"Application damaged and can't be opened' error prompt on 15.6.1 Sequoia

I have checked the following possible root causes:

Did you try pointing syspolicy_check at your app? What does it report?

For instructions, see the Run a System Policy Check section of Resolving Trusted Execution Problems.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Yes, the application only shows the stapling error which I understand is not a "fatal" error from the documentation.

"Severity: Fatal Full Error: A Notarization ticket is not stapled to this application. Type: Distribution Error"

I have also run "/usr/bin/log show --predicate '(process == "syspolicyd") && (eventMessage CONTAINS "MyApp")'"

and

"/usr/bin/log show --predicate '(process == "trustd") && (eventMessage CONTAINS "MyApp")'"

I don't see any logs messages for the above two commands

the stapling error which I understand is not a "fatal" error

Correct. I actually filed a bug about the misrepresentation of that error as being fatal (r. 151446728) and I expect we’ll see that change sooner rather than later.

I don't see any logs messages for the above two commands

It’s unlikely you will because the app name is private data and, by default, that’s not recorded. Your Friend the System Log has a link to another post that explains how to record private data.

I’d like to take a look at your app. Can you post a download link? If so, please do. See tip 14 in Quinn’s Top Ten DevForums Tips if you have problems posting the link.

If you’re not able to share the link publicly, let me know by replying here and I can make other arrangements.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Thank you. I will not be able to share the link publicly for my application. This is also not occurring on all of the MacOS machines my application is installed in, just a few machines.

Please let me know if we can raise a ticket for this. I can share more background and details on this issue in the ticket.

Even I am seeing the same in my product. syspolicy_check shows "Severity: Fatal Full Error: A Notarization ticket is not stapled to this application. Type: Distribution Error" .

Even I am seeing the same in my product.

As we discussed above, the ticket is not stapled to this application diagnostic is not fatal. Stapling a ticket to your app is optional, as I explain in The Pros and Cons of Stapling. Moreover, there are common situations where you staple the ticket to the outermost container — like a disk image or installer package — rather than the app.

We already have a bug on file requesting that this be downgraded to a warning (r. 151446728).

If you’re having Gatekeeper problems, I recommend that you run through the steps in Resolving Trusted Execution Problems. If that doesn’t help, feel free to start a new thread and we can pick things up there. Use the same subtopic and tags as this thread, so that I see your thread go by.

I will not be able to share the link publicly for my application.

Fair enough.

This is also not occurring on all of the MacOS machines my application is installed in, just a few machines.

Oh, I didn’t realise that was the case, and it definitely changes things.

In situations like that my advice is that you test your product on a ‘clean’ machine. I generally use a VM for this, as explained in Testing a Notarised Product.

IMPORTANT Check the user reports you see whether this is specific to Intel or Apple silicon machines, and then set up your VM accordingly. And if users are seeing this on both architectures, test on whichever architecture is easiest for you to virtualise.

Please try this out and let me know how you get along.

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—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

We have tried multiple in-house replications for this issue and we were unable to replicate this on demand. This is an issue that is occurring across platforms (Intel/ARM).

We have also tried the install on a fresh VM, however, we are unable to replicate this.

We have also noticed a pattern of all of the affected machines receiving 15.6.1 OS update few days (as close as few hours before) before our product patch is applied and this prompt is triggered.

The install.log indicates a clean install of our product without any issues.

I have created a feedback ticket for the same sharing more details on this issues, FB20104614

I took a look at FB20104614 and it doesn't appear like you have logging from a machine that presented the "Application damaged and can't be opened" prompt. Without that I can't determine why gatekeeper is rejecting the application. Nothing in the logs provided shows any reason for GK would reject the application. Can you get a sysdiagnose immediately after the GK rejection prompt?

It's possible that the Application was damaged before, or somehow got GK-checked when it's transiently incomplete. The OS keeps a cached version of the no-trust result and just keeps rejecting it. On fresh systems everything appears fine.

An easy demo: duplicate a valid app (Firefox maybe?), change the copy's Info.plist to break the code signature, let GK look at it, and then revert the change. The resulting copy will be identical to the original, but is mercilessly rejected by the OS.