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Leopard Reference Library: Cocoa
Mac OS X provides a number of authorization, authentication, and cryptographic services that developers can use to build security into their applications. These interfaces include an Objective-C API that provides authorization services and user interfaces for managing authorization, certificates, and keychains, plus several C APIs that can be called from Cocoa applications to provide lower-level security and secure networking services.

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Kerberos: Highly Secure Single Sign On Authentication in Mac OS X (HTML)
Learn how you can take advantage of Kerberos in your application.
Articles 2007-02-05
CFNetwork Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Explains how to use Core Foundation networking functions to work with low-level BSD sockets.
Guides 2009-05-06
Keychain Services Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
This document explains how to use Keychain Services to store and retrieve passwords.
Guides 2009-03-12
Authorization Services Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Explains how to add fine-grained control of privileged operations in an application.
Guides 2009-01-06
Certificate, Key, and Trust Services Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Shows how to evaluate trust for a certificate and recover from a trust failure.
Guides 2008-11-19
Code Signing Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Explains how you can sign your code and why you should.
Guides 2008-11-19
Security Overview (HTML) (PDF)
An introduction to computer security concepts and the security APIs in Mac OS X and iPhone OS.
Guides 2008-10-15
Secure Coding Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Describes techniques to use and factors to consider to make your code more secure from attack.
Guides 2008-05-23
SFAuthorization Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class used to restrict a user's access to particular features in a Mac OS X application or daemon.
Reference 2009-01-06
Certificate, Key, and Trust Services Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes services to read and evaluate certificates and to use cryptographic keys.
Reference 2008-11-19
Keychain Services Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the Keychain Services API, used to create, find, modify, and delete keychain items.
Reference 2008-11-19
Cryptographic Message Syntax Services Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the API for encrypting, signing, and decoding messages using Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS).
Reference 2007-10-31
Security Interface Framework Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the Objective-C API for creating views and dialogs relating to authorization, certificates, and keychains.
Reference 2006-07-14
SFAuthorizationPluginView Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class an authorization plug-in uses to display a custom view within the Apple-supplied authorization views.
Reference 2006-07-14
Security Foundation Framework Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the Security Foundation framework for adding fine-grained control of privileged operations in an application.
Reference 2006-05-23
SecurityInterface Data Types Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the data types found in the Security Interface framework.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFAuthorizationView Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that displays a lock icon that indicates a user interface has restricted access.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFCertificatePanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that displays one or more certificates in a panel or sheet.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFCertificateTrustPanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that enables the user to edit the trust settings in a certificate.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFCertificateView Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that displays the contents of a certificate.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFChooseIdentityPanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that allows a user to select an identity from a list.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFKeychainSavePanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that displays a sheet or panel that allows the user to create a keychain.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFKeychainSettingsPanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that displays a panel or sheet that allows users to change their keychain settings.
Reference 2006-05-23
Secure Transport Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the C API for creating a Secure Sockets Layer session over any transport layer.
Reference 2004-08-31
Code Signing Release Notes (HTML)
Release Notes 2007-10-31
Security Reference Update (HTML) (PDF)
Summarizes the symbols added to the Security framework.
Release Notes 2007-07-18
GetPrimaryMACAddress (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates retrieving the MAC address of the built-in Ethernet controller. Useful for uniquely identifying a Macintosh system.
Sample Code 2005-10-27
CryptoSample (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Contains sample code showing symmetric encryption and message digest calculation.
Sample Code 2003-02-06
GetMACAddressSample (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates how to retrieve the MAC address for each Ethernet interface from the Mac OS X I/O Registry.
Sample Code 2003-01-14
SSLSample (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Contains examples showing how to use SecureTransport.
Sample Code 2003-01-14
Mac OS X Code Signing In Depth (HTML)
TN2206: Intermediate to expert level overview of code signing that details specific options and gotchas
Technical Notes 2008-08-06
Using Secure Event Input Fairly (HTML)
TN2150: Describes the proper use of EnableSecureEventInput.
Technical Notes 2007-06-08
Security Framework Error Codes (HTML)
QA1499: Explains how to interpret errors returned by the Security Framework with an overview of Security error handling.
Technical Q&As 2006-11-16
Programmatically Accessing and Manipulating Multiple Keychain Items (HTML)
QA1486: An explanation on what is and is not possible using the SecKeychain API to manipulate Keychain Items.
Technical Q&As 2006-10-03
CFBundleIdentifier and user application access (HTML)
QA1373: Describes the role of CFBundleIdentifier in limiting a user's application access.
Technical Q&As 2005-02-08