## Glossary

X.509 Certificate

A cryptographic certificate that contains a vendor's unique name and the vendor's public key.

PKCS#7 Signed Data

A Public Key Certificate Standard #7 (PKCS#7) signed-data object encapsulates the information used to sign a file. Typically, it includes the signer's certificate, the root certificate, and the signer's public key.

Certification Authority (CA)

A trusted entity that makes a statement (represented by an X.509 certificate) about the authenticity of another certificate.

Cryptographic Digest

A one-way hash function that takes a variable-length input string and converts it to a fixed-length output string (called a cryptographic digest). This fixed-length string "fingerprints" the file by producing a value that indicates whether a file submitted for download matches the original file.

Local Registration Authority (LRA)

An intermediary between a publisher and a CA. The LRA can, for example, verify a publisher's credentials before sending them to the CA.

Portable Executable (PE) Image

The standard Win32® executable format.

Software Publishing Certificate (SPC)

A PKCS#7 signed-data object containing X.509 certificates and public key signatures.

Trust Provider

The portion of the operating system that decides whether or not a given file is trusted. This decision is based on the certificate associated with the file.

WIN_CERTIFICATE

A Win32 data structure that contains either a PKCS#7 signed-data object or an X.509 certificate.

© 1996 Microsoft Corporation