Protect Your Software and Build User Trust: The Ultimate Code Signing Solution

Code signing has proven to be a crucial tool for ensuring software security in the modern digital environment. To ensure that software is safe and secure, code signing has become an essential aspect of software development. Code signing is the process of digitally signing software to verify the authenticity and integrity of the code.

Given the prevalence of malware and cyber-attacks, developers need to take precautions to safeguard their code and provide users with the assurance that the software they use is reliable and trustworthy. Strict security protocols, powerful cryptographic algorithms, and authentication mechanisms to confirm code accuracy are all necessary for code signing.

It’s critical to confirm that the major operating systems and browsers trust and recognize the Certificate Authority being used for code signing. Failure to comply with these requirements may compromise software, harm one’s reputation, and erode user confidence.

But the benefits of code signing, and Sign Tool are not limited to software developers alone. CISOs and CTOs can also benefit from these tools by ensuring that the software used within their organizations is secure and trustworthy. By using code signing and the Sign Tool, they can be assured that any software downloaded and used within their organization is genuine and has not been tampered with. This can prevent data breaches, malware infections, and other security threats that could harm the organization.

What’s more interesting is that the global average cost of a data breach increased 2.6% from $4.24 million in 2021 to $4.35 million in 2022 — the highest it’s been in the history of IBM Security’s “The Cost of a Data Breach Report.

Code signing provides several benefits to both software developers and end-users. It assures users that the software they are downloading is genuine and has not been tampered with by a third-party. This increases trust in the software and makes users more likely to download and use it. Code signing also protects software developers from intellectual property theft by verifying their ownership of the code. It also prevents malware and viruses from being spread through unauthorized code.

Therefore, developers should carefully consider the necessity of and prerequisites for code signing.

You might still be indecisive about using code signing. Let’s examine a cyber breach to understand the graveness of code signing.

SolarWinds cyber breach

SolarWinds which is a very prominent company in IT got hacked. It was after this breach that supply-chain attacks got more widely known. Hackers were able to access Orion, the company’s IT monitoring system, which is utilized by over 30,000 businesses, including municipal, state, and federal authorities. Through an Orion software update hackers were able to spread backdoor malware. 

Now that looks too scary for an organization, and it must not happen with any organization as organization compromise is the ultimate compromise of user data and these attacks should be mitigated at any cost.

Want to get a detailed explanation and timeline of the SolarWinds breach, follow this link to get an explanation from an expert.

How can our organization help?

Our organization has come up with the most efficient and user-friendly code signing solution “CodeSign Secure”. What makes us the best out in the market?

• CodeSign Secure starts with virus scanning before commencing any type of signing process. It searches for any viruses or malware that may have been injected into the file before sending it away for the signing process.
• CodeSign secure uses client-side hashing, providing you with that extra layer of security for customers. Hashing a file at its origin helps maintain its integrity at its peak and gives the customer a clear view of the file and what comes after signing.
• Never exposing the key while signing the file/code. The file is signed inside the HSM, and the keys are never exposed to the outside world.
• Our organization provides Role-based access control for code/file signing providing correct access and privileges to the user. Ensuring only those with proper roles can access certificates, keys within the tool.

• Timestamp your signed code

  Avoid the risks of software expiring unexpectedly when the code signing certificate expires. When a code signing certificate expires, the validity of the software that was signed will also expire unless the software was timestamped when it was signed.

• CodeSign Secure follows the latest NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) guidelines of code signing.
• Monitor and audit key signing workflows- Certificates and keys are associated with specific applications, and whoever is signing anything gets recorded in the logs of our tool, so we have the IP and the username of anyone attempting to sign. They will be blocked if they do not have valid credentials, or if the key or certificate have expired.

• Enable automated code signing in SDLC processes

  We have the ability to sign from a client tool, via APIs, or via the command line so it is very straightforward and simple to integrate our tool into SDLC processes, including tools like Jenkins and Bamboo.

• Compare signing from different build servers

  our tool will check that the code being signed is the most up to date version of the code on the build servers in use by the client, ensuring an older or potentially malicious version of the code is not being signed.

• Revoking compromised certificates

  When a certificate expires, it will automatically be renewed, but in the case that a certificate or key is found to have been compromised, the key can be revoked and thus the signing process cannot occur with that key and certificate.

Our organizations CodeSign Secure has some amazing tools inside that have made different types of signing operations simple.

But what files they can sign? Let us get some insight.

Encryption Consulting- CodeSign Secure

Managing and using different tools for different types of file/certificate signing may prove to be a hefty task especially when submerged by a stockpile of different files that need to be signed. Obviously, one option is to buckle up and get started with the work. It may take forever to rotate between software and get the job done, or simply use our organisations top of the line solution, CodeSign Secure- a command line tool and GUI tool for code signing.

A seamless solution that empowers you to protect your code and files from getting altered and safeguarding the integrity of code. The command line tool automatically detects the file extension and proceeds with the appropriate signing method. Just by giving a few inputs CodeSign Secure returns the signed file in just a matter of time.

CodeSign Secure starts with virus scanning before commencing any type of signing process. It searches for any viruses or malware that may have been injected into the file before sending it away for the signing process. This reduces the risk of signing an infected file to zero.

Talking about CodeSign Secure command-line utility tool let us give you a comprehensive explanation of how it’s done.

1. The user enters the file name. Our product intelligently segregates the files and finds which signing algorithm will be used
2. Once it finds out among Windows signing, OpenSSL signing and Jar signing which signing is to be performed user need to feed certain inputs for the signing process.
3. Like for the Windows Signing (files like .dll , .exe, .sys etc) user needs to enter the hashing algorithm, the certificate file path, time stamp server and other necessary data and you get your files signed in a matter of time.

CodeSign Secure is also capable of Macro signing. You can digitally sign any Excel workbook or Excel template. The end user’s insecurity about running code from an unidentified source is allayed when you digitally sign your macro because it links your identity to the code and displays your name in the file.

Any modifications made to the macro after the signature has been applied, such as the introduction of a virus, will render the signature invalid, safeguarding your name and reputation.

The other types of signing that we do, if we specifically see the type of file in question are

1. Windows Signing

   The Windows Signing tool can sign all types of windows files including .exe, .dll, .sys, etc. dealing with all the windows stuff. We have our own Key Storage Provider, created specifically for our signing tool, which is used to connect to our server, authenticate the client, and sign the windows files in question.

2. Jar Signer

   If you distribute your application as a JAR, EAR, or WAR file, we recommend using a jar signer to digitally sign the JAR file. Especially if other people are downloading the archive over the public internet

   We provide two options to the user either they can do the jar signing the geeky way, i.e., by Command Prompt or with Eclipse.

   The necessary data that you need to be fed to our command line tools are File path, key name, hashing algorithm, certificate location.

3. Open SSL Signing

   Signs binary files (.txt, .so) with OpenSSL. It uses the open-source tool- OpenSSL to sign the binary files and software file (.so files) with the help of OpenSSL. The necessary data that you need to feed to our command line tools are File path, key name and hashing algorithm.

Conclusion

In conclusion, code signing is an essential tool for ensuring the security and integrity of software.

Code signing ensures users that the software they are using comes from a reliable source and has not been tampered with by digitally signing software code with a special digital certificate.

Our code signing tool offers a simple and efficient way to sign your code and protect your software, making sure that it complies with the standards of today’s security-conscious digital environment.

Our code-signing tool helps you increase user trust, defend against malware and online attacks, and protect your reputation as a developer by utilizing strong encryption algorithms, stringent security protocols, and authentication mechanisms. Lastly you need not worry about the authenticity of your software when you use our code-signing tool.