Wi-Fi won't connect on MacBook M5 Pro with N1 chip after installing SEP 14.3 RU9

Products

• Endpoint Security Complete
• Endpoint Protection

Issue/Introduction

After installing Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) 14.3 RU9 on a MacBook M5 Pro with the N1 chip, you are unable to connect to Wi-Fi. Additionally, the following entries may be seen in the logs:

nesessionmanager: content-filter listener activated
launchd: "Successfully spawned airportd[481] because ipc (mach)"
...
airportd[481]: PRIVATE MAC: FAILED to create private MAC...
               Error Domain=<DOMAIN_NAME> Code=45 "Operation not supported"
...
airportd[481]: [DISASSOC] Will disassociate due to failed EAP authentication
               Disassociate succeeded (DISASSOC_REASON=3)

Environment

• SEP 14.3 RU9
• MacBook Pro M5 with the N1 chip

Cause

An investigation into the N1 chip found that this issue is triggered when the SEP Network Filter is enabled and attempts to register Apple's NEFilterDataProvider API. This registration forces launchd to restart the airportd service.

Resolution

This issue has been resolved by Apple in macOS Tahoe 26.4.1.  It is recommended that customers update to this release to receive the fix for this issue.

Workaround:
To mitigate this issue if you are unable to upgrade, disable the SEP Network Filter.