System Extension Blocked (Mac)

macOS High Sierra 10.13 introduced a new security feature that requires manual user approval before loading new third-party kernel extensions.

RoTunneling VPN uses a kernel extension that implements the virtual network adapter "tap", which routes your network traffic through the VPN.

To improve security on the Mac, kernel extensions installed with or after macOS High Sierra/Catalina and later require user consent before they can load. This is known as User Approved Kernel Extension Loading.

When a user installs an application on a Mac which loads a third-party extension, the load request is denied and macOS presents the alert shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 — The "System Extension Blocked" dialog you see when you install the RoTunneling VPN application for the first time.

Click on the button labeled "Open Security Preferences", which will take you to the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences (as shown in Figure 2).

NOTE: If you click the "OK" button instead, you have 30 minutes to open the Security & Privacy pane in System Preferences before the Allow button disappears. You will then need to restart the RoTunneling VPN app to approve the system extension(s).

 

Figure 2 — User approval to load the third-party extension. In this example, selecting "Allow" will enable loading of kernel extensions.

If the "Allow" button is grayed out, first click the lock icon on the left and authenticate; you will then be able to click "Allow".

 

 

Click on the "Allow" button to enable the kernel extension to load so that RoTunneling VPN will function properly on the Mac.