Expiring Developer Certificates Causing Some Mac Apps to Refuse to Launch

by

A number of Mac apps failed to launch for users over the weekend because of a change to the way Apple certifies apps that have not been bought directly from the Mac App Store.

Several users of apps including Soulver and PDFPen who had downloaded the apps from the developers' websites all reported immediate crashes on launch. Developers of the apps quickly apologized and said that the issue was down to the apps' code signing certificates reaching their expiration date.

Apple issues developer signing certificates to assure users that an app they have downloaded outside of the Mac App Store is legitimate, comes from a known source, and hasn't been modified since it was last signed. In the past, the expiration of a code signing certificate had no effect on already shipped software, but that changed last year, when Apple began requiring apps to carry something called a provisioning profile.

provisioning profile app error
A provisioning profile tells macOS that the app has been checked by Apple against an online database and is allowed to perform certain system actions or "entitlements". However, the profile is also signed using the developer's code signing certificate, and when the certificate expires, the provisioning profile becomes invalid.

Victims of expired provisioning profiles over the weekend included users of 1Password for Mac who had bought the app from the developer's website. AgileBits explained on Sunday that affected users would need to manually update to the latest version (6.5.5), noting that those who downloaded 1Password from the Mac App Store were unaffected. The developers' surprise was explained in a blog post:

We knew our developer certificate was going to expire on Saturday, but thought nothing of it because we believed those were only necessary when publishing a new version. Apparently that's not the case. In reality it had the unexpected side effect of causing macOS to refuse to launch 1Password properly.

Currently, the common factor among affected apps appears to be those that were issued iCloud entitlements as part of their provisioning profile. Smile, developers of PDFpen and PDFpenPro, told TidBITS that users would need to manually download the latest updates to the apps to fix the problem.

Acqualia, developers of number-crunching app Soulver, also apologized for the problem and asked affected users to download an update to fix the issue.

As the above suggests, the immediate solution for developers with potentially affected apps is to renew their code signing certificates before they expire. AgileBits said the incident had given them "a new understanding of the importance of expiring provisioning profiles and certificates" and would be renewing its current certificate, due to expire in 2022, "far before then".

Tag: Mac App Store

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Read Full Article • 28 comments
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
Read Full Article • 109 comments
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Read Full Article • 152 comments
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
Read Full Article • 129 comments
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Read Full Article • 176 comments
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
Read Full Article • 95 comments
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
Read Full Article • 159 comments
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
Read Full Article • 136 comments

Top Rated Comments

MagnusVonMagnum Avatar
MagnusVonMagnum
102 months ago
Very, very poor show from the developers. No excuse for their laziness/lack of awareness.
That's got to be the saddest reply I've seen this year. Go blame the developers for Apple's BULLCRAP NONSENSE. :rolleyes:

Software you have already installed and was already validated should NEVER STOP WORKING. PERIOD. There is NO EXCUSE for what Apple did as this will invalidate any software that authors stop updating.

What happens if an author dies or stops developing Mac software? Your older software should just stop working? What a load of crap and even more so for someone defending Apple.

As far as I'm concerned it's just another reason NOT to upgrade to Sierra. Apple is doing its damn best to screw the pooch for everyone when it comes to open software development. They clearly want the tools in place to invalidate your entire software library at the push of a button like they can already do on iOS devices and slowly keep heading in that direction with every Mac OS update.

Lets not forget last year's BS where Apple forgot to renew THEIR OWN certificates which caused total HAVOC with App Store Applications! My god was that a fracking mess! And did Apple do anything to make up for it? Yeah, they made Sierra even more bonkers nuts. Great job Apple. INFERIOR products is sadly becoming par for the course with Apple. (Wasn't that just a week ago I ready about black paint chipping off brand new iPhones?) :confused:
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fuzzi Avatar
Fuzzi
102 months ago
Amateur hour. Devs are happy to bemoan Apple taking their 30% - but can't even be bothered to sort this out?
The Apple documentation says


* Developer ID Application Certificate and Developer ID Installer Certificate (Mac applications)
If your certificate expires, users can still download, install, and run versions of your Mac applications that were signed with this certificate. However, you will need a new certificate to sign updates and new applications. If your certificate has been revoked, users will no longer be able to install applications that have been signed with this certificate.

https://developer.apple.com/support/certificates/

I think this is definitely an Apple bug. Developers were just relying on the information given by Apple, which turned out to be false.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fuzzi Avatar
Fuzzi
102 months ago
N
"We knew our developer certificate was going to expire on Saturday, but thought nothing of it because we believed those were only necessary when publishing a new version."

Seems to me Apple was very clear, while the developer in this care decided not only to ignore it, but to admit it....
no, the developers didn't think anything of it because Apples documentation clearly states that the apps will continue to work.

https://developer.apple.com/support/certificates/
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
theluggage Avatar
theluggage
102 months ago
I was pointing out if the developer or company walks away from the app (or dies), then that app may very well stop working due to other circumstances like OS updates.
Yes, even without this certificate issue, an abandoned app may stop working. Or it may not - responsible OS developers don't introduce app-breaking changes lightly, and you can always choose to hold off major OS updates for a year or two until you've found a new solution.

With this issue, an abandoned app will stop working when the certificate expires. Like clockwork (you don't know when D-day is, so it will come without warning for you, but it is pre-ordained) For a totally avoidable (and, in this case, apparently undocumented) reason. Even if you don't upgrade the OS.

The certificate needs to have been valid when the app was signed. There's absolutely no security reason to do more than pop up a warning if it has expired (as opposed to revoked) when the app is run.

This is either a bug or a prime example of "defective by design".
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gnasher729 Avatar
gnasher729
102 months ago
The page you linked clearly talks ONLY about MAS apps....and MAS purchases were not affected...don't see your point.

EDIT:
If your certificate has been revoked, users will no longer be able to install applications that have been signed with this certificate.

An expired certificate is..."revoked"
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Expired and Revoked are completely different things. "Expired" means "this is a perfectly fine certificate and always was, but unfortunately it is now out of date". "Revoked" means "this is a highly dodgy certificate that should have never been trusted in the first place. Unfortunately we only found out just now. So don't trust anything signed with this certificate".
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gnasher729 Avatar
gnasher729
102 months ago
Expired certificate is no longer trusted. Revoked certificate is no longer trusted, although it did not expire yet. In terms of certificate management, both lead to the same status: cert is not trusted. Hence the described issue.
Completely different. Expired certificate was trusted. It was used to verify the app, therefore the app can be trusted. Expiration doesn't matter: The app was verified with a trusted certificate, so it can be trusted, 100 years after expiration of the certificate.

A revoked certificate has just been found out to be untrustworthy. It should never have been trusted in the first place. The app was verified with a certificate that should never have been trusted, therefore the app cannot be trusted.

It's like the difference between a child minder who let his certification slip, and a child minder who you just found is a multiple child killer. You don't trust either, but there is just that tiny little difference... And of course if you had been using a child minder for a year and his certification runs out, it's still the same person so you can trust them just as much as the day before.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments