Networks show up as redacted on macOS Tahoe

[jp-pino]

The network shows up as "<redacted>" even when running with sudo.

➜ wifi-wand a
Available networks, in descending signal strength order,
and not including any currently connected network, are:

[
    [0] "<redacted>"
]"

➜ wifi-wand s
WiFi: ✅ YES | Network: <redacted> | TCP: ✅ YES | DNS: ✅ YES | Internet: ✅ YES

[keithrbennett]

@jp-pino Thanks for reporting this. I have not yet upgraded and don't have access to a Mac running Tahoe.

I see you're using code that is not yet released as a gem -- that's good, you can test it for me ;). Did you get it from branch 'main' or 'add-ubuntu'? I just merged add-ubuntu into main and I think there were a lot of new commits, so feel free to get main and build the gem again. My current development is on the add-ubuntu branch and I periodically merge it into main.

If you have the time, would you please run bin/test-all and send me the output? I'd like to get an idea of just how much has been broken by the new OS. Unlike the default bundle exec rspec, this script runs the test suite in "disruptive" mode, i.e. it includes tests that call the real OS commands for network manipulation. Do it when you're ok with the network connection turning off and on for a few minutes. You'll need to authenticate one or two times at the beginning of the test suite (one for sudo and possibly one for the keychain auth dialog). After the tests complete they should restore your network to the state with which it started. (The tests modify state (on/off, connect/disconnect) but do not change your configuration.)

If you could run the tests twice, once in verbose mode (WIFIWAND_VERBOSE=true) and once without, that would be super helpful. The verbose output is super verbose but shows the OS commands that were called and their results so it can point to specific issues more effectively than the nonverbose mode; the terse mode is way better for showing on a higher level what works and what doesn't.

[keithrbennett]

I did some ChatGPT research on this and broader issues (see https://chatgpt.com/share/68dc01f1-8044-800f-8185-52d6410b45c8).

A short answer it gave is that if you enable Location Services, you will get the network names. The easy way is to grant Location Services authorization to your terminal application. However, this will result in any terminal command having this access.

The more secure way is to make wifi-wand a signed binary; then only it gets the authorization.

[jp-pino]

Here's the test output test-all.txt. I ran it on 137544d. Hope it can help. Got lots of error messages about not being able to reconnect to <redacted>.

Don't really feel too comfortable posting the verbose output tho 😓 It prints a lot of "personal" information.

short answer it gave is that if you enable Location Services, you will get the network

I tried this but still got <redacted> on the output.

[keithrbennett]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM Juan Pablo Pino Bravo < ***@***.***> wrote: *jp-pino* left a comment (keithrbennett/wifiwand#38) <#38 (comment)> Here's the test output test-all.txt <https://github.com/user-attachments/files/22668995/test-all.txt>. I ran it on 137544d <137544d>. Hope it can help. Got lots of error messages about not being able to reconnect to <redacted>.

Thank you! Those error messages are due to the fact that the test suite is configured to restore the original network state after each test that might modify it. The network state is captured at the beginning of the test suite and unfortunately the network name recorded is "<redacted>", so that it the name of the network it tries to reconnect to.

Don't really feel too comfortable posting the verbose output tho 😓 It prints a lot of "personal" information.

No problem, I totally understand.

short answer it gave is that if you enable Location Services, you will get the network Excellent, thank you for testing and reporting that. @keithrbennett <https://github.com/keithrbennett> I tried this but still got <redacted> on the output.

I'm confused, can you clarify what it is that you tried that didn't work? You said that enabling Location Services worked, what didn't work? —

…

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[jp-pino]

I couldn't directly grant Location Services to the Terminal or iTerm2, but I was able to grant it to VSCode and Hyper. It didn't work on either. Is there anything else we could try?

Don't think I ever said that enabling Location Services worked tho, I was quoting your previous message.

[keithrbennett]

Juan Pablo - Thanks for looking into this. More below...

On 3 Oct 2025, at 16:17, Juan Pablo Pino Bravo wrote: jp-pino left a comment (keithrbennett/wifiwand#38) I couldn't directly grant Location Services to the Terminal or iTerm2, but I was able to grant it to VSCode and Hyper. It didn't work on either. Is there anything else we could try?

Ok, now I understand I was mistaken about a couple of things: 1) Those terminal applications cannot be granted access to Location Services because their metadata does not request it, so they're not in the list of choices. 2) Even if they had access to location services, the processes that run when commands are issued on the command line would not inherit that access. I got some good information about the issues at https://chatgpt.com/share/68df8fe4-4d7c-800f-97b2-03ecaa585c35 . It looks like for it to work it will need to packaged as a Mac application. The steps outlined in the ChatGPT discussion show how it could be done, and it seems doable, but I don't know when I will be able to get to it.

…

Don't think I ever said that enabling Location Services worked tho, I was quoting your previous message. -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #38 (comment) You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[danpritts]

i fell down this rabbit hole today and came across this which did the trick for me:

https://github.com/noperator/wifi-unredactor

Note, it failed silently if location services was not enabled.

[keithrbennett]

@danpritts Thanks for sharing this information, it's very helpful. I'm currently looking into it.

[keithrbennett]

@jp-pino @danpritts I've invested many hours in adding support for Tahoe and future macOS versions. I think it works fine, but I don't have a Tahoe machine to test it on.

If you can, could you try it out?

