JVM Crash on Mac M4 with Mac OS 15.2 (sequoia) running as Docker Container (SVE Vector Length Issue SIGILL)

[nichelia]

The problem

On Mac M4 running macOS 15.2, I encountered a JVM crash when using Docker images with Java applications. This issue occurs with the following Docker tags:
• latest
• latest-dev
• The past three released versions.

Error Details

The JVM crashes with the following error:

A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
SIGILL (0x4) at pc=0x0000ffff7ff3fc5c, pid=393, tid=404
...
Problematic frame:
j java.lang.System.registerNatives()V+0 [email protected]

After investigating, this crash is caused by the JVM’s attempt to determine the SVE (Scalable Vector Extensions) vector length using the prctl system call. On macOS 15.2, this call is forbidden by the sandboxing mechanism, causing the JVM to interpret an invalid vector length and crash.

Workaround

Adding the environment variable JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-XX:UseSVE=0" resolves the issue by disabling SVE optimizations in the JVM.

Solution for Docker Compose

To fix this issue, add the following to the environment section of your Docker Compose file:

services:
  your-service-name:
    image: your-docker-image
    environment:
      - JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-XX:UseSVE=0
     ...

This ensures the JVM starts with the -XX:UseSVE=0 option and prevents the crash.

Are you using the latest released version?

• Yes

Have you read the troubleshooting page?

• Yes

What type of installation are you running?

signal-cli-rest-api Docker Container

In which mode are you using the docker container?

Normal Mode

What's the architecture of your host system?

arm64

Additional information

No response

[nichelia]

This is an ongoing issue and the above solution should only be temporary. I suspect this might be fixed soon by the underlying frameworks. However, I am posting for anyone that might have this exact issue in the coming days and prevent them wasting lots of time figuring this out.