Demystify code signing and its importance in app development. Get help troubleshooting code signing issues and ensure your app is properly signed for distribution.

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Issues Signing .app with Developer ID Certificate — Missing Private Key and Pipeline Concerns
I’m having issues trying to codesign a .app file. We generated the Developer ID Application certificate using the organization owner’s account. I downloaded the certificate to my Mac and imported it into my keychain, but when I run the codesign command below, I get the following error. Could you help me? What am I doing wrong? Is there any other way to sign the .app executable? From what I’ve seen in other posts, it looks like the certificate needs to have a private key, but the certificate I download from the developer portal doesn’t include the key. Also, about exporting it as a .p12 — I couldn’t quite understand if that’s considered a safe practice, since the organization owner’s private key would be included in this certificate that we plan to use in our pipeline.
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May ’25
Using restricted entitlements in a macOS 26 VM
We have a Mac app that uses some restricted macOS entitlements, thus to test it we embed a development provisioning profile, that needs to contain the correct provisioning UDID. Typically, for test VMs, we extract the provisioning and UDID and add it to the developer portal and then re-generate the provisioning profiles. However when we try to do this in our newly created VM (Apple Silicon), our executable won't run, and macOS logs that the provisioning profile doesn't allow the device: 2025-06-12 12:37:52.168 E taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] embedded provisioning profile not valid: file:///Applications/foo.app/Contents/embedded.provisionprofile error: Error Domain=CPProfileManager Code=-212 "Provisioning profile does not allow this device." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Provisioning profile does not allow this device.} 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] Disallowing com.company.foo because no eligible provisioning profiles found 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df amfid[112:e99b0] [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0xb34c74a00] invalidated because the current process cancelled the connection by calling xpc_connection_cancel() 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0x839144000] invalidated because the client process (pid 112) either cancelled the connection or exited 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E amfid[112:e91ac] [com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity.framework:default] Failure validating against provisioning profiles: <private> 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E amfid[112:e91ac] [com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity.framework:default] Restricted entitlements not validated, bailing out. Error: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df amfid[112:e91ac] /Applications/foo.app/Contents/MacOS/foo not valid: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Applications/foo.app/, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} The UDID for this VM does look weird, in System Profiler: But I can verify that this UDID string is present in the provisioning profile embedded in the app bundle: $ security cms -D -i /Applications/foo.app/Contents/embedded.provisionprofile | grep -i 7cd9234e9aa4fa8ba528ee417f857b2c993a20a3 <string>7CD9234E9AA4FA8BA528EE417F857B2C993A20A3</string> I also tried deleting the manually added device from the Developer portal and installing Xcode on the VM and letting Xcode register the device, but I end up in the same situation there. Even after letting Xcode itself register the device, it says that "this device not registered to your account" and then when I click "Register device" it changes into " already exists". Has anyone else managed to get Mac development provisioning profiles to work in a VM?
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Jun ’25
Local DriverKit development blocked by provisioning profile requirement
Hi, I am working on a personal HIDDriverKit project. The documentation suggests that you do not need the entitlements from Apple to do local development - that all you need to do is turn of SIP, enable developer mode, and turn signing to "Sign to Run Locally". However, I have followed all of these steps, and am still running into the error that to build, I need to have a provisioning profile with the DriverKit (development) feature (MacOS 15.2 Xcode 16.2). Am I missing something here regarding the steps for local development? Does one need to request a development version of the entitlements even for local development? Do I need a paid developer account to do this? Thank-you in advance.
