_once(&sOnceToken, ^{
        sCommandInfo = @{
            NSStringFromSelector(@selector(readLicenseKeyAuthorization:withReply:)) : @{
                kCommandKeyAuthRightName    : @"com.example.apple-samplecode.EBAS.readLicenseKey", 
                kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault : @kAuthorizationRuleClassAllow, 
                kCommandKeyAuthRightDesc    : NSLocalizedString(
                    @"EBAS is trying to read its license key.", 
                    @"prompt shown when user is required to authorize to read the license key"
                )
            },
            NSStringFromSelector(@selector(writeLicenseKey:authorization:withReply:)) : @{
                kCommandKeyAuthRightName    : @"com.example.apple-samplecode.EBAS.writeLicenseKey", 
                kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault : @kAuthorizationRuleAuthenticateAsAdmin, 
                kCommandKeyAuthRightDesc    : NSLocalizedString(
                    @"EBAS is trying to write its license key.", 
                    @"prompt shown when user is required to authorize to write the license key"
                )
            },
            NSStringFromSelector(@selector(bindToLowNumberPortAuthorization:withReply:)) : @{
                kCommandKeyAuthRightName    : @"com.example.apple-samplecode.EBAS.startWebService", 
                kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault : @kAuthorizationRuleClassAllow, 
                kCommandKeyAuthRightDesc    : NSLocalizedString(
                    @"EBAS is trying to start its web service.", 
                    @"prompt shown when user is required to authorize to start the web service"
                )
            }
        };
    });
    return sCommandInfo;
}

+ (NSString *)authorizationRightForCommand:(SEL)command
    // See comment in header.
{
    return [self commandInfo][NSStringFromSelector(command)][kCommandKeyAuthRightName];
}

+ (void)enumerateRightsUsingBlock:(void (^)(NSString * authRightName, id authRightDefault, NSString * authRightDesc))block
    // Calls the supplied block with information about each known authorization right..
{
    [self.commandInfo enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock:^(id key, id obj, BOOL *stop) {
        #pragma unused(key)
        #pragma unused(stop)
        NSDictionary *  commandDict;
        NSString *      authRightName;
        id              authRightDefault;
        NSString *      authRightDesc;
        
        // If any of the following asserts fire it's likely that you've got a bug 
        // in sCommandInfo.
        
        commandDict = (NSDictionary *) obj;
        assert([commandDict isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]]);

        authRightName = [commandDict objectForKey:kCommandKeyAuthRightName];
        assert([authRightName isKindOfClass:[NSString class]]);

        authRightDefault = [commandDict objectForKey:kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault];
        assert(authRightDefault != nil);

        authRightDesc = [commandDict objectForKey:kCommandKeyAuthRightDesc];
        assert([authRightDesc isKindOfClass:[NSString class]]);

        block(authRightName, authRightDefault, authRightDesc);
    }];
}

This means that at the end of this process, the permissions declared inside commandInfo will be stored in /var/db/auth.db. Note how there you can find for each method that will require authentication, permission name and the kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault. The later one indicates who can get this right.

There are different scopes to indicate who can access a right. They are defined in AuthorizationDB.h, but as summary:

Name	Value	Description
kAuthorizationRuleClassAllow	allow	Anyone
kAuthorizationRuleClassDeny	deny	Nobody
kAuthorizationRuleIsAdmin	is-admin	Current user needs to be an admin
kAuthorizationRuleAuthenticateAsSessionUser	authenticate-session-owner	Ask user to authenticate.
kAuthorizationRuleAuthenticateAsAdmin	authenticate-admin	Ask user to authenticate. He needs to be an admin
kAuthorizationRightRule	rule	Specify rules
kAuthorizationComment	comment	Specify some extra comments on the right

Rights Verification

In HelperTool/HelperTool.m the function readLicenseKeyAuthorization checks if the caller is authorized to execute such method calling the function checkAuthorization. This function will check the authData sent by the calling process has a correct format and then will check what is needed to get the right to call the specific method. If all goes good the returned error will be nil:

- (NSError *)checkAuthorization:(NSData *)authData command:(SEL)command
{
    [...]

    // First check that authData looks reasonable.
    
    error = nil;
    if ( (authData == nil) || ([authData length] != sizeof(AuthorizationExternalForm)) ) {
        error = [NSError errorWithDomain:NSOSStatusErrorDomain code:paramErr userInfo:nil];
    }
    
    // Create an authorization ref from that the external form data contained within.
    
    if (error == nil) {
        err = AuthorizationCreateFromExternalForm([authData bytes], &authRef);
        
        // Authorize the right associated with the command.
        
        if (err == errAuthorizationSuccess) {
            AuthorizationItem   oneRight = { NULL, 0, NULL, 0 };
            AuthorizationRights rights   = { 1, &oneRight };

            oneRight.name = [[Common authorizationRightForCommand:command] UTF8String];
            assert(oneRight.name != NULL);
            
            err = AuthorizationCopyRights(
                authRef,
                &rights,
                NULL,
                kAuthorizationFlagExtendRights | kAuthorizationFlagInteractionAllowed,
                NULL
            );
        }
        if (err != errAuthorizationSuccess) {
            error = [NSError errorWithDomain:NSOSStatusErrorDomain code:err userInfo:nil];
        }
    }

    if (authRef != NULL) {
        junk = AuthorizationFree(authRef, 0);
        assert(junk == errAuthorizationSuccess);
    }

    return error;
}

Note that to check the requirements to get the right to call that method the function authorizationRightForCommand will just check the previously comment object commandInfo.

In this case, to call the function readLicenseKeyAuthorization the kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault is defined to @kAuthorizationRuleClassAllow. So anyone can call it.