Obtaining a Software Publishing Certificate
Although Microsoft’s Authenticode technology should work with software publishing digital certificates from any recognized certification authority, when this book went to press the only CA issuing these certificates was VeriSign.
As of July 2001, VeriSign issues two kinds of software publisher’s certificates, which the company now calls Code Signing Digital IDs. The CodeSigner Standard ID costs $400 and comes with $50,000 of “NetSure Protection,” promises a “Keynote Performance Audit” from 10 cities, and promises 2-day express delivery. For practical purposes, the real difference is that if you pay more money, you can get faster turnaround.
Previously, VeriSign had offered “Personal” certificates for use with Authenticode. These certificates were handy because they cost roughly half as much as the commercial certificates and they were available to individuals, rather than corporations, yet they were as powerful as commercial certificates. Perhaps that is the reason that the personal certificates were discontinued.
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