Sign Code

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Introduction

This article is for test purposes only, the best way to sign code is Mobile2Market, Verisign, etc...
With WM5, Microsoft has implemented a new security schema on PocketPC too.
The new schema requires that the applications be signed with a valid certificate to run without problems on devices. 

For simple applications, the schema is not a problem. You'll get some boring popups to run the applications or to install cabs the first time. We have more problems when we try to deploy services or drivers, our DLLs or applications will not run because the schema is loaded after service.exe and device.exe processes!

In this article, I'll explain how we can deploy our own certificate on device and sign our code.

Step 1 - Create the Certificate

The first step is to create our certificate. To do this, we'll use the utility makecert.exe:

makecert -r -sv MyCert.pvk -n "CN=MyCert" -b 01/01/2000 -e 01/01/2099 MyCert.cer 

For more information about makecert.exe parameters, refer to MSDN library.
Now we have our certificate (MyCert.cer) and private key (MyCert.pvk), but we need .pfx to pass it to signtool.exe, so go on to step 2.

Step 2 - Create .pfx from the .cer

To create .pfx file from .cer file, we've to run pvk2pfx.exe tool:

pvk2pfx.exe -pvk MyCert.pvk -spc MyCert.cer -pfx MyCert.pfx

The command will create a .pfx file (MyCert.pfx).

Step 3 - Create the provisioningdoc XML

Ok, now we are ready to build our cab which will install our certificate on devices. To do this, we've to create our wap-provisioningdoc XML.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<wap-provisioningdoc>
<characteristic type="CertificateStore">
    <characteristic type="Privileged Execution Trust Authorities">
        <characteristic type="[cert_sha1]">
            <parm name="EncodedCertificate" value="[cert_base64]" />
        </characteristic>
    </characteristic>
</characteristic>
<characteristic type="CertificateStore">
    <characteristic type="SPC">
        <characteristic type="[cert_sha1]">
            <parm name="EncodedCertificate" value="[cert_base64]" />
            <parm name="Role" value="222" />
        </characteristic>
    </characteristic>
</characteristic>
</wap-provisioningdoc>

This is the standard schema for our provisioningdoc.
We've to fill [cert_sha1] and [cert_base64] with our values got from MyCert.cer. To obtain these values, we've to use openssl.exe tool:

openssl sha1 MyCert.cer > MyCert_sha1.txt
openssl base64 -in MyCert.cer > MyCert_base64.txt

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<wap-provisioningdoc>
<characteristic type="CertificateStore">
    <characteristic type="Privileged Execution Trust Authorities">
        <characteristic type="30bc827f441fa4437b645163e49ade7226b362c3">
            <parm name="EncodedCertificate" 
	    value="MIIB7zCCAVigAwIBAgIQSZfc9OLump1HzDNpsZ2edTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQQFADAR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" />
        </characteristic>
    </characteristic>
</characteristic>
<characteristic type="CertificateStore">
    <characteristic type="SPC">
        <characteristic type="30bc827f441fa4437b645163e49ade7226b362c3">
            <parm name="EncodedCertificate" 
	    value="MIIB7zCCAVigAwIBAgIQSZfc9OLump1HzDNpsZ2edTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQQFADAR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" />
            <parm name="Role" value="222" />
        </characteristic>
    </characteristic>
</characteristic>
</wap-provisioningdoc>

We're ready to build our cab to deploy on our devices.

Step 4 - Build the .cab

This is the most simple step. We've to run makecab.exe tool:

makecab.exe _setup.xml mycert_cert.cab

Our certificate is now ready to install on devices!

Step 5 - Sign our Application Code

After we installed the certificate on our devices, we can sign our code with MyCert.pfx for our code to run as trusted.
We've to use signtool.exe tool:

signtool.exe sign /f MyCert.pfx *.exe *.cab

or

signcode -v MyCert.pvk -spc MyCert.cer *.exe 

With these five simple steps, we've our certificate applications!

Related Links

• Windows Mobile 5.0 Application Security
• Secure Windows Mobile Development and Deployment
• A Practical Guide to the Smartphone Application Security and Code Signing Model for Developers

History

• 19/12/2005 - Initial article
• 30/12/2005 - Corrected the command line on Step 5
• 31/12/2005 - Regenerated the certificate and updated zip file
• 15/11/2006 - Added command line in Step 5 and updated zip file with signcode.exe tool

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)