I tried building a macOS app with Electron, but I ran into problems during notarization.
I used notarytool to upload my DMG and got status: Invalid.
xcrun notarytool log output
{
"logFormatVersion": 1,
"jobId": "680bf475-a5f4-4675-9083-aa755d492b18",
"status": "Invalid",
"statusSummary": "Archive contains critical validation errors",
"statusCode": 4000,
"archiveFilename": "BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app.zip",
"uploadDate": "2025-09-25T02:50:41.523Z",
"sha256": "e61074b9bba6d03696f2d8b0b13870daafc283960e61ab5002d688e4e82ef6f6",
"ticketContents": null,
"issues": [
{
"severity": "error",
"code": null,
"path": "BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app.zip/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Resources/plugin/XMagic/mac/libpag.framework/libpag",
"message": "The signature of the binary is invalid.",
"docUrl": "https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution/resolving_common_notarization_issues#3087735",
"architecture": "x86_64"
},
{
"severity": "error",
"code": null,
"path": "BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app.zip/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Resources/plugin/XMagic/mac/libpag.framework/libpag",
"message": "The signature does not include a secure timestamp.",
"docUrl": "https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution/resolving_common_notarization_issues#3087733",
"architecture": "x86_64"
},
{
"severity": "error",
"code": null,
"path": "BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app.zip/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Resources/plugin/XMagic/mac/libpag.framework/libpag",
"message": "The signature of the binary is invalid.",
"docUrl": "https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution/resolving_common_notarization_issues#3087735",
"architecture": "arm64"
},
{
"severity": "error",
"code": null,
"path": "BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app.zip/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Resources/plugin/XMagic/mac/libpag.framework/libpag",
"message": "The signature does not include a secure timestamp.",
"docUrl": "https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution/resolving_common_notarization_issues#3087733",
"architecture": "arm64"
}
]
}
I checked the signature of my .app file:
codesign -v -vvv --deep --strict /Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/MacOS/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper (GPU).app
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper (GPU).app
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper (Plugin).app
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper (Plugin).app
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/TXFFmpeg.framework/Versions/Current/.
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/TXFFmpeg.framework/Versions/Current/.
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/Current/.
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/Current/Helpers/chrome_crashpad_handler
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/Current/Helpers/chrome_crashpad_handler
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/Current/.
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/TXSoundTouch.framework/Versions/Current/.
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/TXSoundTouch.framework/Versions/Current/.
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper.app
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper.app
--prepared:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper (Renderer).app
--validated:/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/Frameworks/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac Helper (Renderer).app
/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/MacOS/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac: valid on disk
/Users/zhangheng/Desktop/development/coach-app/dist_electron/mac-universal/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac.app/Contents/MacOS/BODYPARK-v3.6.0-mac: satisfies its Designated Requirement
It looks like local signing succeeded, but notarization is failing. I’m a beginner with macOS signing/notarization. Could you please help me figure out what I’m doing wrong and how to fix this? I’d really appreciate any guidance.
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I want to export Mac OS application out side App Store and I need to have Developer Id installer certificate to do the same.
When I go to certificate section in developer portal - I only see option of
Mac App Distribution
Mac Installer Distribution
Developer ID Application
Does anyone know where I can check the Developer ID installer part. Developer ID application doesn't work for signing the app manually.
Hey,
Just recently I realized something I have been overlooking in my build pipelines.
I thought that by adding the the "hardened runtime", I disable 3rd-party library injection (I do not have the disable-library-validation entitlement added).
However, I was using some checks on my code and I noticed that the "library validation" code signature check fails on my applications (e.g. adding the .libraryValidation requirement via the LightweightCodeRequirements framework) - with codesign -dvvvv /path/to/app I can check it doesn't have the CS_REQUIRE_LV flag:
[...]
CodeDirectory v=20500 size=937 flags=0x10000(runtime) hashes=18+7 location=embedded
[...]
then I used in Xcode the "Other Code Signing Flags" setting and added the -o library option, which added the flag:
[...]
CodeDirectory v=20500 size=937 flags=0x12000(library-validation,runtime) hashes=18+7 location=embedded
[...]
Is this flag something I should be explicitly setting? Because I was under the impression enabling hardened runtime would be enough. Popular Developer ID distributed applications (e.g. Google Chrome, Parallels Desktop, Slack) all have this flag set.
The Developer App Certificate is not trusted.
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
I have a free developer account, and I have been creating applications. When I tried to open one of them, it said that this app has been flagged as malware. It is not malware, so I don't know why it has been flagged as this. Not just this app, but suddenly a whole bunch of my apps have been flagged as malware as well!
The app I have been developing is basically a windows Taskbar for my macbook air, and it has been working well until the latest update i made where it hides in full screen, suddenly it started taking up significant energy, so i reverted to an older version while i was fixing it. Then, when i try to open it another time, it starts to open, and it says "Malware Blocked and Moved to Bin" “Taskbar.app” was not opened because it contains malware. This action did not harm your Mac”. All versions of the taskbar now contain this message. I try opening some of my other apps, a shared storage client and a shared storage server (where i was testing with app groups), and they couldn't open either, the same malware message appeared. ProPermission couldn't open either (changes permissions on files for me so i don't have to use the terminal or finder). I can run these apps through the Xcode environment (attached process), but when I archieve it into an app bundle, the malware flag appears.
Please note that I am certain that these apps do not contain malware, apparently XProtect has incorrectly flagged my apps as malware. Because I do not have the paid developer account, I cannot notarize my apps.
