Strongly type settings for the network extension

[mlw]

Remove reliance on a dictionary and move to using real types.

Part of SNT-261

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Disabled knowledge base sources:

• Linear integration is disabled

You can enable these sources in your CodeRabbit configuration.

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 5d58427 and 73e1f4d.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• Source/common/ne/SNTNetworkExtensionSettingsTest.mm

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Replaces dictionary-based network-extension settings with a new NSSecureCoding class SNTNetworkExtensionSettings; updates XPC method signatures and NSXPCInterface registrations to use the new type; adapts santad network extension queue and daemon to produce/send the typed settings; adds build targets and unit tests for the new class.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
New settings class & tests Source/common/ne/SNTNetworkExtensionSettings.h, Source/common/ne/SNTNetworkExtensionSettings.mm, Source/common/ne/SNTNetworkExtensionSettingsTest.mm	Adds SNTNetworkExtensionSettings : NSObject <NSSecureCoding> with readonly BOOL enable, secure-coding implementation, and unit tests covering init, encode/decode roundtrip, forward and backward compatibility.
XPC control interface Source/common/SNTXPCControlInterface.h, Source/common/SNTXPCControlInterface.mm, Source/common/BUILD	Changes registerNetworkExtensionWithProtocolVersion:reply: to return SNTNetworkExtensionSettings * (was NSDictionary *), imports/ registers the class on the NSXPCInterface, and adds build dep on //Source/common/ne:SNTNetworkExtensionSettings.
XPC network extension interface Source/common/ne/SNDXPCNetworkExtensionInterface.h, Source/common/ne/SNTXPCNetworkExtensionInterface.mm	Changes updateNetworkExtensionSettings: parameter to SNTNetworkExtensionSettings * and registers that class on the NSXPCInterface for the selector.
santad network extension queue & daemon Source/santad/SNTNetworkExtensionQueue.h, Source/santad/SNTNetworkExtensionQueue.mm, Source/santad/SNTDaemonControlController.mm, Source/santad/BUILD	Replaces NSDictionary * return types with SNTNetworkExtensionSettings * in registration/settings generation and change notification flows, updates callers/locals, removes SNTDeepCopy dep, and adjusts build deps to include the new settings lib.
Build changes & test wiring Source/common/ne/BUILD, Source/common/BUILD	Adds objc_library target SNTNetworkExtensionSettings, a unit test target SNTNetworkExtensionSettingsTest, and updates dependent targets to depend on the new lib; test target added to the unit_tests suite.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant NetExtClient as NetExt Client
  participant XPC as XPC Endpoint
  participant Daemon as santad Daemon
  participant NetExtQueue as NetworkExtensionQueue

  NetExtClient->>XPC: registerNetworkExtensionWithProtocolVersion(version)
  XPC->>Daemon: forward registerNetworkExtensionWithProtocolVersion(version)
  Daemon->>NetExtQueue: handleRegistrationWithProtocolVersion(version)
  NetExtQueue-->>Daemon: SNTNetworkExtensionSettings(enable: Bool)
  Daemon-->>XPC: reply(SNTNetworkExtensionSettings, santaProtocolVersion, error)
  XPC->>NetExtClient: deliver reply(SNTNetworkExtensionSettings, santaProtocolVersion, error)

  Note over NetExtQueue, XPC: On settings changes:
  NetExtQueue->>XPC: updateNetworkExtensionSettings(SNTNetworkExtensionSettings)
  XPC->>NetExtClient: deliver update(SNTNetworkExtensionSettings)

Loading

Estimated code review effort

🎯 4 (Complex) | ⏱️ ~45 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• Notify network extension when settings change #801 — Modifies network-extension settings flow; closely related to switching payloads/types and queue/notification logic.
• Handle network extension enable/disable #753 — Changes Network Extension XPC interfaces; directly related to the updateNetworkExtensionSettings: signature and interface registration updates.
• Add infra to support network flow logging #781 — Adjusts NSXPCInterface registrations for allowed classes/selectors; related to the additional class registration changes here.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 2

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The PR title 'Strongly type settings for the network extension' directly and clearly describes the main objective of the changeset: replacing dictionary-based settings with a strongly-typed SNTNetworkExtensionSettings class throughout the codebase.
Description check	✅ Passed	The PR description 'Remove reliance on a dictionary and move to using real types' is directly related to the changeset, which introduces SNTNetworkExtensionSettings to replace NSDictionary usage in network extension settings.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment
• Commit unit tests in branch mlw/netext-settings-type

---

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

Inline comments:
In `@Source/common/ne/SNTNetworkExtensionSettingsTest.mm`:
- Around line 76-105: The test method testForwardCompatibility has a
clang-format styling violation around the NSKeyedUnarchiver initialization and
subsequent calls; reformat the block (or run clang-format on the file) so the
NSKeyedUnarchiver initialization line (initForReadingFromData:error:), the
requiresSecureCoding assignment, the setClass:forClassName: call, and the
decodeObjectOfClass:forKey: call conform to the project's clang-format style;
ensure indentation, line breaks, and spacing in the testForwardCompatibility
method match surrounding code.
- Around line 107-122: The test uses a freshly encoded
SNTNetworkExtensionSettings so the 'enable' key is present; to simulate a legacy
archive that omits that key, add a small helper legacy class (e.g.
LegacyNetworkExtensionSettings) whose -encodeWithCoder: intentionally does not
encode the @"enable" key, archive an instance of that legacy class, then when
unarchiving remap the legacy class name to SNTNetworkExtensionSettings using
NSKeyedUnarchiver's class-for-name mapping (e.g. +[NSKeyedUnarchiver
setClass:forClassName:]) before calling unarchivedObjectOfClass:fromData:error:
and assert deserialized.enable is NO; modify testBackwardCompatibility to
perform these steps and remove the current direct-archiving of
SNTNetworkExtensionSettings.

---

ℹ️ Review info

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Disabled knowledge base sources:

• Linear integration is disabled

You can enable these sources in your CodeRabbit configuration.

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 01bf95f and 5d58427.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• Source/common/ne/SNTNetworkExtensionSettingsTest.mm