What are these kind of certificates?

Question

StefanoHeartP OP

Created Sep ’24

Replies 5

Boosts 0

Participants 3

Hello there, I need guidance understanding what some certificates are related to.

a) On my Apple developer page home I see that RENEWAL date for my apple developer enterprise program subscription is 2024-october-10

b) in devices section, there is a banner showing that my membership will EXPIRE on 2024-october-09

c) in certificates section I have 6 "development" certificates expiring in multiple dates from 2024-october-11 to 2025-may-22. these ones are "certificate Type - development" and **"certification name with my personal name" **

none of dates in certificates section matches exactly renewal or expiring dates for my apple developer page subscription or profile certificate.

why dates in a and b are different?
what are certificates in certificates section (those mentioned in "c") ? they seems different from "mac development" and such. What happens if they expire?

thank you in advance.

Answered by DTS Engineer in 804296022

scared by the fact that could be two similar but separate things I could have mismatched.

Right. I see a lot of folks with these concerns.

My general advice on this front is that the vast majority of code signing certificates are of low value. Specifically, Apple Development and Apple Distribution certificates can be generated, revoked, and regenerated at will. The ones you have to be careful about are:

Enterprise distribution certificates, on iOS and its child platforms
Developer ID certificates, on macOS

I’m much much familiar with the latter than the former. Indeed, I have a long post about that: The Care and Feeding of Developer ID.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Sep ’24

I discuss certificate expiration in general in TN3161 Inside Code Signing: Certificates.

why dates in and are different?

They’re only off by a day, right?

what are certificates in certificates section (those mentioned in ?

It’s hard to say for sure without see the exact names, but my go-to reference for for this sort of stuff is Developer Account > Reference > Certificate types.

What happens if they expire?

In general, development certificates have low value. If you’re using Xcode’s automatic code signing, which is what I recommend, then Xcode will automatically renew them (assuming your developer account is in good shape).

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

1

Answer 2

StefanoHeartP OP

Sep ’24

tThank you for your answer Quinn. I can provide some screenshot in order to bel more clear. I removed personal developer name. for privacy concerns.

They’re only off by a day, right?

You are right, but last time I checked for and expiration date it was in UTC (I'm in Europe, Italy. ), so I'm not sure about dates.

aScreenshot 2024-09-17 alle 12.01.46.png

aScreenshot 2024-09-17 alle 12.02.03.png

0

Answer 3

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Sep ’24

I'm not sure about dates.

OK. But my point is that the difference of a day isn’t a big deal. If you’re renewing a certificate, you wouldn’t do that on the last day that the certificate is valid, you’d do it well in advance. So the difference between 9 Oct and 10 Oct isn’t something you really care about.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0

Answer 4

stefanoheart OP

Sep ’24

Ok, it's my fault, my point about dates was that I tried to use them as a way to try to identify multiple things, scared by the fact that could be two similar but separate things I could have mismatched. Thank again for helping me.

0

Answer 5

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Sep ’24

Accepted Answer

scared by the fact that could be two similar but separate things I could have mismatched.

Right. I see a lot of folks with these concerns.

My general advice on this front is that the vast majority of code signing certificates are of low value. Specifically, Apple Development and Apple Distribution certificates can be generated, revoked, and regenerated at will. The ones you have to be careful about are:

Enterprise distribution certificates, on iOS and its child platforms
Developer ID certificates, on macOS

I’m much much familiar with the latter than the former. Indeed, I have a long post about that: The Care and Feeding of Developer ID.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0