SCard::manager is a static object whose constructor called
SCardLoader::Initialize(), which establishes a PC/SC context before
main() in every VeraCrypt process. On macOS this opens an XPC
connection that starts a helper thread and marks libdispatch as
fork-unsafe.
As a result, CoreService::Start() forked a multithreaded process, and
the FUSE service (which libfuse runs after fork() without exec())
inherited armed Objective-C fork-safety checks and poisoned dispatch
queues. With macFUSE >= 5.3.3 this causes:
- a SIGABRT when mounting ("+[NSNumber initialize] may have been in
progress in another thread when fork() was called"), and
- a SIGSEGV in MFChannelClose/dispatch_channel_cancel at unmount.
Load the PC/SC library on first use instead: GetReaders() now calls
loader->Initialize() itself (GetReader() already did, and Initialize()
is idempotent). PC/SC is then only touched when EMV keyfiles are used,
and never in the core service or FUSE service processes.
Tested on macOS 27.0 (arm64) with macFUSE 5.4.0: 30/30 mount/write/
remount/verify/dismount cycles with no crash reports. Previously every
mount failed.
Refs #1884, #1863, macfuse/macfuse#1193
Assisted-by: Claude Opus 5.5