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584
Mar ’25
No Keychain App anymore
The docs here outline how to create a CSR/ and request a certificate. https://developer.apple.com/help/account/certificates/create-a-certificate-signing-request "Accounts preferences Use Accounts preferences to manage developer account assets (signing certificates and provisioning profiles), add repositories, and add servers. To open Accounts preferences, choose Xcode > Preferences and click Accounts." I have the latest version of XCode, I don't see Preferences / Accounts anywhere? I can go here and create a certificate: https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/certificates/add but it wants a CSR, which loops back around to the XCode thing. So, I can't figure out how to create a singing cert for my iOS app. Launch Keychain Access located in /Applications/Utilities. This doesnt seem to exist in Mac OS Sequoia 15.5 https://developer.apple.com/help/account/certificates/create-a-certificate-signing-request
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Jun ’25
MacOS crash, UnityPlayer.dylib
I’ve been having problems with MacOS builds. I’m making a release Appstore build and uploading it to Testflight. However when running it instantly crashes, and report screen shows the following: Current flow: I sign all files in PlugIns/ (we have a number of .bundle), and I’ve tried combinations of signing with/without --entitlements, as well as with/without --deep. After this I sign Frameworks/GameAssembly.dylib and Frameworks/UnityPlayer.dylib. Again, I’ve tried combinations of with/without --entitlements and --deep, also not signing them at all. After signing PlugIns and frameworks, I sign the .app, also tried this with/without --deep (always with --entitlements). Finally I make a .pkg and upload to Testflight. It’s not the game, as I can make an enterprise version that runs fine. We have some restricted entitlements, such as Apple Arcade. Building from an M1 mac, and architecture is Universal (Intel + ARM). Unity documentation says to use --deep, but Apple documentation highly recommend against it. So basically, my question is, how and in what order should I sign the files? Much obliged!
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224
Mar ’25
Disabling Hardened Runtime For Ad Hoc Signing Only
How can I disable Hardened Runtime in Xcode only when signing ad hoc? If I make a new project, Xcode will say Disabling hardened runtime with ad-hoc codesigning. at the beginning of the build logs. However, somehow my project isn't doing this -- it's still hardening the runtime when ad-hoc signing. What should I do to debug this?
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May ’25
App Signing and Uploading Intel/Apple
Hello, I am normally a windows programmer, but I am trying to get my PySide/Qt app into the app store. I'm almost there, I just have a couple of questions about the signing process. I have two laptops, one intel silicon, one mac silicon. I created 2 CSR's, one on each laptop and used them to generate 2 Mac Installer Distribution certificates and 2 Mac App Distribution certificates. When it came to downloading the provisioning profile, I selected one Mac App Distrbution Certificate on the interface at developer.apple.com, saved it and then downloaded to the appropriate laptop. I then switched the provisioning profile to the other Mac App Distribution Certificate and downloaded it to the other laptop. I then built the app and uploaded everything using xcrun altool. On the intel machine only(which has the first provisioning profile) I successfully uploaded the package but I get an email identifying lots of similar errors of the type (Lets call it error1): ITMS-90284: Invalid Code Signing - The executable XXXXX must be signed with the certificate that is contained in the provisioning profile. On the ARM machine only i get the following error (Lets call it error2): ITMS-91109: Invalid package contents - The package contains one or more files with the com.apple.quarantine extended file attribute, such as XXXXXXXX embedded.provisionprofile”. This attribute isn’t permitted in macOS apps distributed on TestFlight or the App Store. Please remove the attribute from all files within your app and upload again. On both I get the following error lets call it error3: ITMS-90886: 'Cannot be used with TestFlight because the signature for the bundle at XXXXX is missing an application identifier but has an application identifier in the provisioning profile for the bundle. Bundles with application identifiers in the provisioning profile are expected to have the same identifier signed into the bundle in order to be eligible for TestFlight.' My first inclination is that all the error1's are coming from having two sets of CSRs, Mac Distribution certificates, provisioning profiles etc. Should I have only used one CSR and made one each of the Certificates? I don't know why I have error2. I don't know where the quarantine attribute is coming from and why it would affect the mac silicon and not the intel. Any ideas? my entitlements file has the following: <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.device.bluetooth</key> Error3 is the one where I need to try a few things but knowing what is expected will help. In the provisioning profile when viewed at developer.apple.com it has the APP ID listed as the 10 digit id followed by the bundle ID but I sometimes see just the 10 digit app ID being used and sometimes the bundle ID. I know that it's up to me to figure out how to get it into the build, but knowing what it should be would be helpful. On the other hand the text "Bundles with application identifiers in the provisioning profile ..." indicates that if the application identifier was not in the provisioning profile i might get away with it, but this might be grasping at straws. If you have made it this far, thank you for reading.
