Windows 11 - Smart App Control

[hathawcs]

Windows 11 introduced Smart App Control. One of the security checks for apps is ensuring that the app and its binaries are signed. Because NReco.Logging.File does not sign its binaries, software using it will be blocked from running when Smart App Control is enabled.

Please sign DLLs produced for NReco.Logging.File.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/what-is-smart-app-control-285ea03d-fa88-4d56-882e-6698afdb7003

NReco.Logging.File (unsigned):

Microsoft dll (signed):

[VitaliyMF]

I've verified the latest NReco.Logging.File nuget version and it is definitely strongly named (you can verify that with help of 'sn.exe' tool):

>sn.exe  -vf NReco.Logging.File.dll

Microsoft (R) .NET Framework Strong Name Utility  Version 4.0.30319.0
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Assembly 'NReco.Logging.File.dll' is valid

This means that it is compiled with <SignAssembly>true</SignAssembly>.
However, this is not a Windows digital signature. As I understand, this digital signature should be specific to concrete vendor / software product, and it is standard practice for open source libs not to use digital signing of DLLs published on nuget. For example, Npgsql (which is official PostgreSQL client library):

If you need digitally signed DLLs for your app I believe that this should be done on your app's build (with help of sn.exe) - and all app's DLLs should be digitally signed with your key.

[jwdonahue]

Strong naming and digital signatures create more problems than they are worth. Because nefarious hackers can easily sign their own versions of various assemblies, with valid keys, they can easily negate goofy security schemes that require signing. That leads to attempts to maintain long allow lists for signers, which is arguably useful for system level files, but impossible to maintain on a global scale.

It costs a lot of money to establish and maintain a publisher traceable signing chain.

[jespersh]

@hathawcs I can recommend signing the file yourself if you already have a signing chain