App Trust Preview, a Mac app for checking software before opening it

Software
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App Trust Preview for checking Mac downloads before opening them

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a Mac app I built called App Trust Preview.

I am a big fan of Apparency, and it was part of the inspiration. I made App Trust Preview because I wanted a privacy focused Mac App Store app that goes further for the kinds of files people actually download and inspect before trusting them.

The feature I care about most is saved privacy permission review. App Trust Preview can show the actual choices you have already made in macOS privacy settings for an app. That means you can see whether an app has Camera, Microphone, Screen Recording, Contacts, Photos, Accessibility, Local Network, or other permissions without opening each Privacy & Security section and searching for the app name manually.

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I also added buttons that open the relevant System Settings privacy pane, so if you see something you want to change, you can get there quickly.

Another important goal was making the report user friendly. I did not want the app to only dump technical data like certificates, entitlements, package scripts, and Gatekeeper output. App Trust Preview tries to explain what those signals mean in plain language, so the report is useful even if you do not inspect macOS security metadata every day.

It can inspect apps, installer packages, disk images, standalone executables, and scripts. Other features include installer payload review, install script inspection, disk image inspection, readable script previews, executable hashes, readable privacy access summaries, internet access signals, technology detection, and export to PDF, PNG, JSON, or plain text.

It can also open VirusTotal report links by executable hash, which is useful for a quick check to see whether a downloaded app has already been flagged by antivirus engines. The app does not upload the inspected software.

The app runs sandboxed, scans locally, does not launch inspected software, does not modify it, and does not upload it.

It is not antivirus, and it cannot prove software is safe. My goal is to give Mac users more practical context before deciding whether an app, installer, disk image, executable, or script deserves trust.

Website https://apptrustpreview.com/
Mac App Store https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6767974737

I would love feedback from MPU folks, especially on whether the reports feel clear for people who are technical but do not want to read certificates, entitlements, package scripts, and Gatekeeper output by hand.

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Thanks for sharing.

Can you explain why I would need this? If this was Windows – sure, absolutely. But, macOS?

Katie

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On macOS, an unsandboxed app can read many of your files and send data over Internet unless macOS privacy protections block it.

App Trust Preview shows whether an app can connect to Internet, which developer signed it, whether Apple notarized it, and whether you may have accidentally granted access to things like your camera, microphone, screen, or files. It does not just say “safe” or “unsafe”. It gives you the evidence before you decide to trust the app.

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I once downloaded a Mac App Store app that was supposed to work fully offline and had no reason to use any online service. Little Snitch showed that it was connecting directly to a database port on the internet. I found the database password inside the app’s resources and discovered that it was uploading user statistics without consent or proper protection, while also exposing information from other users. I reported it, and the developer fixed it immediately, although they never replied.

Apps designed to work offline should ideally be sandboxed without permission to make outgoing network connections. App Trust Preview shows whether the developer configured the sandbox this way, along with who signed the app, whether Apple notarized it, and what privacy permissions it has received. App Trust Preview itself is sandboxed and has no network entitlement.

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Could the UI be denser? I notice the checkmark cards take up a lot of vertical space; I don’t know if I’d want to scroll to get the app’s report card.

I’m also wondering if you could (keeping privacy in mind) help people understand executables before they’re downloaded, based on maybe the URL and aggregated data.

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Thanks for the feedback. I’ll see what I can do to make the UI denser. As for now, you can visit the app settings and re-order or hide panels the way you want, so you may not need to scroll it anymore.

As for the URL inspection I think you can use this right away VirusTotal

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