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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May ’25
Provisioning Profile Missing In-App Purchase Entitlement (Despite Capability Enabled)
I'm facing a persistent issue with provisioning profiles not including the com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase entitlement, even though the In-App Purchase capability is clearly enabled in the Developer Portal for my app. What I’ve already done: Confirmed that the In-App Purchase capability is enabled in the App ID configuration Deleted all provisioning profiles locally (~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles) Regenerated both Development and App Store provisioning profiles from scratch Tried Xcode's automatic signing (after properly registering the device) Verified the provisioning profiles via Terminal (security cms -D -i ...) — the IAP entitlement is missing every time Recreated valid distribution and development certificates Cleaned the Xcode project and settings The result: Every attempt to build or archive the app in Xcode returns: Missing entitlement: com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase I've also opened a support case with Apple, but so far I’ve only been redirected to general documentation. Has anyone encountered this recently? Is there a known delay or sync issue on Apple’s side when enabling capabilities? Can the provisioning profile or entitlement data be manually refreshed by Apple? Is there any workaround that worked for you in this situation?
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Jun ’25
Xcode failed to provision target. File a bug report...
I do have background Modes added to Xcode. How can I fix this? Automatic signing failed Xcode failed to provision this target. Please file a bug report at https://feedbackassistant.apple.com and include the Update Signing report from the Report navigator. Provisioning profile "iOS Team Provisioning Profile: com.designoverhaul.bladerunner" doesn't include the com.apple.developer.background-modes entitlement. I emailed Dev Support but they said they cant help. Thank you.
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May ’25
Apple could not verify `app` is free of malware
Hello, I'm working on an app at work and we finally got to signing and notarizing the app. The app is successfully notarized and stapled, I packaged it in a .dmg using hdiutil and went ahead and notarized and stapled that as well. Now I tried to move this app to another machine through various methods. But every time I download it from another machine, open and extract the contents of the dmg and attempt to open the app, I get the "Apple could not verify my app is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy. When I check the extended attributes there's always the com.apple.quarantine attribute which from what I know, is the reason that this popup appears I've tried uploading it to google drive, sending through slack, onedrive, even tried our AWS servers and last but not least, I tried our Azure servers (which is what we use for distribution of the windows version of our app). I tried uploading to Azure through CloudBerry (MSP360 now), and azure-cli defining the content-type as "application/octet-stream", the content-disposition as "attachment; filename=myApp.dmg", and content-cache-control as "no-transform". None of these worked The only times where a download actually worked with no problems was when I downloaded through the terminal using curl, which obviously not a great solution especially that we're distributing to users who aren't exactly "tech savy" I want the installation experience to be as smooth as other apps outside the App Store (i.e Discord, Slack, Firefox, Chrome etc....) but I've been stuck on this for more than a week with no luck. Any help is greatly appreciated, and if you want me to clarify something further I'd be happy to do so
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Jun ’25
Family Control Entitlements not recognized when distributing
I have been approved for family controls entitlements and see them in my apple certificates for my bundle identifier. I see them listed for Distribution in my Runner, however, when I try to distribute I get the error that I do not have the right permissions. Do I need to get the entitlements for each extension I have as well? I have three extensions that use the family controls.
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May ’25
Notarization Fails: “The binary is not signed with a valid Developer ID certificate” for Flutter macOS App Plugins (file_picker, file_saver, url_launcher_macos)
Hi all, I’m trying to notarize a Flutter macOS app built in CI (GitHub Actions). The app builds and signs fine locally—codesign --verify --deep --strict and spctl --assess both pass. However, Apple’s notarization service consistently rejects the app with errors like: The binary is not signed with a valid Developer ID certificate: file_picker.framework The binary is not signed with a valid Developer ID certificate: file_saver.framework The binary is not signed with a valid Developer ID certificate: url_launcher_macos.framework What I’ve tried: Explicitly re-signing all frameworks with my Developer ID Application certificate and --timestamp Removing existing signatures before re-signing Ensuring correct entitlements and bundle identifier Matching the app bundle name and identifier in all places Using both codesign --deep and manual signing of each binary Local validation always passes, but notarization fails in CI Certificate: I am using a “Developer ID Application” certificate (not a “Mac Developer” or “Apple Development” certificate). The output of codesign -dvv for the problematic frameworks shows: Authority=Developer ID Application: [My Name/Team] ([Team ID]) So I believe I am not making the common mistake of using the wrong certificate type. CI Environment: GitHub Actions, macos-latest runner Flutter 3.27.2, stable channel All secrets (cert, Apple ID, app-specific password, team ID) are set up Questions: Has anyone encountered this with Flutter plugins or CI builds? Are there known issues with signing Flutter plugin frameworks for notarization? Is there a way to get more detailed feedback from Apple’s notarization service? Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated. I’m happy to provide logs, scripts, or a minimal project if needed. Thanks!