I am using MacOS Tahoe 26.1 with Xcode 26.0, and I have tested it with a iMac Intel 2017 with MacOS Ventura.
I'm experiencing an issue when exporting an Enterprise distribution certificate where the certificate and private key won't export together - the private key keeps getting left out.
I'm running macOS Tahoe. Has anyone encountered the same issue or know of a solution? Any help would be appreciated.
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
I am using a Sonoma VM (14.6) where i have installed xcode 16.2. When i try login into apple id into xcode, i am getting this error. I know i am entering the correct credentials.
Not sure why this issue is.
In other Sequioa and Tahoe VM , i was able to login.
Hello Apple Developer Forum Community,
I’ve got a problem with the signing process of my AppClip Test App. Can someone help me? As I don’t know hot to get the certificate...
IMPORTANT The underlying issue here (FB8830007) was fixed in macOS 11.3, so the advice in this post is irrelevant if you’re building on that release or later.
Note This content is a repost of info from another thread because that thread is not world readable (it’s tied to the DTK programme).
A number of folks have reported problems where:
They have a product that supports older versions of macOS (anything prior to 10.11).
If they build their product on Intel, everything works.
If they build their product on Apple Silicon, it fails on those older versions of macOS.
A developer filed a bug about this (FB8830007) and, based on the diagnosis of that bug, I have some info to share as to what’s going wrong and how you can prevent it. Let’s start with some background.
macOS’s code signing architecture supports two different hash formats:
sha1, the original hash format, which is now deprecated
sha256, the new format, support for which was added in macOS 10.11
codesign should choose the signing format based on the deployment target:
If your deployment target is 10.11 or later, you get sha256.
If your deployment target is earlier, you get both sha1 and sha256.
This problem crops up because, when building for both Intel and Apple Silicon, your deployment targets are different. You might set the deployment target to 10.9 but, on Apple Silicon, that’s raised to the minimum Apple Silicon system, 11.0. So, which deployment target does it choose?
Well, the full answer to that is complex but the executive summary is that it chooses the deployment target of the current architecture, that is, Intel if you’re building on Intel and Apple Silicon if you’re building on Apple Silicon. For example:
intel% codesign -d --arch x86_64 -vvv Test664892.app
…
Hash choices=sha1,sha256
…
intel% codesign -d --arch arm64 -vvv Test664892.app
…
Hash choices=sha1,sha256
…
arm% codesign -d --arch x86_64 -vvv Test664892.app
…
Hash choices=sha256
…
arm% codesign -d --arch arm64 -vvv Test664892.app
…
Hash choices=sha256
…
The upshot is that you have problems if your deployment target is less than 10.11 and you sign on Apple Silicon. When you run on, say, macOS 10.10, the system looks for a sha1 hash, doesn’t find it, and complains.
The workaround is to supply the --digest-algorithm=sha1,sha256, which overrides the hash choice logic in codesign and causes it to include both hashes:
arm% codesign -s - --digest-algorithm=sha1,sha256 Test664892.app
arm% codesign -d --arch x86_64 -vvv Test664892.app
…
Hash choices=sha1,sha256
…
% codesign -d --arch arm64 -vvv Test664892.app
…
Hash choices=sha1,sha256
…
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
I help a lot of developers with macOS trusted execution problems. For example, they might have an app being blocked by Gatekeeper, or an app that crashes on launch with a code signing error.
If you encounter a problem that’s not explained here, start a new thread with the details. Put it in the Code Signing > General subtopic and tag it with relevant tags like Gatekeeper, Code Signing, and Notarization — so that I see it.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Resolving Trusted Execution Problems
macOS supports three software distribution channels:
The user downloads an app from the App Store.
The user gets a Developer ID-signed program directly from its developer.
The user builds programs locally using Apple or third-party developer tools.
The trusted execution system aims to protect users from malicious code. It’s comprised of a number of different subsystems. For example, Gatekeeper strives to ensure that only trusted software runs on a user’s Mac, while XProtect is the platform’s built-in anti-malware technology.
Note To learn more about these technologies, see Apple Platform Security.
If you’re developing software for macOS your goal is to avoid trusted execution entanglements. You want users to install and use your product without taking any special steps. If, for example, you ship an app that’s blocked by Gatekeeper, you’re likely to lose a lot of customers, and your users’ hard-won trust.
Trusted execution problems are rare with Mac App Store apps because the Mac App Store validation process tends to catch things early. This post is primarily focused on Developer ID-signed programs.
Developers who use Xcode encounter fewer trusted execution problems because Xcode takes care of many code signing and packaging chores. If you’re not using Xcode, consider making the switch. If you can’t, consult the following for information on how to structure, sign, and package your code:
Placing content in a bundle
Embedding nonstandard code structures in a bundle
Embedding a command-line tool in a sandboxed app
Creating distribution-signed code for macOS
Packaging Mac software for distribution
Gatekeeper Basics
User-level apps on macOS implement a quarantine system for new downloads. For example, if Safari downloads a zip archive, it quarantines that archive. This involves setting the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute on the file.
Note The com.apple.quarantine extended attribute is not documented as API. If you need to add, check, or remove quarantine from a file programmatically, use the quarantinePropertiesKey property.
User-level unarchiving tools preserve quarantine. To continue the above example, if you double click the quarantined zip archive in the Finder, Archive Utility will unpack the archive and quarantine the resulting files.
If you launch a quarantined app, the system invokes Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper checks the app for problems. If it finds no problems, it asks the user to confirm the launch, just to be sure. If it finds a problem, it displays an alert to the user and prevents them from launching it. The exact wording of this alert varies depending on the specific problem, and from release to release of macOS, but it generally looks like the ones shown in Apple > Support > Safely open apps on your Mac.
