Why does Skype want to use a "Xcode Server Builder Identity" key?

Question

While examining some features of XCode, I briefly enabled the XCode Continuous Integration Server. The following dialog box now pops up:

Skype wants to sign using key "Xcode Server Builder Identity" in your keychain. To allow this, enter the "login" keychain password.

If I choose "Allow" or "Deny", the dialog box will pop back up roughly a half dozen times in succession. Using Keychain Access, I find no item named "Xcode Server Builder Identity" in the login keychain or otherwise (the only item mentioning "XCode" in the login keychain predates any of this), nor in the server certificates for the system Apache server (which the XCode server seemed to want to use).

Why is Skype trying to use this key? Where is it stored? How can I stop the prompts (short of always allowing access)?

Answer 1

An identity is a certificate with a private key. It's possibly Skype checks the keychain for identities so it can authenticate itself with a server when setting up a secure connection (server authentication is mandatory with secure connections; client authentication is optional).

Where is it stored?

As not all items stored in a keychain are shown in Keychain Access, the security utility can (must?) be used to show them instead. The message mentions an identity; the find-identity security subcommand can be used. The options to find-security are limited, and don't include options to filter based on name, label, description, creator or many of the other filters other subcommands take. Fortunately, there are likely far fewer identities on the keychain than there are of other types.

$ security find-identity
Policy: X.509 Basic
  Matching identities
  1) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "iOS Dev" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
  2) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "iPhone Configuration Utility (DEADBEEF-1234-5678-9ABC-EF0123456789)" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  3) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.defaced2feelbad2feedfacedeadbeefcafef00dd00dc0de" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  4) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.defaced2feelbad2feedfacedeadbeefcafef00dd00dc0de" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  5) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.defaced2feelbad2feedfacedeadbeefcafef00dd00dc0de" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  6) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "member: DEADBEEF-1234-5678-9ABC-EF0123456789 DEADBEEF-1234-5678-9ABC-EF0123456789" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
  7) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "Xcode Server Builder (3/26/21, 12:32:33 PM)" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
     7 identities found
     
  Valid identities only
  1) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "iOS Dev" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
     1 valid identities found

In the example, note Item 7 in the output is the Xcode Server Builder identity.