SEB crashes when launching an exam on macOS 26

[TalbotNSICM]

When I try to launch an exam into Safe Exam Browser (using exam.net, filling in the exam code and then click launch SEB), the Safe Exam Browser starts but then crashes. I send the crash report to ChatGPT and it looks like the following error is causing the crash:

Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)

Application Specific Information: *** CFRetain() called with NULL ***

The crash happens in CoreFoundation / WebKit, when requesting the WKNavigationAction sourceFrame.

I know macOS 26 is a very new version, so maybe the Safe Exam Browser isn't updated for changes in the Apple WebKit (if there are any)

[martinluzern]

I have the same problem on several OS 26 devices. SEB 3.5.4 downgrading seems not to help...

[danschlet]

I assume that this is another bug in WebKit, likely a new one in macOS 26 (or also iOS 26)?

Does anybody have a website / testing access where I can attempt to reproduce these crashes?.

[Krisell]

We experienced the same issue, and by diffing our config and the default config we were able to find that the problem stopped when logLevel was changed from 4 to 3. I can't know of course if that is the same problem as @TalbotNSICM has, but it seems possible, as it only crashed on macOS 26.

Addition: The problem seems to occur for some combinations of logLevel, sendBrowserExamKey, and browserWindowWebView (e.g. logLevel=4, sendBrowserExamKey=true and browserWindowWebView=2).

[TalbotNSICM]

Hmm, thats interesting. I'm going to try to reproduce this in a virtual machine, as I don't have a Macbook with macOS 26 myself. I'll will post the results in this thread.

[RoChess]

To add to this, got log results that seem to indicate new macOS privacy restrictions.

2025/10/12 09:03:48:232 Safe Exam Browser version 3.6 (Build 156D0)
2025/10/12 09:03:48:232 Bundle ID: org.safeexambrowser.SafeExamBrowser, executable: Safe Exam Browser
2025/10/12 09:03:48:232 OS version macOS Version 26.0.1 (Build 25A362)

And then later on:

2025/10/12 09:03:52:213 Log directory can be accessed.
2025/10/12 09:03:52:213 Configured log directory /Users/username/Documents
2025/10/12 09:03:52:217 Download directory can not be accessed with error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 "The file “Downloads” couldn’t be opened." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Users/username/Downloads/, NSFilePath=/Users/username/Downloads, NSUnderlyingError=0x6000001199e0 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=20 "Not a directory"}}.
2025/10/12 09:03:52:218 Accessing download directory at file:///Users/username/Downloads/ failed with error Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 "The file “Downloads” couldn’t be opened." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Users/username/Downloads/, NSFilePath=/Users/username/Downloads, NSUnderlyingError=0x6000001199e0 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=20 "Not a directory"}}.
2025/10/12 09:03:52:218 Can not access configured download directory /Users/username/Downloads, ask user to grant privacy access permission.

Will try to reproduce, as I don't want to rely on students for debugging.

[danschlet]

I'm not sure if this is an error, maybe only the permission wasn't granted yet? Since SEB 3.5.1, the user is asked to grant permission to access the Downloads, Desktop and Document folders if they are used in SEB settings for downloads or log files.

[an-yc]

I just had the same issue with Mac Tahoe and SEB 3.6.0. Has there been any fixes? Can share error message.

[danschlet]

This problem should be fixed in the beta of SEB 3.6.1, please test: https://github.com/SafeExamBrowser/seb-mac/releases/tag/3.6.1b