The system may run Gatekeeper at other times as well. The exact circumstances under which it runs Gatekeeper is not documented and changes over time. However, running a quarantined app always invokes Gatekeeper.
Unix-y networking tools, like curl and scp, don’t quarantine the files they download. Unix-y unarchiving tools, like tar and unzip, don’t propagate quarantine to the unarchived files.
Confirm the Problem
Trusted execution problems can be tricky to reproduce:
You may encounter false negatives, that is, you have a trusted execution problem but you don’t see it during development.
You may also encounter false positives, that is, things fail on one specific Mac but otherwise work.
To avoid chasing your own tail, test your product on a fresh Mac, one that’s never seen your product before. The best way to do this is using a VM, restoring to a snapshot between runs. For a concrete example of this, see Testing a Notarised Product.
The most common cause of problems is a Gatekeeper alert saying that it’s blocked your product from running. However, that’s not the only possibility. Before going further, confirm that Gatekeeper is the problem by running your product without quarantine. That is, repeat the steps in Testing a Notarised Product except, in step 2, download your product in a way that doesn’t set quarantine. Then try launching your app. If that launch fails then Gatekeeper is not the problem, or it’s not the only problem!
Note The easiest way to download your app to your test environment without setting quarantine is curl or scp. Alternatively, use xattr to remove the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute from the download before you unpack it. For more information about the xattr tool, see the xattr man page.
Trusted execution problems come in all shapes and sizes. Later sections of this post address the most common ones. But first, let’s see if there’s an easy answer.
Run a System Policy Check
macOS has a syspolicy_check tool that can diagnose many common trusted execution issues. To check an app, run the distribution subcommand against it:
% syspolicy_check distribution MyApp.app
App passed all pre-distribution checks and is ready for distribution.
If there’s a problem, the tool prints information about that problem. For example, here’s what you’ll see if you run it against an app that’s notarised but not stapled:
% syspolicy_check distribution MyApp.app
App has failed one or more pre-distribution checks.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Notary Ticket Missing
File: MyApp.app
Severity: Fatal
Full Error: A Notarization ticket is not stapled to this application.
Type: Distribution Error
…
Note In reality, stapling isn’t always required, so this error isn’t really Fatal (r. 151446728 ). For more about that, see The Pros and Cons of Stapling forums.
And here’s what you’ll see if there’s a problem with the app’s code signature:
% syspolicy_check distribution MyApp.app
App has failed one or more pre-distribution checks.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Codesign Error
File: MyApp.app/Contents/Resources/added.txt
Severity: Fatal
Full Error: File added after outer app bundle was codesigned.
Type: Notary Error
…
The syspolicy_check isn’t perfect. There are a few issues it can’t diagnose (r. 136954554, 151446550). However, it should always be your first step because, if it does work, it’ll save you a lot of time.
Note syspolicy_check was introduced in macOS 14. If you’re seeing a problem on an older system, first check your app with syspolicy_check on macOS 14 or later.
If you can’t run the syspolicy_check tool, or it doesn’t report anything actionable, continue your investigation using the instructions in the following sections.
App Blocked by Gatekeeper
If your product is an app and it works correctly when not quarantined but is blocked by Gatekeeper when it is, you have a Gatekeeper problem. For advice on how to investigate such issues, see Resolving Gatekeeper Problems.
App Can’t Be Opened
Not all failures to launch are Gatekeeper errors. In some cases the app is just broken. For example:
The app’s executable might be missing the x bit set in its file permissions.
The app’s executable might be subtly incompatible with the current system. A classic example of this is trying to run a third-party app that contains arm64e code on systems prior to macOS 26 beta.
macOS 26 beta supports arm64e apps directly. Prior to that, third-party products (except kernel extensions) were limited to arm64, except for the purposes of testing.
The app’s executable might claim restricted entitlements that aren’t authorised by a provisioning profile.
Or the app might have some other code signing problem.
Note For more information about provisioning profiles, see TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles.
In such cases the system displays an alert saying:
The application “NoExec” can’t
be opened.
[[OK]]
Note In macOS 11 this alert was:
You do not have permission to
open the application “NoExec”.
Contact your computer or network
administrator for assistance.
[[OK]]
which was much more confusing.
A good diagnostic here is to run the app’s executable from Terminal. For example, an app with a missing x bit will fail to run like so:
% NoExec.app/Contents/MacOS/NoExec
zsh: permission denied: NoExec.app/Contents/MacOS/NoExec
And an app with unauthorised entitlements will be killed by the trusted execution system:
% OverClaim.app/Contents/MacOS/OverClaim
zsh: killed OverClaim.app/Contents/MacOS/OverClaim
In some cases running the executable from Terminal will reveal useful diagnostics. For example, if the app references a library that’s not available, the dynamic linker will print a helpful diagnostic:
% MissingLibrary.app/Contents/MacOS/MissingLibrary
dyld[88394]: Library not loaded: @rpath/CoreWaffleVarnishing.framework/Versions/A/CoreWaffleVarnishing
…
zsh: abort MissingLibrary.app/Contents/MacOS/MissingLibrary
Code Signing Crashes on Launch
A code signing crash has the following exception information:
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGKILL (Code Signature Invalid))
The most common such crash is a crash on launch. To confirm that, look at the thread backtraces:
Backtrace not available
For steps to debug this, see Resolving Code Signing Crashes on Launch.
One common cause of this problem is running App Store distribution-signed code. Don’t do that! For details on why that’s a bad idea, see Don’t Run App Store Distribution-Signed Code.
