As I've previously blogged in Pure Rust Implementation of Apple Code Signing (2021-04-14) and Expanding Apple Ecosystem Access with Open Source, Multi Platform Code signing (2022-04-25), I've been hacking on an open source implementation of Apple code signing and notarization using the Rust programming language. This takes the form of the apple-codesign crate / library and its rcodesign CLI executable. (Documentation / GitHub project / crates.io).

As of that most recent post in April, I was pretty happy with the relative stability of the implementation: we were able to sign, notarize, and staple Mach-O binaries, directory bundles (.app, .framework bundles, etc), XAR archives / flat packages / .pkg installers, and DMG disk images. Except for the known limitations, if Apple's official codesign and notarytool tools support it, so do we. This allows people to sign, notarize, and release Apple software from non-Apple operating systems like Linux and Windows. This opens up new avenues for Apple platform access.

A major limitation in previous versions of the apple-codesign crate was our reliance on Apple's Transporter tool for notarization. Transporter is a Java application made available for macOS, Linux, and Windows that speaks to Apple's servers and can upload assets to their notarization service. I used this tool at the time because it seemed to be officially supported by Apple and the path of least resistance to standing up notarization. But Transporter was a bit wonky to use and an extra dependency that you needed to install.

At WWDC 2022, Apple announced a new Notary API as part of the App Store Connect API. In what felt like a wink directly at me, Apple themselves even calls out the possibility for leveraging this API to notarize from Linux! I knew as soon as I saw this that it was only a matter of time before I would be able to replace Transporter with a pure Rust client for the new HTTP API. (I was already thinking about using the unpublished HTTP API that notarytool uses. And from the limited reversing notes I have from before WWDC it looks like the new official Notary API is very similar - possibly identical to - what notarytool uses. So kudos to Apple for opening up this access!)

I'm very excited to announce that we now have a pure Rust implementation of a client for Apple's Notary API in the apple-codesign crate. This means we can now notarize Apple software from any machine where you can get the Rust crate to compile. This means we no longer have a dependency on the 3rd party Apple Transporter application. Notarization, like code signing, is 100% open source Rust code.

As excited as I am to announce this new feature, I'm even more excited that it was largely implemented by a contributor, Robin Lambertz / @roblabla! They filed a GitHub feature request while WWDC 2022 was still ongoing and then submitted a PR a few days later. It took me a few months to get around to reviewing it (I try to avoid computer screens during summers), but it was a fantastic PR given the scope of the change. It never ceases to bring joy to me when someone randomly contributes greatness to open source.

So, as of the just-released 0.17 release of the apple-codesign Rust crate and its corresponding rcodesign CLI tool, you can now rcodesign notary-submit to speak to Apple's Notary API using a pure Rust client. No more requirements on 3rd party, proprietary software. All you need to sign and notarize Apple applications is the self-contained rcodesign executable and a Linux, Windows, macOS, BSD, etc machine to run it on.

I'm stoked to finally achieve this milestone! There are probably thousands of companies and individuals who have wanted to release Apple software from non-macOS operating systems. (The existence and popularity of tools like fastlane seems to confirm this.) The historical lack of an Apple code signing and notarization solution that worked outside macOS has prevented this. Well, that barrier has officially fallen.

Release notes, documentation, and (self-signed) pre-built executables of the rcodesign executable for major platforms are available on the 0.17 release page.