About Digital Certificates
AdminStudio 2023 | 25.0 | Repackager
Digital certificates identify you and/or your company to end users to assure them the assembly they are about to use has not been altered. They are issued by a certification authority such as VeriSign, or created using a combination of software publishing credentials (.spc) and a private key (.pvk), both also issued by a certification authority. The certificate includes the public cryptograph key, and, when used in combination with a private key, can be used by end users to verify the authenticity of the signor.
The following digital certificate concepts are defined in this topic:
| • | Private Keys |
| • | Software Publishing Credentials |
| • | Using a Certificate Store |
| • | Creating a Certificate File |
A private key (a file with the extension .pvk) is granted by a certification authority. Repackager uses the private key you enter in the Digital Signature tab of the Isolation Options dialog box to digitally sign your shared assembly and ensure end users of its content's authenticity.
The .spc (Software Publishing Credentials) file and .pvk file you enter in the Digital Signature tab compose the digital certificate for shared assemblies.
Contact a certification authority such as VeriSign for more information on the specifics of software publishing credentials.
Software Publishing Credentials
You must supply a certification authority with specific information about your company and software to obtain software publishing credentials in the form of an .spc file. Your software publishing credentials are used to generate a digital signature for your assembly.
The .spc file and .pvk (private key) file you enter as in the Digital Signature tab of the Advanced Options dialog box compose the digital certificate for shared assemblies.
Contact a certification authority such as VeriSign for more information on the specifics of software publishing credentials.
To perform code signing, both private key and software publishing credential information must be supplied. This must occur each time a package is signed. Most server operating systems store a certificate locally on the computer that the user used to request the credential information.
Instead of having to store credential files on each of the user computers, you can create a Certificate Store, a storage location which will have numerous certificates, which enables all users or computers with adequate permissions to retrieve the certificate as needed.
Using a Certificate Store allows you to associate the same credentials and private key files with multiple packages. This simplification is particularly useful when isolating applications, as typically the code signing information will be identical for all shared assemblies. Ultimately, the Certificate Store removes the burden of managing private key and software publishing credential information.
You can create a certificate file from the constituent PVK and SPC files and import it into the Certificate Store using the PVK Digital Certificate Files Importer. You can then export the certificate (.cer) file for use outside of the Certificate Store.
Caution:Certificate files must be 2048-bit or higher. For more information, see the article: Assembly Signing Example on the Microsoft Developer Network website.