HELP with "Apple Certificate".

[cheddar-caveman]

I run Prey location service on my MBP and iPhone and have just been advised that my Apple Certificate expires in a weeks time.

I've tried to follow the instructions Prey sent but get a problem when I go to Apple.

I have generated a certificate through Prey and it's in the format "certificate.pem"

When I upload this to Apple to "sign" it, Apple says it's in the wrong format???

I can't find anywhere it says what the format should be and Prey only generate the .pem one?

 

[jtara]

Good lord! Why would anybody pay $15/month for something that comes free in iOS? Why not just use Find My iPhone? And I don't think I'd trust a third party to do this and protect my data. But, hey, that's just me. And common sense...

Is this what they sent you to follow?

https://help.preyproject.com/article/270-how-to-renew-the-apns-certificate-for-apple-devices

This says that Prey sends you a Certificate Signing Request, in the form of a .plist file. That is what you are supposed to send to Apple. A .pem file is what you will GET from Apple, and upload to Prey.

The language in their help doesn't make sense. They have you download a Certificate Signing Request from them. But the help screen clearly calls it a "Certificate" instead! Doesn't make sense. You send a CSR to Apple, and you get back a Certificate. Ignore the headlines. THEY ARE WRONG. They call a CSR a Certificate.

You GENERATE the certificate on the Apple site. The file you get from Apple is what you upload to Prey.

This would make me even more wary of this product.

- I would not give this much power to a third-party
- They are so bone-headed as to call a CSR a certificate
- You are basically handing total control of your device to a third party and trusting them

I do see they publish source code. But I don't see anything about being able to verify that the source code is the same as in the installed app. (Unless you actually build the app yourself, and install using an Apple Developer account.)

I wouldn't do it. But whatever floats your boat. Hope this helps. Let us know if it works, and if it does, you might want to suggest to them some changes to wording in their help.