Why is it important to sign the assembly?

[tassa]

Hello,

I saw one post on which someone was recommended to sign he's assembly, why is this important?

Thanks in advance!

[jmcilhinney]

Signing an assembly uniquely identifies that assembly. Anyone can then use that assembly and know that it is the original assembly from you. It ensures that noone can tamper with the assembly or substitute another that does something bad and pass it off as yours.

[tassa]

Hey John, thanks for the quick answer... Is there anyway to view the signing after the app is built?

[arithforu]

Strong name is similar to GUID(It is supposed to be unique in space and time) in COM
components.Strong Name is only needed when we need to deploy assembly in GAC. Strong
Names helps GAC to differentiate between two versions. Strong names use public key cryptography
(PKC) to ensure that no one can spoof it.PKC use public key and private key concept.

[arithforu]

When it comes to understanding of internals nothing can beat ILDASM. ILDASM basically converts
the whole exe or dll in to IL code. To run ILDASM you have to go to "C:\Program Files\MicrosoftVisual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Bin". Note that i had v1.1 you have to probably change it
depending on the type of framework version you have.
If you run IDASM.EXE from the path you will be popped with the IDASM exe program as
shown in figure ILDASM. Click on file and browse to the respective directory for the DLL
whose assembly you want to view. After you select the DLL you will be popped with a tree view
details of the DLL as shown in figure ILDASM. On double clicking on manifest you will be able
to view details of assembly, internal IL code etc.