IPC with System Extension on macOS

Question

I need to comunicate data / message between a System Extension and application (this is not the container app for System Extension ).

which IPC mechanism is recommended ? is socket communication good for the same ?

Answer 1

Well, there is not much documentation, so it's hard to say there is any recommended mechanism to do communication with system extensions.

Apple in their sample uses XPC, and you can use it too, if you can keep the same app group (according to docs) with your system extension in your application (which is not the container app and it is ok).

Sockets could work too, but you need to know, that all system extensions are sandboxed and sandbox profiles block read and write access to the most of the filesystem (but not all of it).

So to establish the socket connection, you may need to do some research, where is a good place to keep the socket file for bidirectional communication.