macOS Develop app (unsigned) and have it run foreever

[bonzichrille]

Hi,

I work for a company and we are thinking of developing a small app for MacOS that lets them look at data generated by a machine of ours. Many academic users have Macs.

It is easy to start programming this App in Xcode using a standard Apple-ID. However, can we then export the app UNSIGNED and send it out to our customers? As long as they say they accept the unsigned app, Apple will not stop it from working? Any limitations?

I have tried reading up on Apple developer but cannot find a concrete answer on this. Can anyone create an unsigned app and just hand it out to others without problems?

Obviously the app is not malware.

We would prefer to avoid getting Developer-ID and signing the app that way.

 

[chrfr]

Hi,

I work for a company and we are thinking of developing a small app for MacOS that lets them look at data generated by a machine of ours. Many academic users have Macs.

It is easy to start programming this App in Xcode using a standard Apple-ID. However, can we then export the app UNSIGNED and send it out to our customers? As long as they say they accept the unsigned app, Apple will not stop it from working? Any limitations?

I have tried reading up on Apple developer but cannot find a concrete answer on this. Can anyone create an unsigned app and just hand it out to others without problems?

Obviously the app is not malware.

We would prefer to avoid getting Developer-ID and signing the app that way.

The problem is that some organizations will block unsigned apps, and users will need administrative privileges to allow unsigned apps to run.
You know that your app at the point when it's released is not malware, but your users have no way to verify that and you have no way to know that some sort of malware hasn't been injected into your unsigned app between when you publish it and when it gets to the user. (Obviously, this is a rare situation, and a worst case scenario.) Signing apps is not something you should be trying to avoid at this point and Apple is even leading developers to have to go one step further and have apps "notarized" as well.

 

[bonzichrille]

Thank you for responding. I fully understand. Dristributing an unsigned app has its problem. However, all our customers are fully aware of who we are and they are limited in numbers. They really want this software.

I am simply asking: has apple put in place some sort of limitation on unsigned app distribution? It stops working after a while? Anyone know?

 

[09872738]

For now, no such restrictions apply...

 

[chrfr]

Thank you for responding. I fully understand. Dristributing an unsigned app has its problem. However, all our customers are fully aware of who we are and they are limited in numbers. They really want this software.

I am simply asking: has apple put in place some sort of limitation on unsigned app distribution? It stops working after a while? Anyone know?

As above, there is no current restriction aside from a user needing administrative privileges to override the Gatekeeper setting to run unsigned apps. It would not surprise me if at some point Apple transitions to requiring apps to be signed, but this will break a lot of current programs so it's unlikely that such a change would happen without a long lead time.

 

[grandM]

The problem is that some organizations will block unsigned apps, and users will need administrative privileges to allow unsigned apps to run.
You know that your app at the point when it's released is not malware, but your users have no way to verify that and you have no way to know that some sort of malware hasn't been injected into your unsigned app between when you publish it and when it gets to the user. (Obviously, this is a rare situation, and a worst case scenario.) Signing apps is not something you should be trying to avoid at this point and Apple is even leading developers to have to go one step further and have apps "notarized" as well.

what is notarized?

 

[chrfr]

what is notarized?

https://developer.apple.com/developer-id/