Get the EXPIRATION date of a Provisioning Profile at Run-time?

You are looking for something like

"<key>ExpirationDate</key><date>2014-12-06T00:26:10Z</date>" in [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"embedded" ofType:@"mobileprovision"]

But getting there is not easy! This code could be improved, parts of it were based on other stackoverflow posts. Note: Another option would be to load everything between item plist and /plist into ...a plist (dictionary). But since we're already there, we just find the sibling by hand.

- (NSString*) getExpiry{

    NSString *profilePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"embedded" ofType:@"mobileprovision"];
    // Check provisioning profile existence
    if (profilePath)
    {
        // Get hex representation
        NSData *profileData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:profilePath];
        NSString *profileString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", profileData];

        // Remove brackets at beginning and end
        profileString = [profileString stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1) withString:@""];
        profileString = [profileString stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(profileString.length - 1, 1) withString:@""];

        // Remove spaces
        profileString = [profileString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@" " withString:@""];


        // Convert hex values to readable characters
        NSMutableString *profileText = [NSMutableString new];
        for (int i = 0; i < profileString.length; i += 2)
        {
            NSString *hexChar = [profileString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(i, 2)];
            int value = 0;
            sscanf([hexChar cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding], "%x", &value);
            [profileText appendFormat:@"%c", (char)value];
        }

        // Remove whitespaces and new lines characters
        NSArray *profileWords = [profileText componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];

        //There must be a better word to search through this as a structure! Need 'date' sibling to <key>ExpirationDate</key>, or use regex
        BOOL sibling = false;
        for (NSString* word in profileWords){
            if ([word isEqualToString:@"<key>ExpirationDate</key>"]){
                NSLog(@"Got to the key, now need the date!");
                sibling = true;
            }
            if (sibling && ([word rangeOfString:@"<date>"].location != NSNotFound)) {
                NSLog(@"Found it, you win!");
                NSLog(@"Expires: %@",word);
                return word;
            }
        }

    }

    return @"";
}

Swift version:

// Returns `nil` if it fails
private func getProvisioningProfileExpirationDateAsString() -> String? {
    guard
        let profilePath = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "embedded", ofType: "mobileprovision"),
        let profileData = try? Data(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: profilePath)),
        // Note: We use `NSString` instead of `String`, because it makes it easier working with regex, ranges, substring etc.
        let profileNSString = NSString(data: profileData, encoding: String.Encoding.ascii.rawValue)
        else {
        print("WARNING: Could not find or read `embedded.mobileprovision`. If running on Simulator, there are no provisioning profiles.")
        return nil
    }


    // NOTE: We have the `[\\W]*?` check to make sure that variations in number of tabs or new lines in the future does not influence the result.
    guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: "<key>ExpirationDate</key>[\\W]*?<date>(.*?)</date>", options: []) else {
        print("Warning: Could not create regex.")
        return nil
    }

    let regExMatches = regex.matches(in: profileNSString as String, options: [], range: NSRange(location: 0, length: profileNSString.length))

    // NOTE: range `0` corresponds to the full regex match, so to get the first capture group, we use range `1`
    guard let rangeOfCapturedGroupForDate = regExMatches.first?.range(at: 1) else {
        print("Warning: Could not find regex match or capture group.")
        return nil
    }

    let dateAsString = profileNSString.substring(with: rangeOfCapturedGroupForDate)
    return dateAsString
}