If you already have the repo cloned:

git fetch origin
git checkout add-mac-wrapper
git pull origin add-mac-wrapper
gem build wifi-wand.gemspec
gem install wifi-wand-3.0.0.pre.alpha.1.gem
exe/wifi-wand-macos-setup

If you don't have the repo yet:

git clone -b add-mac-wrapper https://github.com/keithrbennett/wifiwand.git
cd wifiwand
gem build wifi-wand.gemspec
gem install wifi-wand-3.0.0.pre.alpha.1.gem
exe/wifi-wand-macos-setup

Once you have it set up, try wifi-wand a to get the list of names of available networks. If you get a dialog asking if you want to give wifi-wand access to Location Services, then approve it. If you approve, then it should work (and, I think, be much faster than before).

More info about the setup is available in MACOS_SETUP.md, and about the need and implementation of the Mac helper app at MACOS_HELPER.md.

Let me know if you have any issues. Thanks!

[danpritts]

Ran as requested. It failed during the gem install stage with a permissions error writing to /Library.

I set GEM_HOME to a directory in my home and then I got:

~/src/wifiwand@mx5% gem install wifi-wand-3.0.0.pre.alpha.1.gem
[...]
ERROR:  Error installing wifi-wand-3.0.0.pre.alpha.1.gem:
	There are no versions of traces (~> 0.18) compatible with your Ruby & RubyGems. Maybe try installing an older version of the gem you're looking for?
	traces requires Ruby version >= 3.2. The current ruby version is 2.6.10.210.

Installed ruby via homebrew and was eventually able to make it work, but it wasn't seamless.

I had to whack previously installed /usr/local/bin/wifi-wand, which was using the system ruby. I don't specifically remember installing it, but the wifi-wand-2.20.0 directory is from oct 28, which is presumably when i commented above (just says "2 weeks ago, but whatever"). I didn't have the src directory; not sure if the previous installation required source or just a gem install or some such.

 ~/src/wifiwand@mx5% cat !$
cat /usr/local/bin/wifi-wand
#!/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/ruby
#
# This file was generated by RubyGems.
#
# The application 'wifi-wand' is installed as part of a gem, and
# this file is here to facilitate running it.
#

require 'rubygems'
[...]

At least once while I was messing around, wifi-wand-macos-setup did not successfully foreground System Settings. It did open up the right panel though. Alas, I can't reproduce.

system info:

~/src/wifiwand@mx5% uname -a
Darwin mx5.icpsr.umich.edu 25.1.0 Darwin Kernel Version 25.1.0: Mon Oct 20 19:32:56 PDT 2025; root:xnu-12377.41.6~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8132 arm64

[keithrbennett]

@danpritts - Thanks for testing it so quickly! Sorry it was a bit challenging. The problem is that Apple has been shipping an obsolete version of Ruby for a long time; and by default the gem installation writes to a directory that requires sudo access! You did exactly the right thing to install a newer Ruby. Meanwhile, we have updated the required Ruby version to 3.2, and added helpful information to the docs and the gem post-install message.

…

On Fri, Nov 14, 2025 at 12:40 AM Dan Pritts ***@***.***> wrote: *danpritts* left a comment (keithrbennett/wifiwand#38) <#38 (comment)> Ran as requested. It failed during the gem install stage with a permissions error writing to /Library. I set GEM_HOME to a directory in my home and then I got: ***@***.***% gem install wifi-wand-3.0.0.pre.alpha.1.gem [...] ERROR: Error installing wifi-wand-3.0.0.pre.alpha.1.gem: There are no versions of traces (~> 0.18) compatible with your Ruby & RubyGems. Maybe try installing an older version of the gem you're looking for? traces requires Ruby version >= 3.2. The current ruby version is 2.6.10.210. Installed ruby via homebrew and was eventually able to make it work, but it wasn't seamless. I had to whack previously installed /usr/local/bin/wifi-wand, which was using the system ruby. I don't specifically remember installing it, but the wifi-wand-2.20.0 directory is from oct 28, which is presumably when i commented above (just says "2 weeks ago, but whatever"). I didn't have the src directory; not sure if the previous installation required source or just a gem install or some such. ***@***.***% cat !$ cat /usr/local/bin/wifi-wand #!/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/ruby # # This file was generated by RubyGems. # # The application 'wifi-wand' is installed as part of a gem, and # this file is here to facilitate running it. # require 'rubygems' [...] At least once while I was messing around, wifi-wand-macos-setup did not successfully foreground System Settings. It did open up the right panel though. Alas, I can't reproduce. system info: ***@***.***% uname -a Darwin mx5.icpsr.umich.edu 25.1.0 Darwin Kernel Version 25.1.0: Mon Oct 20 19:32:56 PDT 2025; root:xnu-12377.41.6~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8132 arm64 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#38 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAG56RZ3FADUTECTMXF2DT34SYA3AVCNFSM6AAAAACH2AFOG6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTKMRYGY4TAMZTGE> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[keithrbennett]

@danpritts -

For those who want to use an older Ruby version such as the 2.x version that comes packaged with macOS, we have an unsupported, not-really-recommended workaround:

Modify wifi-wand.gemspec before building:

spec.required_ruby_version = ">= 2.7.0"    # change from ">= 3.2.0"
spec.add_dependency('async', '~> 1.30')    # change from '~> 2.0'

Then build and install:

gem build wifi-wand.gemspec
gem install wifi-wand-*.gem

Note: This configuration is not tested or supported. Use at your own risk.

[keithrbennett]

I have not forgotten about this. I have been working feverishly to get a new major release out. It may take a while longer, but the current head should be much improved, so feel free to download/pull and create and install your own gem.

[keithrbennett]

I just upgraded to Tahoe and verified that the HEAD of the main branch works. I have not yet released a version but if you download the code base, and gem build and install it, it should work. Please let me know what your experience is.

Please take a look at https://github.com/keithrbennett/wifiwand/blob/main/docs/MACOS_QUICK_START.md for Mac-specific information and instructions.

I have been very busy but hope to release a version within the next few weeks.