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May ’25
Issues with certificates, profiles etc. especially for distribution and developer ID distribution
I keep having issues with my account. I have certificates that will not revoke. I create new certificates, then I create new profiles for development, distribution and for developer ID application distribution outside of the app store as well. With my app in Xcode, I can only get the Developer profile to work to allow builds. My distribution profile builds and then fails, with an error 5. The Developer ID Application profile will not even accept the profile in XCode, sighting that there is no code signing, yet I have checked things over and over again. Ontop of this, I had developers in the past in my team and they added a whole lot of certificates for Developer ID that I just cannot use now. I also cannot revoke them. I have no active apps on the app store now, so I was wondering if Apple or someone can assist me in removing ALL the certificates, all the profiles and get a clean slate, so that I can setup everything from scratch again, because I have lost countless of hours getting nowhere and I cannot get Apple support to assist? Anyone been through this before?
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470
Jan ’25
Apple Developer Certificate not recognized for codesigning
I’m building an Electron app for macOS that I plan to distribute to users in a .dmg outside the Mac App Store. I have a Developer ID Application certificate (from Apple’s Developer Portal) and a private key, and I can see “Developer ID Certification Authority” in my System Roots keychain. • My Developer ID Application certificate is in the login keychain, and it shows up under “My Certificates” with its private key. • On Keychain, certificate shows red message "not trusted", but when I evaluate and check it specifically for codesigning it shows a green checkmark and success • Developer ID Certification Authority is in System Roots. • security find-identity -p codesigning – shows my certificate, but shows 0 valid identities • Updated operating system and deleted and recreated a new certificate, still get the same issue
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Mar ’25
keychain and codesigning local dev
Trying to play around with Secure Enclave Protected keychain operations in a Tauri-based MacOS app and running into issues. After much digging and trial and error, here is my understanding and where I'm at: To access these keychain related APIs, the app must be codesigned, and have the following entitlements: <key>com.apple.application-identifier</key> <string>XXXXXXXXXX.com.myorg.myapp</string> <key>com.apple.developer.team-identifier</key> <string>XXXXXXXXXX</string> <key>keychain-access-groups</key> <array> <string>XXXXXXXXXX.*</string> </array> Currently using a Development cert, generated from Xcode, not a paid account I had to install the intermediate cert from https://www.apple.com/certificateauthority/ XXXXXXXXXX is the "Team ID", which can be found on my Development cert under Details > "Organizational Unit" If I build the app and run it (without signing) I get code 34018 If I sign the app and try to run it, I am no longer able to boot it, with error: The application cannot be opened for an unexpected reason, error=Error Domain=RBSRequestErrorDomain Code=5 "Launch failed." UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Launch failed., NSUnderlyingError=0x12a60a130 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=153 "Unknown error: 153" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Launchd job spawn failed}}} Not quite sure what is missing - any help is much appreciated.
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Mar ’25
Trying to distribute app to Apple Store
I created an MadOS app with xcode 16.5 with a developer id certificate. I've been trying to install a distribution certificate for over a week with several co-workers. I can add a distribution certificate to my key chain, and created a provisioning profile. I've tried every combination but none work. I put xcode in automatic signing but can only see my developer id, if I put it in manual with and without a provisioning profile but if I give the app binary, other users can't run the app because the certificate isn't working. I need support to work with me to look the developer portal and my system to figure this out.
