Is it free to digitally sign my own c# application?

Question

I found This article about how to sign a C# application.

Is it free to sign my own application by following the instructions in the article above ?

Answer 1

Sure - using the method known as 'self signing'. With signing, an organisation must essentially 'vouch' for you, digitally. Their details (digital certificate) are already installed on most peoples machines, they come with Windows/Mac OSX/Linux/iOS etc. Examples of some of these organisations are Verisign, Thawte and so on.

If you SELF SIGN (using the instructions at the link you provided), then when you distribute your program, it will still be considered untrusted because you are vouching for yourself - which makes no sense really... So, self signing is typically used either for testing, or where you actually already have control over the user's computing infrastructure (such as on a corporate intranet, and you are developing 'in house' software - because you can then also install a certificate for the 'vouch-er' - a.k.a the Issuer).

If you want a company to vouch for you so your software can be trusted on ANY user's computer.... you need to pay for that priveledge - its a required barrier to entry that is essential to making sure that digital certificates are actually useful.