Do you need to resign an iOS app due to an expiring provisioning profile or new
bundle identifier, but you don't have access to the project files
(.xcodeproj
or .xcworkspace
)? Or maybe you do have access to the project
files, but your environment's version of Xcode can't build the project within
the GUI for whatever reason? In this article, I'll share with you a solution
that resigns an app without having to open Xcode.
Assumptions
You have
- A Mac with Xcode installed
- An iOS app file (
.ipa
) - A valid provisioning profile you wish to resign the app with
(
.mobileprovision
) - A valid distribution certificate for the above provisioning profile along with the private key used to generate the certificate in your Mac's Keychain
Solution
Below is a bash script I wrote that you can download:
After downloading, you'll need to change the permissions of the script to allow
it to be executable:
$ chmod 755 resign-ios-app
Usage
Invoke the script without any arguments to see an instructional message:
$ ./resign-ios-app
Expected at least three arguments.
Something like 'AnApp.ipa' 'AProvisioningProfile.mobileprovision' 'iPhone Distribution: AnOrganization' where
$1 is an .ipa file
$2 is a .mobileprovision
$3 is the name of a distribution certificate in the Keychain
You may pass a fourth argument to serve as a new bundle identifier for the resigned app. If not included, the original bundle identifier will be used.
Assuming you have this script, the .ipa
, and .mobileprovision
all in the
same folder, and you're in that folder:
$ ./resign-ios-app 'AnApp.ipa' 'XC_iOS_comcompanyAnApp.mobileprovision' 'iPhone Distribution: AnOrganization'
Unzipping "AnApp.ipa"...
Extracting .app...
Removing existing _CodeSignature...
Decoding "XC_iOS_comcompanyAnApp.mobileprovision" and writing to ProvisioningProfile.plist...
Extracting "Entitlements" from ProvisioningProfile.plist and writing to Entitlements.plist...
Embedding "XC_iOS_comcompanyAnApp.mobileprovision" into "AnApp.app"...
Resigning "AnApp.app" with existing bundle identifier "com.company.AnApp"
Resigning embedded Swift libraries...
./libswiftCoreImage.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftObjectiveC.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftCore.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftCoreGraphics.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftUIKit.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftMetal.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftCoreData.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftDispatch.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftos.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftCoreFoundation.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftDarwin.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftQuartzCore.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftCoreAudio.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftAVFoundation.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftFoundation.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftCoreMedia.dylib: replacing existing signature
./libswiftsimd.dylib: replacing existing signature
Resigning embedded frameworks...
./BarcodeScanner.framework: replacing existing signature
./SQLite.framework: replacing existing signature
Resigning "AnApp.app" with certificate "iPhone Distribution: AnOrganization"...
Payload/AnApp.app: replacing existing signature
Zipping app data into an .ipa...
Resigning successful. Resigned app to /Users/daniel/resign-ios-app/resigned.ipa
After a successful resigning, you'll notice some extra files in the folder:
$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r--@ 1 daniel staff 11506405 Nov 19 15:57 AnApp.ipa
-rw-r--r--@ 1 daniel staff 228 Feb 4 2019 AppThinning.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 daniel staff 517 Nov 22 18:29 Entitlements.plist
-rw-r--r--@ 1 daniel staff 7354 Nov 19 10:26 XC_iOS_comcompanyAnApp.mobileprovision
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 daniel staff 96 Feb 4 2019 Payload
-rw-r--r-- 1 daniel staff 3382 Nov 22 18:29 ProvisioningProfile.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 daniel staff 11488043 Nov 22 18:29 resigned.ipa
Payload
and the .plist
files are artifacts of the script and can be deleted.
resigned.ipa
should be good to deploy.
Tested
I developed and tested this script on:
- macOS 10.15.7
- Xcode 12.2
- GNU bash, version 5.0.7(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin16.7.0)
That being said, this script should work with macOS's built in version of bash
and recent versions of macOS and Xcode.
version 3
Please create an Issue against my repository for this solution if you can
offer any improvements for more complicated resignings.
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