The true and false security benefits of Mac app notarization

from blog The Desolation of Blog, | ↗ original
Almost everyone, including Apple, has painted a false picture of the security benefit of Mac app notarization. There is a true benefit, which I haven't seen anyone mention, but I'll discuss it here. On the other hand, the publicly touted benefits of notarization are bunk, in my opinion, and I'm going to debunk them in this post too. Most notably, I'll explain how the notarization malware scan is superfluous security theater, a mere marketing gimmick that I believe ought to be abolished because of the burden it places on legitimate developers.