Using Certificates and Signtool

Obtain a Software Publisher Certificate

Your Certificate Authority will supply one of the following:

  1. a Personal Information Exchange (.pfx) file
  2. a Software Publisher Certificate (.spc), and a Private Key (.pvk) file
  3. a CER-encoded X.509 Certificate (.cer), and a Private Key (.pvk) file

For the second and third case, these file must be converted to a Personal Information Exchange (.pfx), using the Pvk2Pfx.exe tool.

Convert SPC or CER to Personal Information Exchange (.pfx)

Syntax for .spc conversion:

pvk2pfx -pvk filename.pvk -pi password -spc filename.spc -pfx output.pfx

The syntax is identical for .cer conversion:

pvk2pfx -pvk filename.pvk -pi password -spc filename.cer -pfx output.pfx

Sign the Executable

Signtool.exe can be used to sign executables (.exe) and Dynamic Link Libraries (.DLL).

Basic Signature

signtool.exe sign /v /f filename.pvk /p password executable

Signature With Timestamp

signtool.exe sign /v /f filename.pvk /p password /t timeurl executable

Where timeurl is the URL of your Certificate Authority's timestamp server (e.g. http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll for VeriSign)

Signature Verification

signtool verify /pa executable

/pa indicates that the "Default Authenticode" verification policy is used. Omitting the switch will cause the verification to fail, which does not necessarily mean that a given file isn't Authenticode signed.

Resources

About Jeff Fitzsimons

Jeff Fitzsimons is a software engineer in the California Bay Area. Technical specialties include C++, Win32, and multithreading. Personal interests include rock climbing, cycling, motorcycles, and photography.
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One Response to Using Certificates and Signtool

  1. Edwin says:

    I know it’s an old post, but it really helped me thank you.

    The post is clear & concise.. The help pages from the code-signing companies themselves had all the info, but are written in a way that had me chasing my tail all day.

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