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Jun ’25
How does xpc_connection_set_peer_code_signing_requirement work?
I have created a XPC server and client using C APIs. I want to ensure that I trust the client, so I want to have a codesigning requirement on the server side, something like - xpc_connection_set_peer_code_signing_requirement(listener, "anchor apple generic and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = \"1234567\"") This checks if the client code was signed by a code-signing-identity issued by Apple and that the teamID in the leaf certificate is 1234567. My questions are- Is using teamID as a signing requirement enough? What else can I add to this requirement to make it more secure? How does xpc_connection_set_peer_code_signing_requirement work internally? Does it do any cryptographic operations to verify the clients signature or does it simply do string matching on the teamID? Is there a way actually verify the clients signature(cryptographically) before establishing a connection with the server? (so we know the client is who he claims to be)
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Feb ’25
Is it Possible to Have Stray Content in a macOS Framework?
Is it possible to have some additional content at Versions/A/ in a macOS Framework bundle that is not in any of the standard folders? Will there be any side-effects during signing and notarization? The reason is it'd be a lot easier in my use case to be able to put content here instead of the Resources folder.
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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May ’25
Notarization Successful but Stapling Fails with Error 65
Product: macOS, Notarization Tool: notarytool, Stapler Tool: xcrun stapler, Application: master-billing.app, DMG: master-billing.dmg I'm attempting to notarize and staple a macOS .dmg file containing a signed .app. Notarization completes successfully, but the stapling step fails with Error 65. All tools are up-to-date and I'm following the official Apple process. #!/bin/bash set -e APP="dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.app" DMG="dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.dmg" IDENTITY="Developer ID Application: NAME (TEAM ID)" PROFILE="notarysiva" VOLUME_NAME="MasterBilling" Sign binaries and frameworks find "$APP" -type f ( -name ".dylib" -or -name ".so" -or -name "*.node" -or -perm -u+x ) -exec codesign --force --options runtime --timestamp --sign "$IDENTITY" {} ; find "$APP" -type d ( -name ".app" -or -name ".framework" ) -exec codesign --force --options runtime --timestamp --sign "$IDENTITY" {} ; codesign --deep --force --options runtime --timestamp --sign "$IDENTITY" "$APP" Create DMG hdiutil create -volname "$VOLUME_NAME" -srcfolder "$APP" -ov -format UDZO "$DMG" Sign DMG codesign --sign "$IDENTITY" --timestamp "$DMG" Verify DMG signature codesign --verify --verbose=2 "$DMG" Submit for notarization xcrun notarytool submit "$DMG" --keychain-profile "$PROFILE" --wait Staple ticket xcrun stapler staple -v "$DMG" Signing all binaries, dylibs, and frameworks... . . ✅ App signing complete. 💽 Creating DMG... ...................................................................................... created: /Users/one/Documents/MASTER/bill-master/dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.dmg 🔏 Signing the DMG... ✅ Verifying DMG signature... dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.dmg: valid on disk dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.dmg: satisfies its Designated Requirement 📤 Submitting DMG for notarization... Conducting pre-submission checks for master-billing.dmg and initiating connection to the Apple notary service... Submission ID received id: 32927c3c-7459-42b4-a90c Upload progress: 100.00% (123 MB of 123 MB) Successfully uploaded file id: 32927c3c-7459-42b4-a90c path: /Users/one/Documents/MASTER/bill-master/dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.dmg Waiting for processing to complete. Current status: Accepted............ Processing complete id: 32927c3c-7459-42b4-a90c status: Accepted 📌 Stapling notarization ticket to DMG... Processing: /Users/one/Documents/MASTER/bill-master/dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.dmg . . . Downloaded ticket has been stored at file:///var/folders/1l/ht34h5y11mv3rhv8dlxy_g4c0000gp/T/5bb9e667-dfe1-4390-8354-56ced7f48fa0.ticket. Could not validate ticket for /Users/one/Documents/MASTER/bill-master/dist/mac-arm64/master-billing.dmg The staple and validate action failed! Error 65.
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May ’25