Outlook binary patching and signing

Outlook_binary_patching_and_signing.md

Simple shell script to quickly and easily force Outlook 2016 for Mac out of sandbox.

More info here.

See the script in action here.

patch.sh

#!/bin/bash

echo "Patching old binary... "
cd "/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app/Contents/MacOS/"
hexdump -ve '1/1 "%.2X"' "Microsoft Outlook" | \
sed "s/73616E64626F783C2F6B65793E0A093C747275652F3E/73616E64626F783C2F6B65793E0A093C66616C732F3E/g" | \
xxd -r -p > "Microsoft Outlook.patched"
# hexdump -> creates hex dump of the binary executable
# sed -> replaces 'sandbox</key><true/>' with 'sandbox</key><fals/>' in the hex dump
# xxd -> rebuilds the edited hex dump back into executable binary
chmod `stat -f %A "Microsoft Outlook"` "Microsoft Outlook.patched"
# copies permissions from the original binary to the patched binary
mv "Microsoft Outlook" ~/Desktop/Microsoft\ Outlook.bak
# backs up the original executable
mv "Microsoft Outlook.patched" "Microsoft Outlook"
echo "Done!"
echo ""
echo "Proceed with signing the new binary:"
echo "sudo codesign -f -s \"CERIFICATE NAME HERE\" /Applications/Microsoft\ Outlook.app/"
# After the binary is successfully patched, sign it with the above command
echo ""
echo "Then verify that signing finished properly:"
echo "sudo codesign -v /Applications/Microsoft\ Outlook.app/"
# Verify the signature. If everything went smoothly, you won't get any output from the above command

# More info: https://ツ.sh/move-profile-folder-location-in-outlook-2016-for-mac/
# @jansoucek 2015

@BourneLoser , @jankais3r,
I'm using Office 16.25 (macOS Mojave 10.14.5), by remove signature, I still can move profile folder location to other volume . (I'm using only one account, so, not re-sign is not a problem for me.)

• disable Gatekeeper (sudo spctl --master-disable)
• sudo codesign --remove-signature /Volumes/tfData/macInstalledSW/Microsoft\ Outlook.app/

Hello any update for Office 16.30 ?

Hi,
I did the test with Outlook 2019. There is a crash like you described on April 2019.

Dear Jan, while I managed to follow your instructions (moving the Outlook-folder to an external SSD and creating a SymLink instead of the Alias, that I did at first), when I open Outlook for Mac, it does not show me any of my accounts, meaning, I would have to start from Zero. And when I open the Outlook Profile Manager, it does not show me any of my profiles, neither "Main" nor the one, that I created and used ... and are now sitting on my external SSD. I do appreciate your work and thank you for it, but maybe there is/was something missing in your instructions? Kind regards, Alexander.

Addendum, just FYI, if that helps: I just checked, that when I opened Outlook for Mac, there were two new files created in my (original) UBF8......Office-Folder: MicrosoftRegistrationDB.reg and OutlookProfile.plist. Maybe that helps you to let me know, what I might have done wrong or what might be missing in your instructions. Thanks again, Alexander.