strong-named assembly

strong-named assembly

1. Strong-Named Assemblies – Why and How

In this short post, I will discuss strong-named assemblies in .NET and cover why and how you should use strong naming within your .NET projects.

2. How to Find the Public Key Token for a Strongly-Named Assembly

In another post, we discussed why you should strongly name assemblies and how to do it via the Strong Name Tool (sn.exe). In this quick post we will consider another scenario – how to get the public key token string value of a strongly named assembly (dll).

3. How to: Create a public-private key pair

To sign an assembly with a strong name, you must have a public/private key pair. This public and private cryptographic key pair is used during compilation to create a strong-named assembly. You can create a key pair using the Strong Name tool (Sn.exe). Key pair files usually have an .snk extension.

4. How to: Sign an assembly with a strong name

Although .NET Core supports strong-named assemblies, and all assemblies in the .NET Core library are signed, the majority of third-party assemblies do not need strong names. For more information, see Strong Name Signing on GitHub.

5. Create and use strong-named assemblies

A strong name consists of the assembly's identity—its simple text name, version number, and culture information (if provided)—plus a public key and a digital signature. It is generated from an assembly file using the corresponding private key. (The assembly file contains the assembly manifest, which contains the names and hashes of all the files that make up the assembly.)

6. How to generate strong name key file or which command is used to generated strong name key file?

How to generate strong name key file or which command is used to generated strong name key file?

7. Signing

Assigning an assembly a Strong Name ensures that an assembly is unique at the system level. This is essential if you are deploying shared assemblies in the GAC as two publishers might create an assembly with the same name. Therefore being able to distinguish between the different assemblies is essential. A strong name can be thought of as a combination of the name, version number and a unique public key. Private assemblies do not need to have Strong Names but including one is often a good idea.

8. .NET - How to Sign an Assembly in Visual Studio 2019

Signing an assembly ensures that the consumer knows its origin and uniquely identifies the component. It makes the physical DLL file tamper-proof. This tutorial will step you through signing an assembly with a strong name key (SNK) in .NET. It is straight forward in Visual Studio 2019, but there are some pitfalls to consider. This tutorial will target .NET Standard, but the concept is the same for other target platforms. This tutorial is is backward compatible with some Visual Studio versions.