Folding Forum

Hello,

Thank you all for the wonderful stuff you are doing - highly appreciated!

I am getting this message trying to run the installer for 7.6.9:

“fah-installer_7.6.9_x86_64.pkg” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.

This software needs to be updated. Contact the developer for more information.

Seeing as how one of the benefits of the new release was "the new software includes important bug fixes and security updates" - I would rather not make an exception in my macOS Catalina security policy to allow the app to run without the necessary restrictions or checks.

-Valk

Apple increased the requirements on developers for signing of software not distributed through the App Store starting in Mojave. Applications such as this now need to be submitted to Apple to be notarized and a ticket added that will allow Gatekeeper to okay the installation. This adds no additional security to the app other than that it has passed through Apple's hands.

It is your choice on whether or not to use the override to install this software, but if this F@h app is going to get the necessary sign offs from Apple, that will be at some time in the future.

I'm also running a Mac (MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)) with Catalina 10.15.4. Installed 7.6.9 this weekend and made an exception for it. F@h runs great and I am having no issues with any other operations on my Mac. At this point, I'm trusting the F@h development team more than I trust Apple.

Joe_H wrote:Apple increased the requirements on developers for signing of software not distributed through the App Store starting in Mojave. Applications such as this now need to be submitted to Apple to be notarized and a ticket added that will allow Gatekeeper to okay the installation. This adds no additional security to the app other than that it has passed through Apple's hands.

It is your choice on whether or not to use the override to install this software, but if this F@h is going to get the necessary sign offs from Apple, that will be at some time in the future.

"This adds no additional security"

We may need to agree to disagree on that one, but to ask users to undermine a foundational aspect of OS security to use your app seems pretty strange.

It is not a hard process, There are single person shops and open source teams who do it - is there just some fundamental reason FaH wants our computers to be less secure, thus making us choose between our own safety and helping find a cure for things?

Do you just need someone to volunteer to do it? I run several dev teams, I would be happy to chip in to manage this part of the process if it would be helpful.

Without it we are saying that the security enhancements for FaH can only be installed if we weaken security on our personal computers. Which is strange.

I can't share any links yet, as my forum account is too young - but I would ask that you consider following the process for MacOS software and not require MacOS users to make sacrifices that are not needed.

-Valk

It looks like it may be a known bug and is impacting Windows as well (probably because it has been so long since FaH issued an update)

https://github.com/FoldingAtHome/fah-cl ... /issues/12

Has this with the 7.6.9 update too. I know how to get round it but shouldn't have to!

@valkraider There is a site where developers can sign up to volunteer help, I will add that link to this post once I find it.

We do have a developer who has provided assistance in getting this ported to OS X/macOS. He foresees issues getting Apple to sign off on the F@h client software. For example it downloads the folding cores, binary executables, within the application as part of the normal operation.