Code Signing Crashes After Launch
If your program crashes due to a code signing problem after launch, you might have encountered the issue discussed in Updating Mac Software.
Non-Code Signing Failures After Launch
The hardened runtime enables a number of security checks within a process. Some coding techniques are incompatible with the hardened runtime. If you suspect that your code is incompatible with the hardened runtime, see Resolving Hardened Runtime Incompatibilities.
App Sandbox Inheritance
If you’re creating a product with the App Sandbox enabled and it crashes with a trap within _libsecinit_appsandbox, it’s likely that you’re having App Sandbox inheritance problems. For the details, see Resolving App Sandbox Inheritance Problems.
Library Loading Problem
Most library loading problems have an obvious cause. For example, the library might not be where you expect it, or it might be built with the wrong platform or architecture. However, some library loading problems are caused by the trusted execution system. For the details, see Resolving Library Loading Problems.
Explore the System Log
If none of the above resolves your issue, look in the system log for clues as to what’s gone wrong. Some good keywords to search for include:
gk, for Gatekeeper
xprotect
syspolicy, per the syspolicyd man page
cmd, for Mach-O load command oddities
amfi, for Apple mobile file integrity, per the amfid man page
taskgated, see its taskgated man page
yara, discussed in Apple Platform Security
ProvisioningProfiles
You may be able to get more useful logging with this command:
% sudo sysctl -w security.mac.amfi.verbose_logging=1
Here’s a log command that I often use when I’m investigating a trusted execution problem and I don’t know here to start:
% log stream --predicate "sender == 'AppleMobileFileIntegrity' or sender == 'AppleSystemPolicy' or process == 'amfid' or process == 'taskgated-helper' or process == 'syspolicyd'"
For general information the system log, see Your Friend the System Log.
Revision History
2025-08-06 Added the Run a System Policy Check section, which talks about the syspolicy_check tool (finally!). Clarified the discussion of arm64e. Made other editorial changes.
2024-10-11 Added info about the security.mac.amfi.verbose_logging option. Updated some links to point to official documentation that replaces some older DevForums posts.
2024-01-12 Added a specific command to the Explore the System Log section. Change the syspolicy_check callout to reflect that macOS 14 is no longer in beta. Made minor editorial changes.
2023-06-14 Added a quick call-out to the new syspolicy_check tool.
2022-06-09 Added the Non-Code Signing Failures After Launch section.
2022-06-03 Added a link to Don’t Run App Store Distribution-Signed Code. Fixed the link to TN3125.
2022-05-20 First posted.
General:
Forums topic: Code Signing
Forums subtopics: Code Signing > General, Code Signing > Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Code Signing > Notarization, Code Signing > Entitlements
Forums tags: Code Signing, Signing Certificates, Provisioning Profiles, Entitlements
Developer Account Help — This document is good in general but, in particular, the Reference section is chock-full of useful information, including the names and purposes of all certificate types issued by Apple Developer web site, tables of which capabilities are supported by which distribution models on iOS and macOS, and information on how to use managed capabilities.
Developer > Support > Certificates covers some important policy issues
Bundle Resources > Entitlements documentation
TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles — This includes links to the other technotes in the Inside Code Signing series.
WWDC 2021 Session 10204 Distribute apps in Xcode with cloud signing
Certificate Signing Requests Explained forums post
--deep Considered Harmful forums post
Don’t Run App Store Distribution-Signed Code forums post
Resolving errSecInternalComponent errors during code signing forums post
Finding a Capability’s Distribution Restrictions forums post
Signing code with a hardware-based code-signing identity forums post
New Capabilities Request Tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles forums post
Isolating Code Signing Problems from Build Problems forums post
Investigating Third-Party IDE Code-Signing Problems forums post
Determining if an entitlement is real forums post
Mac code signing:
Forums tag: Developer ID
Creating distribution-signed code for macOS documentation
Packaging Mac software for distribution documentation
Placing Content in a Bundle documentation
Embedding nonstandard code structures in a bundle documentation
Embedding a command-line tool in a sandboxed app documentation
Signing a daemon with a restricted entitlement documentation
Defining launch environment and library constraints documentation
WWDC 2023 Session 10266 Protect your Mac app with environment constraints
TN2206 macOS Code Signing In Depth archived technote — This doc has mostly been replaced by the other resources linked to here but it still contains a few unique tidbits and it’s a great historical reference.
Manual Code Signing Example forums post
The Care and Feeding of Developer ID forums post
TestFlight, Provisioning Profiles, and the Mac App Store forums post
For problems with notarisation, see Notarisation Resources. For problems with the trusted execution system, including Gatekeeper, see Trusted Execution Resources.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Entitlements
Code Signing
Provisioning Profiles
Signing Certificates
This post is a ‘child’ of Resolving errSecInternalComponent errors during code signing. If you found your way here directly, I recommend that you start at the top.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Fixing an untrusted code-signing certificate
If your code-signing identity is set up correctly, selecting its certificate in Keychain Access should display a green checkmark with the text “This certificate is valid”. If it does not, you need to fix that before trying to sign code. There are three common causes of an untrusted certificate:
Expired
Missing issuer
Trust settings overrides
Check for an expired certificate
If your code-signing identity’s certificate has expired, Keychain Access shows a red cross with the text “… certificate is expired”. If you try to sign with it, codesign will fail like so:
% codesign -s "Apple Development" -f "MyTrue"
error: The specified item could not be found in the keychain.
