How CodeSign Secure Enhanced Code Signing Security and Developer Productivity of a Financial Service Firm 

Company Overview 

This firm is a leading financial services provider recognized for its innovative approach to data protection and commitment to maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of client financial information. Operating in a highly regulated industry, the company employs innovative security measures and complies with stringent financial regulations to safeguard assets and data.

Despite these strengths, the firm faces challenges in its code signing practices. Lacking a streamlined and secure code signing process undermines the security of its software deployments, exposing critical systems and client data to potential vulnerabilities. This shortfall presents a pressing need for improvement to maintain trust and uphold its reputation for security. 

Challenges 

1. Theft of Code Signing Keys

   Private code signing keys can be a juicy target for cyber attackers. Improperly protected keys are dangerous. Stealing private code signing keys allows intruders to disguise malicious software or malware as authentic code. Worse, there are limited revocation mechanisms in code signing systems, which makes the threat of stolen private keys even worse. When keys or digital certificates are poorly managed and stored, it opens the door to attackers, letting them steal the private keys of the trusted user.

2. Developer productivity

   By integrating code-signing into DevSecOps, organizations can automate security checks, foster collaboration between developers and security teams, and enable continuous improvement throughout the development lifecycle, ultimately leading to secure and reliable software.

3. Compliance Requirements

   Secure code signing provides an audit trail. DevSecOps embraces transparency and accountability. Signed artifacts facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements. For example, a company must comply with a regulation that mandates data security. Signed code provides an audit trail that can show the software hasn’t been tampered with.

4. Performance Requirements

   Code Signing plays an important role as it can enable the identification of legitimate software versus malware or rogue code. Digitally signed code ensures that the software running on computers and devices is trusted and unmodified. Software powers your organization and reflects the true value of your business.

   Protecting the software with a robust code signing process is necessary for performance without limiting access to the code, assuring this digital information is not malicious code and establishing the author’s legitimacy.

5. Lack of timestamping

   Lack of timestamping was a major issue with this organization, which can lead to a detrimental security posture. Without time stamping, expiration/revocation of code signing certificates would lessen customers’ confidence in the same software product. Timestamps make sure that even if certificates lose their validity or are revoked for some reason, their signatures remain valid, secure, and trusted.

   Timestamps prevent replay attacks. It occurs when an attacker records a transaction and then replays it later. It also plays a crucial role in securing blockchain, which ensures all transactions are valid and the blockchain remains secured. This enables easier tracking and prevention of fraudulent activities.

Solutions 

1. CodeSign Secure stores private keys in FIPS 140-2 validated HSMs (such as those of Entrust, Thales, etc.), fortifying key security. This enabled the protection of code signing keys from theft or misuse, which was one of the organization’s top concerns.
2. With CodeSign Secure, developers can produce code signing keys seamlessly without using special tools. A delicate balance was struck between ensuring security and impeding developer productivity.
3. The security team can customize access levels based on project type, acceptable risk, and request source. CodeSign Secure simplified compliance reporting, eliminating audit pain points. It helped manage access to code signing keys, and meeting compliance requirements was critical.
4. By generating file hashes and transmitting them, along with private key alias names, to the Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), we achieved signature generation directly from the HSM in just 2ms. This met stringent performance requirements, such as signing a file within 4ms.
5. We have implemented a robust logging mechanism in CodeSign Secure, capturing all requested data for each code signing request. This met the need for comprehensive logging, including timestamps, client IP addresses, file hashes, HSM-generated signatures, and certificate names.

Impact 

1. CodeSign Secure stores private keys in FIPS 140-2 Level 3 compliant validated HSMs (such as those of Entrust, Thales, etc.), fortifying key security. By storing private keys in Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), CodeSign Secure provides additional protection against theft and misuse, bolstering the overall security posture.

2. With CodeSign Secure, developers can produce code signing keys seamlessly without using special tools. A delicate balance was struck between ensuring security and impeding developer productivity.

   It enabled security teams to tailor access levels based on project requirements and acceptable risk levels. Additionally, streamlined compliance reporting simplified regulatory adherence and enhanced audit efficiency, ensuring industry-standard compliance.

3. By generating file hashes on the client side and transmitting them, along with private key alias names, to the Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), we achieved signature generation directly from the HSM in just 2ms. CodeSign Secure’s rapid 2-millisecond signature generation, exceeding the 4-millisecond requirement, not only met performance standards but also saved valuable time for the team, optimizing their workflow for critical software development tasks.
4. We have implemented a robust logging mechanism in CodeSign Secure, capturing all requested data for each code signing request. Through this detailed logging mechanism, CodeSign Secure ensured transparency by tracking code signing requests, data integrity via file hashes, and security analysis by including HSM-generated signatures and certificate names.

Conclusion 

CodeSign Secure from Encryption Consulting revolutionized code signing for a leading financial services company. It provided unprecedented security by safeguarding private keys and allowing granular access control. Simultaneously, it empowered the client’s development teams by streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity.

The robust auditing capabilities further strengthened their security posture and ensured compliance with industry standards. Furthermore, it enabled a single platform for all code signing use cases, which includes Windows signing, apple signing, Linux signing, Docker and Container Image signing, and firmware code signing for the organization. In addition, it enabled integrity checks, compliance with the CA/B forum, and security enhancement.