macOS local sandbox: expose an exact Mach/XPC lookup allowlist

[trodemaster]

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

GitHub Copilot CLI's macOS local sandbox does not expose a way to allow a specific third-party Mach/XPC service.

A concrete example is 1Password CLI desktop app integration, which needs to look up:

2BUA8C4S2C.com.1password.browser-helper

This blocks credential-helper chains such as:

aws
  -> credential_process
     -> credential helper script
        -> op CLI
           -> NSXPCConnection / mach-lookup
              -> 2BUA8C4S2C.com.1password.browser-helper

Granting access to the executables, configuration files, 1Password Unix socket, and network destinations is not enough. Seatbelt treats Mach service discovery as the separate mach-lookup capability.

Copilot CLI 1.0.86-0 exposes only keychainAccess under sandbox.userPolicy.seatbelt. Its installed API schema defines SandboxConfigUserPolicySeatbelt with only that property and additionalProperties: false. Adding extraMachLookups to user settings produces no validation error, but the setting is inert and does not change the effective Seatbelt policy.

keychainAccess is not a substitute for an XPC allowlist. It grants a broad set of Apple Keychain and trust services plus Keychain-related filesystem paths, but it does not allow the third-party 1Password browser-helper service. The remaining workaround is to bypass the sandbox for the command, removing substantially more isolation than this workflow requires.

The underlying Microsoft MXC Seatbelt backend already supports exact-name lookups through seatbelt.extraMachLookups. The missing layer appears to be Copilot CLI's settings/API pass-through to MXC rather than a macOS Seatbelt limitation.

Proposed solution

Expose MXC's exact-name Mach lookup list in Copilot's sandbox policy:

{
  "sandbox": {
    "userPolicy": {
      "seatbelt": {
        "extraMachLookups": [
          "2BUA8C4S2C.com.1password.browser-helper"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

The minimum implementation could pass each configured value to MXC's existing seatbelt.extraMachLookups field, producing a narrow rule equivalent to:

(allow mach-lookup
  (global-name "2BUA8C4S2C.com.1password.browser-helper"))

Suggested security properties and acceptance criteria:

• Accept exact Mach service names only. Reject empty values, glob patterns, regular expressions, and prefix wildcards.
• Keep the setting independent from keychainAccess.
• Include the effective lookup list in /sandbox policy so the grant is visible and auditable.
• Confirm that the configured 1Password helper lookup succeeds while an unrelated Mach service remains denied.
• Do not implicitly grant mach-register, all Mach lookups, GUI access, Apple Events, or a raw Seatbelt profile override.

Example prompts or workflows

With an AWS profile whose credential_process refreshes through 1Password desktop integration:

List the caller identity for this AWS profile.

The AWS CLI invokes its credential helper, which invokes op. The helper should reach the configured 1Password XPC service without the entire command running outside the sandbox.

Additional context

Environment:

• GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.86-0
• macOS 26.6.2 (25G83)
• Apple silicon (arm64)
• 1Password CLI 2.38.1

To isolate the blocked capability from credentials and the rest of the AWS helper chain, I compiled a small probe whose only relevant operation is:

bootstrap_look_up(
  bootstrap_port,
  "2BUA8C4S2C.com.1password.browser-helper",
  &port
);

The probe does not call op, retrieve a credential, access a Unix socket, or make a network request. I ran the identical binary in each context:

Context	Copilot Seatbelt setting	Result
Host, outside Copilot's sandbox	Not applicable	Exit 0: mach-lookup allowed
Copilot Bash tool in the local sandbox	keychainAccess: true	Exit 1: mach-lookup failed: 1100 (Permission denied)
Copilot Bash tool using an isolated settings directory	Proposed extraMachLookups value	Exit 1: mach-lookup failed: 1100 (Permission denied)

The host result confirms that the service is registered. The sandbox result isolates the failure to mach-lookup; unrelated socket, filesystem, network, and Keychain grants cannot satisfy that operation. The isolated-settings result confirms that extraMachLookups is silently ineffective in Copilot 1.0.86-0.

This diagnostic does not reproduce the full credential chain. A sandboxed AWS command can succeed while credentials are cached; the user-visible failure occurs when the helper must refresh through 1Password desktop integration.

Relevant references:

• MXC macOS Seatbelt backend documents extraMachLookups as exact service names and describes the broader keychainAccess and guiAccess grants.
• anthropics/sandbox-runtime#83 reported the same 1Password XPC limitation; Anthropic subsequently exposed allowMachLookup.
• microsoft/mxc#887 tracks exposure of backend-specific configuration through shared SDK layers.
• Copilot CLI sandbox configuration documentation documents Keychain support but no narrow third-party Mach/XPC allowlist.