Articles about macOS and Mac OS X development

Today’s software solutions require continuous improvements. But what used to take weeks or even months can now be done with a couple lines of code, assuming you have the right application programming interface (API) at hand. By integrating APIs into...

To implement functionality that allows your macOS application to access files and folders on a remote server, you usually have to use third-party solutions to create your own file system. In iOS, this issue is eliminated thanks to the File Provider...

In the previous article, we examined how to dynamically link functions in Mach-O libraries. Now let’s move on to practice. We have a macOS program that's used by a number of third-party dynamically linked libraries, which, in turn, call each other's...

Kernel development is extremely complicated. Any issues with the kernel affect overall system operations. Naturally, developers try as much as possible to avoid working in kernel mode. The newest version of macOS provides features to avoid just that.

By knowing the principles by which imported functions are linked in Mach-O libraries, we can achieve a rather interesting effect: We can redirect the calls of imported functions to our code, in which we can then use the original function. To do this,...

Network hooks can be used for multiple tasks: monitoring network activity, proxying, creating firewalls, and even controlling and managing client network traffic on the server side.

Just as you need to pick the right key to open a specific lock, an operating system needs to pick the right driver for a specific device. At Apriorit, we have vast experience developing drivers for all kinds of devices and operating systems. The focus...

Apple regularly introduces innovative solutions and improvements to macOS. However, not all improved tools can fully replace their predecessors. This is what happened with kernel extensions and their successors, System Extensions and DriverKit.

In today’s world, where we constantly use phones and handheld devices, mobile data encryption is extremely important. Unauthorized access to application content or network traffic can lead to leaks of private information and losses, both for individual...

Mac OS X 10.4 saw the introduction of a new kernel subsystem that proves itself very useful when it comes to managing authorization from the kernel. This subsystem is called Kernel Authorization, or Kauth. It can be used to modify any authorization...

Since its introduction over 2 years ago, Swift gathered a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, and quickly established itself as a popular new iOS app programming language, as well as a great tool to write software for various Apple products....

Reverse engineering is the direct opposite of building or engineering an application: you break things down bit by bit to see how they actually work. Developers incorporate reverse engineering techniques to solve tasks from investigating bugs in code to...

Anyone who wants to develop programs for the products of Apple Company, i.e. for MacOS and iOS platforms, meets such a moment in his life when he needs to learn new programming language - Objective-C. I met such moment once too and asked myself how to...