Scripting App Download Software From

Then Apple notarization workflow will verify that the software fulfills certain code requirements and scans for certain malware.

To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here.

Since its introduction Apple has kept increasing the use of notarization checks in macOS.

For macOS Catalina, Apple has been very vocal saying that Notarization is a requirement for distribution of Applications outside of the Mac App Store.

A large part of the work as a MacAdmin consists of (re-)packaging applications, configuration files and scripts so they can be distributed in an automated fashion through a management system, such as Jamf Pro, Munki, Fleetsmith, etc.

The signature can verify the source of the signature, i.e the individual Developer account or Developer team whose Developer identity was used to sign the software.

The software can be change by accident or with malicious intent, for example to inject malicious code into an otherwise beneficial piece of software.

This usually happens when a Developer ID has been abused to distribute malware.

The Malware Removal Tool or MRT is the part of the system that will identify and block or remove blacklisted software.

A developer needs to have valid subscription (99 per year for individuals and 299 for organizations) to obtain a certificate from Apple.

On iOS, tvOS and watchOS, they are the only way for developers to distribute software to end users.

This should be limited to distribution to employees and members of the organization (such as students of a university or school).

This method has infamously been abused by Facebook and other major companies which lead to Apple temporarily revoking their certificates.

We will not discuss Enterprise App Distribution in this post.).

A lot of this criticism is valid, but I will ignore this topic in this post for the sake of simplicity and brevity.

Scripting App Download Software From

Originally software was sold and delivered on physical media (Floppy Disks, CDs, and DVDs), but we with the rise of the internet, users could simply download software from the developers or vendors website or other, sometimes dubious, sources.

To provide an additional layer of security for the end user in this use case, Apple introduced Gatekeeper in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

When the user attempts to install or launch the software for the first time, Gatekeeper will evaluate the software.

There are many steps in this evaluation, and Howard Oakley explains the process in much detail in this post.

When encountering an unsigned piece of software the user will be presented with a warning dialog.

Gatekeeper can be completely disabled with the spctl command, though this is not recommended.

As long as the malware avoids widespread detection it will look good to Gatekeeper and the end user.

Even when the malware is detected by Apple and the Developer ID is revoked, it is not hard for a malicious developer to obtain or steal a new Developer ID and start over.

If Apple wanted to restrict macOS to App Store only distribution in the near future, this effort would not be necessary.

This shows that Apple still acknowledges the important role that independent software distribution has for macOS.

Scripting App For Mac