If you use security to list your code-signing identities, it will show the CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED status:
% security find-identity -p codesigning
Policy: Code Signing
Matching identities
1) 4E587951B705280CBB8086325CD134D4CDA04977 "Apple Development: …" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
1 identities found
Valid identities only
0 valid identities found
The most likely cause of this problem is that… yep… your certificate has expired. To confirm that, select the certificate in Keychain Access and look at the Expires field. Or double click the certificate, expand the Details section, and look at the Not Valid Before and Not Valid After fields.
If your code-signing identity’s certificate has expired, you’ll need to renew it. For information on how to do that, see Developer Account Help.
If your certificate hasn’t expired, check that your Mac’s clock is set correctly.
Check for a missing issuer
In the X.509 public key infrastructure (PKI), every certificate has an issuer, who signed the certificate with their private key. These issuers form a chain of trust from the certificate to a trusted anchor. In most cases the trusted anchor is a root certificate, a certificate that’s self signed. Certificates between the leaf and the root are known as intermediate certificates, or intermediates for short.
Your code-signing identity’s certificate is issued by Apple. The exact chain of trust depends on the type of certificate and the date that it was issued. For example, in 2022 Apple Development certificates are issued by the Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority — G3 intermediate, which in turn was issued by the Apple Root CA certificate authority.
If there’s a missing issuer in the chain of trust between your code-signing identity’s certificate and a trusted anchor, Keychain Access shows a red cross with the text “… certificate is not trusted”. If you try to sign with it, codesign will fail like so:
% codesign -s "Apple Development" -f "MyTrue"
MyTrue: replacing existing signature
Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Apple Development: …"
MyTrue: errSecInternalComponent
The message unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer is key.
If you use security to list your identities, it will not show up in the Valid identities only list but there’s no explanation as to why:
% security find-identity -p codesigning
Policy: Code Signing
Matching identities
1) 4E587951B705280CBB8086325CD134D4CDA04977 "Apple Development: …"
1 identities found
Valid identities only
0 valid identities found
IMPORTANT These symptoms can have multiple potential causes. The most common cause is a missing issuer, as discussed in this section. Another potential cause is a trust settings override, as discussed in the next section.
There are steps you can take to investigate this further but, because this problem is most commonly caused by a missing intermediate, try taking a shortcut by assuming that’s the problem. If that fixes things, you’re all set. If not, you have at least ruled out this problem.
Apple publishes its intermediates on the Apple PKI page. The simplest way to resolve this problem is to download all of the certificates in the Apple Intermediate Certificates list and use Keychain Access to add them to your keychain. Having extra intermediates installed is generally not a problem.
If you want to apply a more targeted fix:
In Keychain Access, find your code-signing identity’s certificate and double click it.
If the Details section is collapsed, expand it.
Look at the Issuer Name section. Note the value in the Common Name field and, if present, the Organizational Unit field. For example, for an Apple Development certificate that’s likely to be Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority and G3, respectively.
Go to the Apple PKI and download the corresponding intermediate. To continue the above example, the right intermediate is labelled Worldwide Developer Relations - G3.
Use Keychain Access to add the intermediate to your keychain.
Sometimes it’s not obvious which intermediate to choose in step 4. If you’re uncertain, download all the intermediates and preview each one using Quick Look in the Finder. Look in the Subject Name section for a certificate whose Common Name and Organizational Unit field matches the values from step 3.
Finally, double check the chain of trust:
In Keychain Access, select your code-signing identity’s certificate and choose Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Evaluate.
In the resulting Certificate Assistant window, make sure that Generic (certificate chain validation only) is selected and click Continue.
It might seem like selecting Code Signing here would make more sense. If you do that, however, things don’t work as you might expect. Specifically, in this case Certificate Assistant is smart enough to temporarily download a missing intermediate certificate in order to resolve the chain of trust, and that’ll prevent you from seeing any problems with your chain of trust.
The resulting UI shows a list of certificates that form the chain of trust. The first item is your code-signing identity’s certificate and the last is an Apple root certificate. Double click the first item.
Keychain Access presents the standard the certificate trust sheet, showing the chain of trust from the root to the leaf. You should expect to see three items in that list:
An Apple root certificate
An Apple intermediate
Your code-signing identity’s certificate
If so, that’s your chain of trust built correctly.
Select each certificate in that list. The UI should show a green checkmark with the text “This certificate is valid”. If you see anything else, check your trust settings as described in the next section.
Check for a trust settings override
macOS allows you to customise trust settings. For example, you might tell the system to trust a particular certificate when verifying a signed email but not when connecting to a TLS server.
The code-signing certificates issued by Apple are trusted by default. They don’t require you to customise any trust settings. Moreover, customising trust settings might cause problems.
If code signing fails with the message unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer, first determine the chain of trust per the previous section then make sure that none of these certificates have customised trust settings. Specifically, for each certificate in the chain:
Find the certificate in Keychain Access.
Note that there may be multiple instances of the certificate in different keychains. If that’s the case, follow these steps for each copy of the certificate.
Double click the certificate to open it in a window.
If the Trust section is collapsed, expand it.
Ensure that all the popups are set to their default values (Use System Defaults for the first, “no value specified” for the rest).
If they are, move on to the next certificate.
If not, set the popups to the default values and close the window. Closing the window may require authentication to save the trust settings.
Another way to explore trust settings is with the dump-trust-settings subcommand of the security tool. On a stock macOS system you should see this:
% security dump-trust-settings
SecTrustSettingsCopyCertificates: No Trust Settings were found.
% security dump-trust-settings -d
SecTrustSettingsCopyCertificates: No Trust Settings were found.
