SecItemAdd always returns error -34018 in Xcode 8 in iOS 10 simulator

Evgenii picture Evgenii ยท Jul 19, 2016 ยท Viewed 30.8k times ยท Source

Update: This issue has been fixed in Xcode 8.2. Keychain works in the simulator without enabling keychain sharing.

Why am I always receiving error -34018 when calling SecItemAdd function in Xcode 8 / iOS 10 simulator?

Steps to Reproduce

Create a new Single page iOS app project in Xcode 8. Run the following code in viewDidLoad (or open this Xcode project).

let itemKey = "My key"
let itemValue = "My secretive bee ๐Ÿ"

// Remove from Keychain
// ----------------

let queryDelete: [String: AnyObject] = [
  kSecClass as String: kSecClassGenericPassword,
  kSecAttrAccount as String: itemKey as AnyObject
]

let resultCodeDelete = SecItemDelete(queryDelete as CFDictionary)

if resultCodeDelete != noErr {
  print("Error deleting from Keychain: \(resultCodeDelete)")
}


// Add to keychain
// ----------------

guard let valueData = itemValue.data(using: String.Encoding.utf8) else {
  print("๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿฃ Error saving text to Keychain")
  return
}

let queryAdd: [String: AnyObject] = [
  kSecClass as String: kSecClassGenericPassword,
  kSecAttrAccount as String: itemKey as AnyObject,
  kSecValueData as String: valueData as AnyObject,
  kSecAttrAccessible as String: kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlocked
]

let resultCode = SecItemAdd(queryAdd as CFDictionary, nil)

if resultCode != noErr {
  print("๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ Error saving to Keychain: \(resultCode).")
} else {
  print("๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ€ Saved to keychain successfully.")
}

Expected Results

Item is added to Keychain.

Actual Results

Function SecItemAdd returns the following error code: -34018.

Version

Xcode version 8.1 (8B62), macOS Sierra 10.12.1.

Configuration

Always occurs in Xcode 8 since Beta 2 when testing in an iOS 10 simulator.

Does NOT occur in Xcode 8 when testing in an iOS 9.3 simulator.

Demo

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11143285/2016/07/KeychainBugDemo.zip

References

Radar: https://openradar.appspot.com/27422249

Apple Developer Forums: https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/179846

This issue is different from the following post because it occurs consistently in Xcode 8. SecItemAdd and SecItemCopyMatching returns error code -34018 (errSecMissingEntitlement)

Answer

Deyton picture Deyton ยท Jul 23, 2016

I was able to work around this in my app by adding Keychain Access Groups to the Entitlements file. I turned on the Keychain Sharing switch in the Capabilities section in your test app, and it is working for me as well.

Screenshot of turning on the switch

Item to add to entitlements:

<key>keychain-access-groups</key>
<array>
    <string>$(AppIdentifierPrefix)com.evgenii.KeychainBugDemo</string>
</array>

I have only tried this on macOS Sierra (10.12), so I'm not sure if it will work for you on 10.11.5.