Safari crashes when pop-up prompts appear in Private Browsing

Question

Safari crashes when pop-up prompts appear in Private Browsing

Hello,

I have recently been encountering an issue in Safari, specifically in Private Browsing where any pop-up prompts, such as Google log in prompts, although it's not limited to only that, causes Safari to abruptly quit.

This issue occurs after clearing cache, cookies, trying in safe mode, and reinstalling macOS, so I don't think it's an issue with the device to the best of my knowledge although I may be wrong.

Please let me know if anyone also has this issue or any ideas on how to solve it. Thanks.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.4

Posted on May 9, 2025 02:35 PM

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Answer 1

pgeorgan

Level 1

18 points

May 15, 2025 10:47 AM in response to TheIllusionist77

Indeed I noticed this as well. Also recently noticed it appears to be limited to Private Browsing. I switched over to non-private and the issue went away. Confirmed the offending websites had Pop-ups "allowed", so it wasn't that.

Will have to wait for a bug fix.

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Answer 2

May 23, 2025 11:28 AM in response to Jon Mansey

Jon Mansey wrote:

100% repeatable with a simple bit of html code. Save this, open in safari 18.5 in private mode, click the link, instant crash.

Here is how to: Report a security or privacy vulnerability - Apple Support (including this denial of service / crash)

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Answer 3

Jun 26, 2025 02:47 PM in response to TheIllusionist77

Yep, it’s a Safari bug—nothing you did wrong.

Where it happens for me: Safari 18.5 (macOS 15.x) especially when you’re in Private Browsing and a site tries to open an OAuth/social-login popup (Google, Facebook, etc.).
What you see: Safari crashes instantly. Same thing on lots of sites, not just yours.
Status: Apple has already flagged the crash; it’s fixed in the Safari 18.6 beta / Tech Preview.
Work-around: If it's your site, you can skip the popup. Let the social login "popup" open in a new tab and it won’t crash.

Safari 18.5’s WebKit hits a crash in SOAuthorizationCoordinator when an OAuth pop-up opens in Private Browsing, so any Google/Facebook login window nukes the browser.

That’s really all there is until the next Safari update rolls out.

Even still, you might want to wait a little longer if it is your website because everybody won't have their browser updated right away.

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Answer 4

May 9, 2025 04:47 PM in response to TheIllusionist77

This is happening to me as well. Started today after I did an IOS Mac update. I'm using IOS Sequoia 15.4.1 (24E263).

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Answer 5

Marton82

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2025 10:38 AM in response to TheIllusionist77

I have exactly the same problem, since my OS update.

Please let me know if it is fixed!

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Answer 6

May 13, 2025 05:02 PM in response to TheIllusionist77

Started after the macOS update to Sequoia 15.4.1 (from 14.x.x). Some tools (proxmox for one) use popup windows as their standard workflow. And many media slop sites use pop-ups for ads. Now those sites can be considered harmful for real.

It's a shame (of the QA team) that this bug made it into the release.

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Answer 7

May 23, 2025 11:22 AM in response to TheIllusionist77

100% repeatable with a simple bit of html code. Save this, open in safari 18.5 in private mode, click the link, instant crash.

<html>

<body>

<a href="https://foo" target="_blank">click</a>

</html>

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Answer 8

May 25, 2025 12:54 PM in response to TheIllusionist77

Ive never used profiles, and it's happening, so there may be multiple ways to trigger this bug.

I sent a report to the security and privacy link provided, feels like a black hole though. I won't hold my breath.

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Answer 9

ArdaE

Level 1

22 points

May 27, 2025 01:25 PM in response to Jon Mansey

That code works fine for me, but the following causes a crash if opened in private mode:

<html>
<body>
<a href="#" onclick="window.open('https://example.com', '_blank', 'width=600,height=400,left='+(screen.width/2-300)+',top='+(screen.height/2-200)); return false;">Click</a>
</body>
</html>

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Answer 10

Jun 8, 2025 10:46 AM in response to Marton82

Marton82 wrote:

I have exactly the same problem, since my OS update.

Please let me know if it is fixed!

Update to current, check again, then report it to Apple: Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 11

May 24, 2025 04:03 PM in response to TheIllusionist77

I believe I have isolated the issue.

Starting with a fresh macOS install, no crashes. As soon as you turn on the profiles feature within Safari, it begins to crash, and turning off the feature does not stop the crashing (it's irreversible).

Hope this is resolved by Apple soon.

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Safari crashes when pop-up prompts appear in Private Browsing

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