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Code Signing and What It Does To Your Freedom (in OS X)

7 points by blasdel 17y ago

dkarl 17y ago
Apparently it does nothing to your freedom unless Apple makes a bunch of sinister changes in the future. But in a worst case scenario where everything in the bundle is considered holy, removal of the certificate from a signed app is prevented and the integrity of the code signature is checked on launch, the answer is yes. We’re still far from this point in any of these three dimensions (in order: opt-in, not that I can see, nope), so there’s no immediate danger.
duskwuff 17y ago
Apple cannot make Code Signing "do anything to your freedom" without breaking the majority of applications available for the platform. Right now, the only applications which are signed are ones which specifically benefit from being signed -- most often, ones which store passwords in the Keychain. (Signing such an application makes the Keychain treat it as still the "same application" after an upgrade, rather than requiring it to be reauthorized.) So, if Apple suddenly started requiring desktop apps to be signed, everything unsigned on the market (probably 90% of applications available) would stop working. This would be an incredibly stupid decision. Moreover, almost all existing signed applications are signed with a key that isn't in any chain of trust (and there's no currently available system for setting up specially trusted keys), and there's no scheme for encrypting signed applications. So there's nothing keeping users from either removing a signature from an application or replacing it with a copy signed with their own key. Conclusion? Code signing is not a sinister plot to take away your freedom. It does exactly what the documentation says. Here's the docs. (These links were buried deep in the article, but they're worth reading.) http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2007/tn2206.html http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2007/tn22... http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Security/Conceptual/CodeSigningGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Securit...
- DenisM 17y ago
  and there's no currently available system for setting up specially trusted keys Sure there is. It's called iPhone app dev program. Speaking of which, very little freedom there and a compelling model for any platform vendor to follow if they can.
  - duskwuff 17y ago
    On the desktop platform, there isn't any keying system. And, as noted, they can't really start requiring one at this point.

7 points by blasdel 17y ago

dkarl 17y ago

Apparently it does nothing to your freedom unless Apple makes a bunch of sinister changes in the future. But in a worst case scenario where everything in the bundle is considered holy, removal of the certificate from a signed app is prevented and the integrity of the code signature is checked on launch, the answer is yes. We’re still far from this point in any of these three dimensions (in order: opt-in, not that I can see, nope), so there’s no immediate danger.

duskwuff 17y ago

Apple cannot make Code Signing "do anything to your freedom" without breaking the majority of applications available for the platform. Right now, the only applications which are signed are ones which specifically benefit from being signed -- most often, ones which store passwords in the Keychain. (Signing such an application makes the Keychain treat it as still the "same application" after an upgrade, rather than requiring it to be reauthorized.) So, if Apple suddenly started requiring desktop apps to be signed, everything unsigned on the market (probably 90% of applications available) would stop working. This would be an incredibly stupid decision. Moreover, almost all existing signed applications are signed with a key that isn't in any chain of trust (and there's no currently available system for setting up specially trusted keys), and there's no scheme for encrypting signed applications. So there's nothing keeping users from either removing a signature from an application or replacing it with a copy signed with their own key. Conclusion? Code signing is not a sinister plot to take away your freedom. It does exactly what the documentation says. Here's the docs. (These links were buried deep in the article, but they're worth reading.) http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2007/tn2206.html http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2007/tn22... http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Security/Conceptual/CodeSigningGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Securit...

DenisM 17y ago
and there's no currently available system for setting up specially trusted keys Sure there is. It's called iPhone app dev program. Speaking of which, very little freedom there and a compelling model for any platform vendor to follow if they can.
- duskwuff 17y ago
  On the desktop platform, there isn't any keying system. And, as noted, they can't really start requiring one at this point.