PowerShell is now notarized and hardened for macOS

We’re excited to announce that the PowerShell packages for macOS are now properly notarized and hardened, meeting both Apple’s security requirements and Microsoft’s internal compliance standards.

This has been one of the most consistently requested improvements from our macOS community, and we’re glad to finally deliver it.

What changed

Starting with the next release, the PowerShell .pkg installer and tarball for macOS are:

• Notarized by Apple — macOS no longer warns you that PowerShell is from an unidentified developer
• Hardened — the PowerShell binary and its libraries are built with the security entitlements Apple recommends for distributed software

This update also includes a fix that properly sets the file permissions on files contained in the tarball. These fixes are included in the next maintenance releases of PowerShell 7.4 and higher.

What this means for you

If you’ve been working around Gatekeeper warnings, adjusting security settings, running xattr commands, or guiding users through extra steps to install PowerShell, you no longer need to.

For most users, no action is required. Install or update PowerShell as you normally would.

Documentation

For installation instructions and the latest release, see the Install PowerShell 7 on macOS.

Thank you

This work closes more than 14 long-standing GitHub issues. Thank you to everyone in the community who filed issues, tested workarounds, and kept this on our radar.

Jason Helmick

Sr. Product Manager, PowerShell