That is, there are no user or admin trust settings overrides. If you run these commands and see custom trust settings, investigate their origins.
IMPORTANT If you’re working in a managed environment, you might see custom trust settings associated with that environment. For example, on my personal Mac I see this:
% security dump-trust-settings -d
Number of trusted certs = 1
Cert 2: QuinnNetCA
Number of trust settings : 10
…
because my home network infrastructure uses a custom certificate authority and I’ve configured my Mac to trust its root certificate (QuinnNetCA). Critically, this custom trust settings are nothing to do with code signing. If you dump trust settings and see an override you can’t explain, and specifically one related to code-signing certificate, use Keychain Access to remove it.
Revision History
2025-09-29 Added information about the dump-trust-settings command to Check for a trust settings override. Made other minor editorial changes.
2022-08-10 First posted.
I regularly see folks run into problems with their Developer ID signing identities. Historically I pointed them to my posts on this thread, but I’ve decided to collect these ideas together in one place.
If you have questions or comments, start a new thread here on DevForums and tag it with Developer ID so that I see it.
IMPORTANT Nothing I write here on DevForums is considered official documentation. It’s just my personal ramblings based on hard-won experience. There is a bunch of official documentation that covers the topics I touch on here, including:
Xcode documentation
Xcode Help
Developer Account Help
Developer > Support > Certificates
For a lot more information about code signing, see the Code Signing Resources pinned post.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
The Care and Feeding of Developer ID
Most Apple signing assets are replaceable. For example, if you accidentally lose access to your Apple Development signing identity, it’s a minor inconvenience. Just use the Developer website to revoke your previous certificate and create a replacement. Or have Xcode do that for you.
IMPORTANT If you don’t understand the difference between a certificate and a digital identity, and hence signing identity, read Certificate Signing Requests Explained before reading this post.
Some signing assets are precious. Losing access to such assets has significant consequences.
Foremost amongst those are Developer ID signing identities. These allow you to sign Mac products that ship independently. Anyone with access to your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you. This has a number of consequences, both for you and for your relationship with Apple.
Identify a Developer ID Signing Identity
A Developer ID signing identity consists of two parts: the certificate and the private key. There are two different flavours, identifiable by the subject name in the certificate:
Developer ID Application — This is named Developer ID Application: TTT, where TTT identifies your team. Use this to sign code and disk images.
Developer ID Installer — This is named Developer ID Installer: TTT, where TTT identifies your team. Use this to sign installer packages.
Note If you do KEXT development, there’s a third flavour, namely a KEXT-enabled Developer ID Application signing identity. For more details, see KEXT Code Signing Problems.
This post focuses on traditional signing identities, where you manage the private key. Xcode Cloud introduced cloud signing, where signing identities are “stored securely in the cloud”. These identities have the Managed suffix in Certificates, Identifiers, and Profiles. For example, Developer ID Application Managed is the cloud signing equivalent of Developer ID Application. To learn more about cloud signing, watch WWDC 2021 Session 10204 Distribute apps in Xcode with cloud signing. To identify these certificates ‘in the wild’, see Identifying a Cloud Managed Signing Certificate.
Limit Access to Developer ID
Anyone with your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you. Given that, be careful to limit access to these signing identities. This is true both for large organisations and small developers.
In a large organisation, ensure that only folks authorised to ship code on behalf of your organisation have access to your Developer ID signing identities. Most organisations have some sort of release process that they use to build, test, and authorise a release. This often involves a continuous integration (CI) system. Restrict CI access to only those folks involved in the release process.
Even if you’re a small developer with no formal release process, you can still take steps to restrict access to Developer ID signing identities. See Don’t Leak Your Private Key, below.
In all cases, don’t use your Developer ID signing identities for day-to-day development. That’s what Apple Development signing identities are for.
Create Developer ID Signing Identities as the Account Holder
Because Developer ID signing identities are precious, the Developer website will only let the Account Holder create them. For instructions on how to do this, see Developer Account Help > Create certificates > Create Developer ID certificates. For more information about programme roles, see Developer > Support > Program Roles.
IMPORTANT In an Organization team it’s common for the Account Holder to be non-technical. They may need help getting this done. For hints and tips on how to avoid problems while doing this, see Don’t Lose Your Private Key and Don’t Leak Your Private Key, both below.
Limit the Number of Developer ID Signing Identities You Create
Don’t create Developer ID signing identities unnecessarily. Most folks only need to create one. Well, one Developer ID Application and maybe one Developer ID Installer. A large organisation might need more, perhaps one for each sub-unit, but that’s it.
There are two reasons why this is important:
The more you have, the more likely it is for one to get into the wrong hands. Remember that anyone with your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you.
The Developer website limits you to 5 Developer ID certificates.
Note I can never remember where this limit is actually documented, so here’s the exact quote from this page:
You can create up to five Developer ID Application certificates and up to five Developer ID Installer certificates using either your developer account or Xcode.
Don’t Lose Your Private Key
There are two standard processes for creating a Developer ID signing identity:
Developer website — See Developer Account Help > Create certificates > Create Developer ID certificates.
Xcode — See Xcode Help > Maintaining signing assets > Manage signing certificates.
Both processes implicitly create a private key in your login keychain. This makes it easy to lose your private key. For example:
If you do this on one Mac and then get a new Mac, you might forget to move the private key to the new Mac.
If you’re helping your Organization team’s Account Holder to create a Developer ID signing identity, you might forget to export the private key from their login keychain.
It also makes it easy to accidentally leave a copy of the private key on a machine that doesn’t need it; see Don’t Leak Your Private Key, below, for specific advice on that front.
