[macOS 14.3] Computer Use PiP respawn loop leaks one zombie process every ~1.65 seconds

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.730.61639 (build 6234)

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 23.3.0 arm64 arm
macOS 14.3 (23D2057), Apple Silicon

What issue are you seeing?

On macOS 14.3, the ChatGPT/Codex desktop app continuously launches SkyComputerUseService for Computer Use picture-in-picture.

The helper declares macOS 14.4 as its minimum supported version in both:

• Info.plist: LSMinimumSystemVersion = 14.4
• Mach-O metadata: LC_BUILD_VERSION minos 14.4

SkyComputerUseService crashes approximately 0.1 seconds after each launch with:

• EXC_BAD_ACCESS
• SIGBUS
• KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE
• libobjc.A.dylib: map_images_nolock

After each crash, the desktop app launches another instance approximately every 1.652 seconds. The terminated child processes are not reaped and remain as zombie processes owned by the main ChatGPT process.

During one affected session, I measured 2,360 managed Computer Use PiP service refreshes over 3,896.967 seconds. The processIdentifier values reported in the PiP refresh logs matched the resulting zombie PIDs one-for-one.

The zombie count increases at approximately 0.60–0.64 per second and can eventually exhaust the macOS per-user process limit.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Run ChatGPT/Codex desktop app 26.730.61639 on macOS 14.3.
2. Leave Always hide picture in picture disabled in Computer Use settings.
3. Launch the app and leave it running. No Computer Use action is required.
4. Monitor child processes owned by the main ChatGPT process.
5. Observe SkyComputerUseService repeatedly crashing and the zombie-process count increasing approximately every 1.65 seconds.

What is the expected behavior?

The desktop app should not launch a helper whose declared minimum operating system version is newer than the current macOS version.

Failed helper processes should be reaped, and repeated launch failures should use bounded retries, backoff, and circuit breaking.

Additional information

Verified workaround:

Enabling Always hide picture in picture in Computer Use settings and fully restarting ChatGPT stopped the leak.

Before applying the workaround, zombies increased at approximately 0.60–0.64 per second. After applying it, the zombie count remained unchanged at 1 → 1 during a subsequent 30-second measurement.

Official Codex feedback thread ID:
019fd78c-c037-7750-b56f-dbf7048ae528

Related report: #37084. This report adds an independently measured reproduction, one-to-one process identifier correlation, and a verified workaround.