Quarantine and the quarantine flag — by Howard Oakley (Eclectic Light Company)

advancedpageLink only (©)

Describes the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute that Gatekeeper uses, how its text value is structured, how sandboxed apps add it to files that were never downloaded, and how to inspect it with xattr. Helpful background for damaged-app errors.

Read the full article on eclecticlight.co

Source: Quarantine and the quarantine flag by Howard Oakley (Eclectic Light Company). Licence: Link only (©).

Source reviewed: 2026-11-02
Link checked: 2026-11-02
Tested hands-on: Not by Oddbyte.Me

quarantinegatekeeperxattrmacos

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