Give the desktop a macOS head, signed from the first release
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The same application, the same Velopack and the same two-phase person-run
release as Windows, with four things forced to differ. Signing is a
precondition rather than an improvement: Gatekeeper refuses an
un-notarized download outright instead of warning about it, so there was
never the "unsigned for now" that ADR 0013 decision 8 argues for on
Windows, and release-macos.sh refuses to start without the identities.

The packaging split is narrower than it first looked, and the old claim
at the foot of ci.yml is why it was worth checking rather than assuming.
vpk cross-compiles when told to: 'vpk [osx] bundle' builds a real .app on
any platform, and CI now publishes osx-arm64 and bundles it on every main
and tag build, which is what catches a restore graph with no macOS native
asset. There is no '[osx] pack' off a Mac, and that part is correct — pack
drives codesign, notarytool and stapler, which exist nowhere else.

The dylib signing loop in the script looks redundant beside vpk's own
pass and is not. vpk signs with 'codesign --deep', which is the shape
Apple documents as wrong for nested code, and platform-flags has recorded
a notarization rejection that names no file since before any of this
existed. Signing each native binary inside-out first leaves that pass
nothing to get wrong.

MacDeviceKeyStore reaches ADR 0007's conclusion through different
hardware: a P-256 key in the Secure Enclave under an access control
requiring user presence, so the platform enforces the gate rather than
this process — which is the whole point of that ADR's amendment. The
enclave holds no other kind of key, hence ECIES where Windows uses
RSA-OAEP, and the shape that falls out is better than the Windows one:
sealing needs only the public half and is silent, so only unlock prompts.
IsSupported probes rather than infers, because three ordinary Macs answer
no — an Intel machine without a T2, one with no login password, and every
unsigned development build, since enclave keys need a signing identity.

Two decisions worth stating because they are reversible. arm64 only: a
second channel is small work and nobody here has an Intel Mac to walk
Phase 18 on, and an x64 package would be the only artefact in this
repository reaching users unverified. And the pack id stays
DodoSSH.Desktop even though vpk names the bundle after it, so
/Applications holds DodoSSH.Desktop.app: decision 2's reasoning binds
harder here, because a pack id of DodoSSH would put Velopack's install
root on top of ClientPaths.DataDirectory and let an uninstall take the
user's un-synced outbox with it. CFBundleDisplayName puts the product
name back in front of a person.

Measured rather than assumed, since none of it is obvious: the publish
and the bundle were both run, LSMinimumSystemVersion is 12.0 because that
is the minos in the apphost's own LC_BUILD_VERSION, and vpk copies a
custom Info.plist verbatim with no substitution at all — which is why the
plist is a template the script renders and not a committed file.

What is not done is the half that needs the hardware. There is no macOS
runner, so nothing past "it bundles" has ever run. Phase 18 is the whole
of the verification, and the two checks most likely to fail are the
terminal against WKWebView and the enclave interop, neither of which has
executed once.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-10 10:43:28 +02:00
parent e936ab4646
commit 890a5f2246
17 changed files with 2219 additions and 39 deletions
+9 -1
View File
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
# ADR 0007 — What protects the device key on Windows
# ADR 0007 — What protects the device key on the desktop
**Status:** accepted, 2026-07-30
**Supersedes nothing. Constrains** the device-unlock work described in the client roadmap.
@@ -141,6 +141,14 @@ would have become false under DPAPI alone. A gesture is still something the atta
- **A TPM is not always there.** A machine without one gets a store that reports itself unavailable, so
unlock keeps asking for the passphrase and neither affordance appears in the interface. The passphrase path
is therefore required, not a nicety.
- **macOS reaches the same decision through different hardware, and the argument transfers intact.**
`MacDeviceKeyStore` puts the wrapping key in the Secure Enclave under an access control requiring user
presence, so Touch ID or the login password is a condition of *using* it and the enforcement is the
platform's rather than the process's — which is the entire point of the 2026-07-30 amendment above, and
the thing a self-drawn prompt over a protected file would fail to be. The mechanical differences are
incidental: P-256 with ECIES because the enclave holds no other kind of key, and no prompt when sealing
because the public half needs no consent. See docs/platform-flags.md for the three ordinary Macs where the
probe answers no, one of which is every unsigned development build.
- **The stored key must be treated as losable at any time** — a reset PIN, a cleared TPM, a replaced key.
Every loss degrades to a passphrase prompt and never to a locked-out vault, which is why every failure in
the store returns null rather than throwing and why the three unlock statuses all end in the same advice.
@@ -228,6 +228,44 @@ changes.
token, and it puts a compellable third party in the signing path — which is ADR 0011 rule 3's shape one
layer down, declined there for reasons that do not stop applying because the vendor changed.
**This rule is Windows-only, and macOS gets the opposite one.** See decision 10: there is no "unsigned for
now" available on that platform at any price, because Gatekeeper refuses rather than warns.
### 10. macOS is a second desktop platform on the same machinery, signed from the start
The macOS head is the same application, the same Velopack, and the same two-phase person-run release. Four
things differ, and each is forced rather than chosen.
**Signing is a precondition, not an improvement.** Decision 8's whole argument — one dialog per user per
lifetime, buy a certificate when a stranger is invited to install — has no macOS equivalent. An
un-notarized download is refused outright, so the Developer ID certificate and the notarization round trip
are the price of the package existing. `scripts/release-macos.sh` therefore refuses to run without the
signing identities, where the Windows script refuses nothing.
**The channels are `osx` and `osx-nightly`, and they are separate for decision 9's reason.** Four channels
now publish to one repository, and the only thing keeping a Mac from being offered a Windows package is
that it never reads that index. The macOS nightly channel is named and has no publisher: CI builds and
bundles the macOS head to prove it still builds, and uploads nothing, exactly as it does for the Windows
release channel.
**The pack id is shared with Windows, and on macOS it is visible.** vpk names the bundle after the pack id,
so `/Applications` holds `DodoSSH.Desktop.app`. Decision 2's reasoning applies with more force here rather
than less: a pack id of `DodoSSH` would put Velopack's install root on `~/Library/Application
Support/DodoSSH`, which is `ClientPaths.DataDirectory`, and an uninstall would take the user's un-synced
outbox with it. `CFBundleDisplayName` puts the product name back in front of a person; the directory keeps
the id.
**arm64 only, because the check is the scarce thing.** Velopack keys a channel to one architecture, and an
Intel package would be the only artefact in this repository reaching users without somebody having walked
Phase 18 against it. The engineering for a second channel is small and is described in the release script;
what is missing is an Intel Mac to verify on, and shipping blind is the thing this project's manual-check
discipline exists to refuse.
**And one thing that does not differ, which is worth saying because it is the expensive half.** The
capability to publish still lives on a person's machine and never in CI. Notarization does not change that:
Apple's ticket says this build came from this developer account, and says nothing about whether the build
should have been made. Velopack clients still apply what their feed serves. Rule 3 is untouched.
### 9. There is a second desktop channel, published by CI, and it is a second application
[ADR 0014](0014-android-updates.md) gave the phone a nightly channel and rule 3 above gives the desktop