Every time you create a Developer ID signing identity, it’s a good idea to make an independent backup of it. For advice on how to do that, see Back Up Your Signing Identities, below.
That technique is also useful if you need to copy the signing identity to a continuous integration system.
If you think you’ve lost the private key for a Developer ID signing identity, do a proper search for it. Finding it will save you a bunch of grief. You might be able to find it on your old Mac, in a backup, in a backup for your old Mac, and so on. For instructions on how to extract your private key from a general backup, see Recover a Signing Identity from a Mac Backup.
If you’re absolutely sure that you previous private key is lost, use the Developer website to create a replacement signing identity.
If the Developer website won’t let you create any more because you’ve hit the limit discussed above, talk to Developer Programs Support. Go to Apple > Developer > Contact Us and follow the path Development and Technical > Certificates, Identifiers, and Provisioning Profiles.
Don’t Leak Your Private Key
Anyone with your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you. Thus, it’s important to take steps to prevent its private key from leaking.
A critical first step is to limit access to your Developer ID signing identities. For advice on that front, see Limit Access to Developer ID, above.
In an Organization team, only the Account Holder can create Developer ID signing identities. When they do this, a copy of the identity’s private key will most likely end up in their login keychain. Once you’ve exported the signing identity, and confirmed that everything is working, make sure to delete that copy of the private key.
Some organisations have specific rules for managing Developer ID signing identities. For example, an organisation might require that the private key be stored in a hardware token, which prevents it from being exported. Setting that up is a bit tricky, but it offers important security benefits.
Even without a hardware token, there are steps you can take to protect your Developer ID signing identity. For example, you might put it in a separate keychain, one with a different password and locking policy than your login keychain. That way signing code for distribution will prompt you to unlock the keychain, which reminds you that this is a significant event and ensures that you don’t do it accidentally.
If you believe that your private key has been compromised, follow the instructions in the Compromised Certificates section of Developer > Support > Certificates.
IMPORTANT Don’t go down this path if you’ve simply lost your private key.
Back Up Your Signing Identities
Given that Developer ID signing identities are precious, consider making an independent backup of them. To back up a signing identity to a PKCS#12 (.p12) file:
Launch Keychain Access.
At the top, select My Certificates.
On the left, select the keychain you use for signing identities. For most folks this is the login keychain.
Select the identity.
Choose File > Export Items.
In the file dialog, select Personal Information Exchange (.p12) in the File Format popup.
Enter a name, navigate to your preferred location, and click Save.
You might be prompted to enter the keychain password. If so, do that and click OK.
You will be prompted to enter a password to protect the identity. Use a strong password and save this securely in a password manager, corporate password store, on a piece of paper in a safe, or whatever.
You might be prompted to enter the keychain password again. If so, do that and click Allow.
The end result is a .p12 file holding your signing identity. Save that file in a secure location, and make sure that you have a way to connect it to the password you saved in step 9.
Remember to backup all your Developer ID signing identities, including the Developer ID Installer one if you created it.
To restore a signing identity from a backup:
Launch Keychain Access.
Choose File > Import Items.
In the open sheet, click Show Options.
Use the Destination Keychain popup to select the target keychain.
Navigate to and select the .p12 file, and then click Open.
Enter the .p12 file’s password and click OK.
If prompted, enter the destination keychain password and click OK.
Recover a Signing Identity from a Mac Backup
If you didn’t independently backup your Developer ID signing identity, you may still be able to recover it from a general backup of your Mac. To start, work out roughly when you created your Developer ID signing identity:
Download your Developer ID certificate from the Developer website.
In the Finder, Quick Look it.
The Not Valid Before field is the date you’re looking for.
Now it’s time to look in your backups. The exact details depend on the backup software you’re using, but the basic process runs something like this:
Look for a backup taken shortly after the date you determined above.
In that backup, look for the file ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain.
Recover that to a convenient location, like your desktop. Don’t put it in ~/Library/Keychains because that’ll just confuse things.
Rename it to something unique, like login-YYYY-MM-DD.keychain, where YYYY-MM-DD is the date of the backup.
In Keychain Access, choose File > Add Keychain and, in the resulting standard file panel, choose that .keychain file.
On the left, select login-YYYY-MM-DD.
Chose File > Unlock Keychain “login-YYYY-MM-DD“.
In the resulting password dialog, enter your login password at the date of the backup.
At the top, select My Certificates.
Look through the list of digital identities to find the Developer ID identity you want. If you don’t see the one you’re looking for, see Further Recovery Tips below.
Export it using the process described at the start of Back Up Your Signing Identities.
Once you’re done, remove the keychain from Keychain Access:
On the left, select the login-YYYY-MM-DD keychain.
Choose File > Delete Keychain “login-YYYY-MM-DD”.
In the confirmation alert, click Remove Reference.
The login-YYYY-MM-DD.keychain is now just a file. You can trash it, keep it, whatever, at your discretion.
This process creates a .p12 file. To work with that, import it into your keychain using the process described at the end of Back Up Your Signing Identities.
IMPORTANT Keep that .p12 file as your own independent backup of your signing identity.
Further Recovery Tips
If, in the previous section, you can’t find the Developer ID identity you want, there are a few things you might do:
Look in a different backup.
If your account has more than one keychain, look in your other keychains.
If you have more than one login account, look at the keychains for your other accounts.
If you have more than one Mac, look at the backups for your other Macs.
The login-YYYY-MM-DD keychain might have the private key but not the certificate. Add your Developer ID certificate to that keychain to see if it pairs with a private key.
