Suspicious Package for Mac
Preview contents of installer packages.
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Suspicious Package overview
With Suspicious Package, you can find out important information about those package files you download. Do you know what files that OS X Installer package actually installs?... Do you know what scripts it runs during installation, and what they do?... Do you know who the package really came from?... Maybe you're quite literally suspicious of a package you've downloaded. Or perhaps you're just curious about what some package does. Or maybe you want to find out after the fact exactly what files a package scattered across your computer. Whatever the reason, Suspicious Package allows you to see inside an installer package. (And it's completely free.)
Suspicious Package is now actually both an OS X application,... and a plug-in for the Quick Look feature of OS X.
What’s new in version 4.5
- On the All Files tab, apps and other executables now show their macOS version requirement in the info pane. If an executable supports multiple processor architectures, Suspicious Package shows the oldest supported version across all architectures (Intel support often goes back further than Apple Silicon).
- Also on the All Files tab, a rule-based search can now find items based on their macOS version requirement. For example, you might want to search for all items where the required OS version is newer than 14.2 (or whatever version your organization is running).
- When a package declares a top-level macOS version requirement, Suspicious Package now shows this on the Package Info tab (e.g. “Requires macOS 13.6 or later at install-time”). This declarative mechanism is quite old but is nevertheless lightly used; packages are perhaps more likely to use the Distribution JavaScript method for checking versions, but Suspicious Package does not examine that code. Note that this is strictly an install-time check, and is distinct from the version requirements declared by individual apps or executables, as shown on the All Files tab.
- Any macOS version requirements are now included in diffable manifests, and any changes will be shown when using the Compare Packages command. If you've archived any diffable manifests created by previous versions of Suspicious Package, you might want to adjust the new Use manifest version pop-up in the Options pane of the File > Export as Diffable Manifest dialog: this can be used to eliminate differences caused by changes in the manifest format, as opposed to changes in the package.
- Removed the For installing to a startup disk running pop-up from the File > Open dialog, as well as related UI. This only ever affected the handling of certain Apple-supplied packages that behaved differently before the advent of the signed system volume. Now that this transition is long past, Suspicious Package simply assumes an install to at least macOS 10.15 (Catalina). Likewise, the AppleScript open command's for installing to parameter, and the spkg tool's ‑‑target-os-version option, are still accepted (to avoid breaking existing scripts) but are ignored. Finally, Suspicious Package will no longer produce an informational message about this scenario on the Review tab.
- Fixed a display bug on the All Scripts tab involving Dark Mode: the line number ruler was incorrectly using a Light Mode background and thus was basically unreadable.
- Worked around a macOS bug (reported as FB13681128) that would prevent dragging from the Suspicious Package-generated Quick Look preview in the Finder's Preview pane. [Read More]
- Compatibility updates for upcoming macOS 15 (Sequoia) release:
- Fixed a potential crash when opening the Welcome to Suspicious Package window. This crash might occur only on an Apple-internal installation of macOS; we're not able to reproduce it ourselves.
- The spkg CLI tool can now be used to open multiple packages with a single command.
Suspicious Package for Mac
Free
In English
Version 4.5
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(18 Reviews of Suspicious Package)
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User Ratings
Dec 16 2022
Version: 4.3.1
Unfortunately the new version is for Big Sur or higher.
But I highly recommend this app for anyone "curious" or "paranoid"
You can see inside installers and make your digital life a bit more secure.
Mar 17 2022
Version: 4.2
...it is very complete; what happens is that I have little need to use it ...
Jul 11 2020
Version: 3.5.3
Very impressed. Software is exceptionally well designed, easy to use, and teaches the user about how installer packages are created though Suspicious Package's use. While I love Pacifist, Suspicious Package (SP) has become my go-to and I set it as my default '.pkg' file opener.
It would be awesome if SP could have a setting where you drag your favorite anti-virus software into an image well and it would then offer the ability to open whatever package you are analyzing into that AV software whenever you run SP. (sub launch with file)
May 8 2019
Version: 3.4.1
Essential tool to see what sorts of sneaky sludge an app may want to stuff into your system.
Oct 8 2018
Version: 3.3.2
Love this app. Very convenient way to figure out what will be installed by a .pkg beforehand. I mostly use it through QuickLook, but the app itself provides additional features that are quite handy too.
