How to Use Code Sign on Mac for Secured iOS Apps

Learn how to automate signing secured iOS apps after securing your app using Appdome.

How to Sign Secured iOS Apps

Signing iOS apps is required before the app can be installed on a mobile device. A valid signature ensures the integrity of an app and stands as proof that the app has not been tampered with. Your best option is to sign secured iOS Apps on Appdome.

This Knowledge Base article covers how to sign iOS apps using Appdome’s built-in Sign workflow.

We hope you find it useful and enjoy using Appdome!

Why Automate Signing iOS Apps?

As an Appdome user, you can sign any Appdome-built app either by using Appdome’s built-in signing capabilities or using your own mechanism outside of Appdome. It’s your choice. However, If you wish to deploy apps from Appdome, the process is quick and easy for any iOS app, including Native iOS, hybrid apps, and non-native apps built-in Maui, Xamarin, Cordova, React Native, Ionic, and more. Deploying apps from Appdome will leverage unique capabilities such as Automatic deployment of Fused apps into the Apple App Store and Leading EMM Stores.

3 Easy Steps to Sign Secured iOS Apps

In order to sign your iOS app, you’ll need a valid signing certificate stored in the iOS development environment. To use your signing credentials, you’ll need access to the following.

• Please follow these steps to add a mobile app to your Appdome account.
• If you don’t have an Appdome account, click here to create an account.
• Built (Fused) mobile app
• P12 Certificate File – A P12 certificate file is a certificate and private key concatenated into a single file, protected by a password.
• P12 Certificate Password – The password used to unlock your P12 certificate file.
• Provisioning Profile – A Provisioning Profile allows you to install apps onto your iOS device and includes the signing certificates, a list of supported device identifiers, entitlements, and an App ID.When the uploaded, non-protected app isn’t signed, a manual entitlements file is required to complete the app signing:
• Entitlement file – A plist file with the entitlements used for the application. Can be obtained from the Derived Data folder in Xcode (see this article for more information and a detailed manual on how to obtain the entitlement file for your app). For each Provisioning Profile, verify you upload the target entitlements file.

For more information and a detailed manual on how to create Signing Credentials, please read this knowledge base article.

Within Sign, follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Upload your P12 Certificate File, P12 Certificate Password and Provisioning Profile.
2. (When the uploaded, non-protected app isn’t signed) Toggle-ON Using Manual Entitlements Matching if you want to set an entitlement plist file to use when signing an app on Appdome.
   When this feature is OFF, Appdome will create an entitlements file based on the entitlements used to signed the non-protected app.
3. Click Sign My App.

Notes:

If your secured app contains any Extensions or Frameworks, multiple provisioning profiles will be required. Upload Provisioning Profiles to match the required entitlements for each Extension or Framework. The best practice is to upload a Provisioning profile to match each executable in the app. Read more information on signing apps with Extension or Frameworks.

You may be presented with an option to save the signing credentials for the current template. Click “Save” if you wish to save the credentials for this Template. Notice, if you click “Skip”, your signing credentials will not be saved and will be required every time this template is used to build an app.

When you click the SignMyApp button, Appdome will analyze the built app’s extensions, frameworks are resources and calculate a checksum that represents the exact state of each component within the app. Embedding the checksum into the app’s executables will ensure that the app can’t be modified or tampered with once the signing is complete.

Learn more about Appdome’s Checksum Validation, learn more information on additional Anti-Tampering features provided by Appdome.

Congratulations! You now have a signed secured app.

Related Articles

• How to Privately Code Sign Sealed iOS Apps
• How to Automate Secure iOS App Code Signing in DevOps CI/CD
• How Appdome Enables Signing Secured iOS Apps without Xcode

How to Learn More

How to Sign Secured iOS Apps Without Xcode

How To Sign Secured Android Apps Without Android Studio

Request a demo at any time.

If you have any questions, please send them our way at support@appdome.com or via the chat window on the Appdome platform.

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