Apple has explained a recent issue that caused authentication problems with apps downloaded from the Mac App Store. In an email to developers, the company also promises a fix in an upcoming OS X update.
Donald Southard Jr., developer of apps like Thumbtack and Watermarker 2, published a copy of Apple’s email on Twitter. In it, the company explains what caused the authentication issue, and insists it was a planned event that caused no issues for most users:
In anticipation of the expiration of the old Mac App Store certificate, we issued a new certificate in September. The new certificate used the stronger SHA-2 hashing algorithm in accordance with current recommended industry practice, where the old certificate had used the SHA-1 hashing algorithm.Unfortunately, a caching issue with the Mac App Store meant that some users had to restart their systems and re-authenticate with the Mac App Store to clear a system cache of some outdated certificate information. We are addressing this caching issue in an upcoming OS X update.Also, some apps are running receipt validation code using very old versions of OpenSSL that don’t support SHA-2. We addressed this by replacing the new SHA-2 certificate with a new SHA-1 certificate last Thursday night.
Apple goes on to explain that in addition to issuing a new certificate and addressing the caching problem, it has provided up-to-date troubleshooting information to the AppleCare support team so that users receive the right information and assistance should they contact Apple.
Most of the issues are already resolved, Apple adds, but some apps may still have verification failures “if their receipt checking code makes incorrect assumptions about the certificate.” The company asks developers to ensure that their apps adhere to the Receipt Validation Programming Guide, and to check that all receipt validation issues are resolved.
For general users, it’s good to see that Apple has already addressed many of the problems that caused this issue, and is continuing to put it right. The company does not say when its OS X update will be available, but we expect to see it rolling out relatively soon.
If you’re still experiencing issues with your Mac apps, you can try entering the following command into Terminal, which should provide a fix:
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