Install OS X Lion, software could not be verified - fix.

If you come across the above error "Software could not be verified" after downloading Mac OSx Lion, Mountain Lion, Yosemite, the way to fix it is to change your computer's time to a point in the past.

The problem is that the X.509 certificates that are used to sign and verify these old software versions have expired and the installation fails when doing an integrity check (expired certificates.)

I changed my computer from 2023 back to 2013 and no problem.

The software could not be verified. It ma… - Apple Community

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252987018

This is specific to much older Macs & iMacs.

Procedure should be something like this:

* Download .dmg from Apple

* Open the .dmg and install the installation program

* Change your computer's time to something history

• Launch the installation program
• Reboot when instructed.
• When install is finished, fix your computer's time