Can't run app because of permission in macOS v11 (Big Sur)

Question

I had this problem with the error "Termination Reason: Namespace CODESIGNING, Code 0x1" and I managed to open the application after I signed it again on that machine, with the command:

codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/AppName.app

No other solution worked for me.

Open Terminal or iTerm and type sudo chmod -R 755, then drag the .app into the window, which will bring the full path into Terminal or iTerm. This worked for me, moving the -R option directly after chmod.

It will look like this:

sudo chmod -R 755 Path\ to\ app\ file.app

Press return.

It seems to be a permissions issue on one of the files deep in the .app that you moved to the applications directory.

Open Terminal or iTerm and type "chmod -R 755 " and drag the .app into the window, which will bring the full path into Terminal or iTerm.

It will look like this:

chmod -R 755 Path\ to\ app\ file.app

Press return

Then, you can open the app file normally, but it will fail because gatekeeper won't be able to verify the file. From there, go into your "Security and Privacy" in "System Preferences" and then click to allow the app to open.

The problem in my case it was related to a Big Sur problem where UPX compressed binaries are not recognised properly, so they were not executed with a permission error.

There is some more information here: UPX compressed application fails to start on latest macOS release: Big Sur 11.01 #424

So the solution is to unpack the binary with UPX and run it normally.

Install upx with Homebrew (executable brew):

brew install upx

Now run this command:

sudo upx -d /Applications/my_app.app/Contents/MacOS/my_app

(Please note you have to specify the full binary path.)

You should use the path of your binary instead of "/Applications/my_app.app/Contents/MacOS/my_app"

Then run the application normally.

I too had faced the same problem with this error. My DBeaver did not work while I opened after a week of not using it:

You do not have permission to open this application.

I even checked system preferences. It showed accepts in security. My current OS is macOS v11 (Big Sur).

So I tried in the terminal:

Step 1: sudo spctl --master-disable -> did not work

Step 2: xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine DBeaver -> did not work

Step 3: Then I opened DBeaver in the terminal and ran sudo chmod -R 777 -> again, it did not work

Step 4: Finally I tried:

codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/DBeaver.app

Wow, it works great. Now my DBeaver is working good.

This answer will only apply to a specific set of applications

I had this issue with a universal binary (Terminal) that I duplicated and explicitly set in the info "Open using Rosetta" to run x86 tools like Homebrew. After updating to 11.0.1 from 11.0.0, the x86 version of the terminal stopped working with the above error.

I simply had to delete the duplicate, created another duplicate of the terminal and enabled Rosetta again.