Electron app crashes when I ask permission to use camera. Error message asks for string in com.apple.security.device.camera. Shouldn't it be boolean? - macos

Question

I have an Electron app that needs access to the camera. On Windows it works fine but on MacOS it doesn't and even crashes when I try to ask permisson.
When I call the routine to check the permission status (shown bellow) it gives me a not-determined answer.
systemPreferences.getMediaAccessStatus('camera')
Then, to ask for permission (and hopefully show the allow/deny pop-up) I use the following:
const { systemPreferences } = require('electron')
systemPreferences.askForMediaAccess('camera')
But when I do, it instantaneously crashes the app and gives me a long detailed crash report that, among other things, says this:
This app has crashed because it attempted to access privacy-sensitive data without a usage description.
The app's Info.plist must contain an com.apple.security.device.camera key with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data.
Additionally, the Info.plist generated in the root of the app instalation has all of the entries needed. I even included the hardenedRuntime as true.
<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs access to the Camera</string>
<key>com.apple.security.device.camera</key>
<true/>
<key>hardenedRuntime</key>
<true/>
Some final notes...
I was struggling with app signing and finally made it to use a valid certificate to sign during the build. Before that the app did not crash when I asked for the permission. It simply did nothing at all. The crashing started as soon as I managed to sign the App.
I'm using electron-builder to build the .dmg and installing from that. npm run electron:build. When I run the app in dev mode through npm run electron:serve it works perfectly and doesn't even pop the permission pop-up. The access status returns as granted.
Shouldn't com.apple.security.device.camera be a boolean? Everywhere I read about it it is a Boolean. Although the error message asks me to define a string with a description. (which I already tried and did not change anything)
Any ideas on how to solve that?
I already tried to change the Info.plist mannualy. Didn't work. How can I make sure I'm working on the right Info.plist file. There are a few. The one I was using is the largest and seems to be the main one. The others are helpers.
I also tried to manage the permission in the MacOS System Preferences. Did not work either.

Answer 1

Try to add "com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory": true
mac: {
....
extendInfo: {
"NSCameraUsageDescription": "some description",
"com.apple.security.device.camera": true,
"com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory": true
}
}