macOS kernel return 2 (KERN_PROTECTION

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: Mach VM found a mapping, but its current protection does not permit the requested access.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND	Win32 error	Windows
STATUS_WAIT_2	NTSTATUS	Windows
ippStsMisalignedBuf	Intel Ipp Status	Any
WDSMCCLIENT_CATEGORY	HRESULT	Windows
ENOENT	errno	Any
DEVICE_QUEUE_NOT_BUSY	BugCheck Code	Windows

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KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS	KERN_NO_SPACE

KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE

KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE means the address is valid in the target task, but the requested operation conflicts with the mapping's access protections. In other words, this is a protection problem, not evidence that the address range is absent.

This result commonly matters around Mach virtual-memory reads, writes, copies, or remapping. A process can share a range while keeping it read-only, and Mach uses protected sharing as part of copy-on-write behavior. A write into such a range can therefore fail even though a read or a region query succeeds.

How to diagnose it

Identify the precise operation: read, write, execute, copy, or a mapping change.
Inspect the target range's current protection and whether the operation spans more than one region.
Do not treat it as a request to bypass macOS protection. The correct fix is normally to use an allowed operation or arrange the mapping with the needed rights.
When inspecting another task, distinguish a task-port entitlement or authorization issue from the protection of the specific VM region.

Apple's Mach documentation describes virtual-memory ranges as mappings backed by memory objects. Their permissions are part of the mapping state, so a valid address alone is not sufficient for every kind of access.

References

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