Revision History
2025-03-28 Excised the discussion of Xcode’s import and export feature because that was removed in Xcode 16.
2025-02-20 Added some clarification to the end of Don’t Leak Your Private Key.
2023-10-05 Added the Recover a Signing Identity from a Mac Backup and Further Recovery Tips sections.
2023-06-23 Added a link to Identifying a Cloud Managed Signing Certificate.
2023-06-21 First posted.
note technically code-signing but related......
Why has there been no update to the documentation at:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appstorereceipts/validating_receipts_on_the_device
To demonstrate how to validate an SHA256 app store hash ???
The January deadline is looming and I can find no working example code which sucessfully validates an SHA256 hash
HELP !!!!
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
Xcode 16.2 無法在IOS 18.2 Debug
Xcode 16.2
iOS 18.2
直接建立新專案
Xcode -> Create New Project -> Multiplatform -> Application -> App
選擇 實體手機 -> 執行
error: attach by pid '1050' failed -- attach failed (Not allowed to attach to process. Look in the console messages (Console.app), near the debugserver entries, when the attach failed. The subsystem that denied the attach permission will likely have logged an informative message about why it was denied.)
Logging Error: Failed to initialize logging system due to time out. Log messages may be missing. If this issue persists, try setting IDEPreferLogStreaming=YES in the active scheme actions environment variables.
如果你的 App 执行设备端收据验证,请确保你的 App 支持 SHA-256 算法。
我的APP接入了apple内购,我需要如何验证我的app支持 SHA-256 算法呢?
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
Hey all,
I'm experiencing an error, when trying to upload my app to the App Store using Transporter. I build my app with fvm flutter build ipa --release. When I try to upload this, I get the following error:
I have already done a rebuild and checked my Provision Profile and certificate
I regularly see questions from folks who’ve run into code-signing problems with their third-party IDE. There’s a limit to how much I can help you with such problems. This post explains a simple test you can run to determine what side of that limit you’re on.
If you have any questions or comments, please put them in a new thread here on DevForums. Put it in Code Signing > General topic area and apply whatever tags make sense for your specific situation.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Investigating Third-Party IDE Code-Signing Problems
DTS doesn’t support third-party tools. If you’re using third-party tooling and encounter a code-signing problem, run this test to determine whether you should seek help from Apple or from your tool’s vendor.
IMPORTANT Some third-party tools create Xcode projects that you then build and run in Xcode. While that approach is understandable, it’s not something that DTS supports. So, the steps below make sense even if you’re already using Xcode.
To check that code-signing is working in general:
Launch Xcode.
In Xcode > Settings > Accounts, make sure you’re signed in with your developer account.
Create a new project from the app project template for your target platform. For example, if you’re targeting iOS, use the iOS > App project template.
When creating the project:
Select the appropriate team in the Team popup.
Choose a bundle ID that’s not the same as your main app’s bundle ID.
Choose whatever language and interface you want. Your language and interface choices are irrelevant to code signing.
Choose None for your testing system and storage model. This simplifies your project setup.
In the Signing & Capabilities editor, make sure that:
"Automatically manage signing” is checked.
The Team popup and Bundle Identifier fields match the value you chose in the previous step.
Select a simulator as the run destination.
Choose Product > Build. This should always work because the simulator doesn’t use code signing [1]. However, doing this step is important because it confirms that your project is working general.
Select your target device as the run destination.
Choose Product > Build.
Then Product > Run.
If you continue to have problems, that’s something that Apple folks can help you with. If this works, there’s a second diagnostic test:
Repeat steps 1 through 10 above, except this time, in step 4, choose a bundle ID that is the same as your main app’s bundle ID.
If this works then your issue is not on the Apple side of the fence, and you should escalate it via the support channel for the third-party tools you’re using.
On the other hand, if this fails, that’s something we can help you with. I recommend that you first try to fix the issue yourself. For links to relevant resources, see Code Signing Resources. You should also search the forums, because we’ve helped a lot of folks with a lot of code-signing issues over the years.
If you’re unable to resolve the issue yourself, feel free to start a thread here in the forums. Put it in Code Signing > General topic area and apply whatever tags make sense for your specific situation.
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
I want to be able to retrieve payment form wallet, I've used the PKPassLibrary but it hasn't worked
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
Hello, I sent this in as a feedback several weeks ago about watchOS 26.2 beta 2 but since the issue is still active now that watchOS 26.2 is in production I'm reposting here for the community. I would also like to submit a DTS about this issue but honestly don't know the best way to go about it and would appreciate advice about that.
There seems to be an issue with VPP distribution for our app on watchOS 26.2. When our watchOS companion app is launched after being installed through VPP to a supervised iPhone, it encounters a dyld error before main() or any application code is even called. The same app launches correctly in every other circumstance we could imagine and test:
– Installed through VPP on supervised devices running watchOS 26.1.
– Installed from the app store (using an apple id) on a supervised iPhone and paired watch running iOS 26.2 / watchOS 26.2.
– Installed through Testflight on a supervised iPhone and paired watch running iOS 26.2 / watchOS 26.2.
– Installed through the app store on unsupervised devices running watchOS 26.1 and 26.2.
This strongly appears to be a VPP signing issue because we even did the following experiment:
Install iPhone and Watch apps through the App Store on a supervised device pair running public iOS 26.2 beta 2 / watchOS 26.2 beta 2.
Verify that both apps launch successfully.
Use an MDM command to install from VPP over the existing installations
Verify that the watch app fails to launch (the iOS app is unaffected)
My feedback included some crash logs which I won't be reposting publicly here. Any feedback or ideas appreciated.