Fixing "No Identity Found" Error While Code Signing in Mac/Apple

After the Monterey update in macOS, developers would have come across error messages like no identity found in the keychain or 0 valid identities found while trying to code sign some app. This is because code signing an app has been made mandatory since macOS Monterey. But to code sign an app, you first need a Code Signing Certificate issued by a Certificate Authority.

Create a Certificate Authority & a Code Signing Certificate

If you have created neither a Certificate Authority nor a Code Signing certificate yet, this tutorial here teaches you how to do so first.

Fixing Invalid Code Signing Identities

Now if you already have a Code Signing Certificate in the Keychain but when you try to code sign some app you get error messages like 

					
						no identity found in the keychain

or when you bring up the terminal and type the below command 

					
						security find-identity -v

you encounter messages like 

					
						0 valid identities found

The first thing to do is to download the Apple’s World Wide Developer Relations (WWDR) certificate from Apple available at http://developer.apple.com/certificationauthority/AppleWWDRCA.cer. After the download, drag and drop the downloaded certificate file to Keychain Access.

apple wwdr certificate

In the Keychain Access (left) click on the code signing certificate that is not working. Then from the menu choose Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Evaluate.

evaluate certificate

In the form, check Code Signing. Click Continue.

certificate assistant code signing

Next is the final part of the form. Click Done.

certificate assistant code signing done

Now you can check the codesigning certificate again. In the terminal, type 

					
						security find-identity -v -p codesigning

The output will be something like 

					
						1) 0FD6E4E658571C49778123E622621DD9BB069EE6 "Dennis"
						  1 valid identities found

Now as an example, we will try to code sign libphp7.so (assuming PHP 7.4 is already installed), which is an essential step for PHP developers.

Get the location of the .so file. 

					
						find / -name libphp7.so

One of the paths to it is /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/lib/httpd/modules/libphp7.so. Code sign it. 

					
						codesign -f -s 0FD6E4E658571C49778123E622621DD9BB069EE6 /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/lib/httpd/modules/libphp7.so

We verify the signing. 

					
						codesign -dv --verbose=4 /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/lib/httpd/modules/libphp7.so

The error messages would have gone now.