A macOS bug that causes TCP networking to stop working after 49.7 days

by RyanZhuuuu on 4/6/2026, 8:20:54 PM

https://photon.codes/blog/we-found-a-ticking-time-bomb-in-macos-tcp-networking

Comments

by: EdNutting

I got tired of the AI writing before finding out if they even attempted to contact Apple about this issue? Does anyone know?Also, massively over-dramatised. Yes, a bug worth finding and knowing about, but it’s not a time bomb - very few users are likely to be affected by this.Knowing the nature of OS kernels, I’m guessing even just putting a Mac laptop to sleep would be enough to avoid this issue as it would reset the TCP stack - which may be why some people are reporting much longer uptimes without hitting this problem, since (iirc) uptime doesn’t reset on Macs just for a sleep? Only for a full reboot?Anyway, all in all, yeah hopefully Apple fix this but it’s not something anyone needs to panic about.

4/6/2026, 9:22:36 PM

by: tjohns

Does anybody else find these AI-authored blog posts difficult to read? Something about the writing style and structure just feels unnatural, it's hard put my finger on it.At the very least, the writing takes way too long to get to a point.

4/6/2026, 9:18:05 PM

by: mcculley

> It will not be caught in development testing — who runs a test for 50 days?You don't have to run the system for 50 days. You can simulate the environment and tick the clock faster. Many high reliability systems are tested this way.

4/6/2026, 9:11:54 PM

by: otterley

Sounds like it affects every open TCP connection, not just OpenClaw. (It's pretty rare for a TCP connection to live that long, though.)

4/6/2026, 8:47:30 PM

by: JensRantil

This reminds me of the Linux kernel scheduler bug that kicked in after 208 days: <a href="https://www.claudiokuenzler.com/blog/247/linux-virtual-server-crash-update_cpu_power-kernel-uptime-bug" rel="nofollow">https://www.claudiokuenzler.com/blog/247/linux-virtual-serve...</a>

4/6/2026, 10:54:10 PM

by: justinfrankel

have multiple macOS machines with 600-1000+ day uptimes, which do TCP connections every minute or so at a minimum, they are still expiring their TIME_WAIT connections as normal.these kernel versions:Darwin Kernel Version 20.6.0: Thu Jul 6 22:12:47 PDT 2023; root:xnu-7195.141.49.702.12~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8101 arm64Darwin Kernel Version 17.7.0: Wed Apr 24 21:17:24 PDT 2019; root:xnu-4570.71.45~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64so... wonder what that's about?

4/6/2026, 9:19:02 PM

by: gghootch

What does this have to do with OpenClaw exactly?

4/6/2026, 8:58:49 PM

by: loloquwowndueo

lol reminds me of the windows 95 crash bug after 49.7 days. Have we learned nothing. <a href="https://pipiscrew.github.io/posts/why-window/" rel="nofollow">https://pipiscrew.github.io/posts/why-window/</a>

4/6/2026, 8:36:34 PM

by: beanjuiceII

i'm on sequoia M1 laptop with uptime 16:38 up 228 days, 21:03, 1 user, load averages: 6.14 5.93 5.64guess i'm marked safe!

4/6/2026, 8:38:26 PM

by:

4/6/2026, 8:43:10 PM

by:

4/6/2026, 10:02:36 PM

by: bawolff

Wasn't windows 95 famous for having an issue like this?

4/6/2026, 10:24:13 PM

by: daveorzach

If you want to see exactly when your machine will hit this, I threw together a fish shell function that calculates the precise timestamp, mostly vibe coded.calc_tcp_overflow_time.fish: <a href="https://gist.github.com/daveorzach/64538f82a89fa24e5d134557cb97019d" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/daveorzach/64538f82a89fa24e5d134557c...</a>monitor_tcp_time_wait.fish: <a href="https://gist.github.com/daveorzach/0964a7a67c08c50043ff707cfc7903d2" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/daveorzach/0964a7a67c08c50043ff707cf...</a>

4/6/2026, 8:59:37 PM

by: apatheticonion

Ignoring the AI article contents.God I wish Apple offered first party support for Linux on Mac computers.

4/6/2026, 9:48:57 PM

by: dvh

Exactly like arduino

4/6/2026, 8:50:56 PM

by: Philpax

Ctrl+F "OpenClaw". No results. Que?

4/6/2026, 9:03:42 PM

by: throw03172019

I only have 11 days left until my machine crashes and I lose all of my tabs.

4/6/2026, 8:48:52 PM

by: revv00

Orz! A kindly reminder for rebooting.

4/6/2026, 11:13:52 PM

by: MatMercer

This made me remember some folks that are "I never reboot my MacOS and it's fine!". Yeah probably it is but I'll never trust any computer without periodic reboots lol.

4/6/2026, 9:02:53 PM

by:

4/6/2026, 9:44:54 PM

by: nalekberov

I rarely restart my Mac mini, and I have never had such an issue beyond my internet provider suddenly stopping properly working in the middle of the night.

4/6/2026, 10:15:31 PM

by: fortran77

Nobody keeps their Macs running for more than 49.7 days? We have Windows Servers here (with long-term TCP/IP connections) that are only rebooted every 6 months to apply patches.

4/6/2026, 10:09:32 PM

by: poppafuze

<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41939318">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41939318</a>

4/6/2026, 10:05:22 PM

by: WesolyKubeczek

In case of OpenClaw, this is a feature.

4/6/2026, 9:00:28 PM

by: cute_boi

too much words and text for simple thing..... probably written by openclaw

4/6/2026, 9:04:54 PM

by: jijji

I thought Alan Cox fixed all the TCP IP bugs in the early 1990s lol

4/6/2026, 9:08:27 PM

by: awithrow

A ticking time bomb? What an overly dramatic way to talk about a bug that requires a reboot. Its not even a hard crash.

4/6/2026, 9:11:26 PM

Hacker News Viewer

Top 20