Why does my app run on 10.15 while it is not signed and not notarized

I have a dedicated mac for testing, on this machine no develpment is done.
The security/privacy setting is: only apps from appstore or identified developers.
Still my apps are running Big Sur (10.15) while I would expect they where blocked with nog codesigning and no notarization.

What are the conditions to run unsigned and no-notarized apps downloaded from the web.

for your information: I have a signed and notarized installer. This installer downloads a zip containing the real app.

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Why does my app run on 10.15 while it is not signed and not notarized

These things are checked by Gatekeeper, which (in most cases) only kicks in if the program is quarantined. If you copied the program to the ‘victim’ machine in a way that doesn’t set quarantine, it typically doesn’t need to be signed and notarised.

There are exceptions to this. For example:

  • Apple Silicon machines require that all code be signed.

  • Kernel and system extensions must be signed and notarised (unless you disable SIP).

If you want to test your product in more realistic circumstances, follow the process described in my Testing a Notarised Product post.

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