What kind of documentation issue is this?
Missing documentation
Affected page
https://briefcase.beeware.org/en/stable/how-to/code-signing/windows/
Describe the issue
The documentation for Windows code signing describes that self-signed certificates exist, but doesn't describe how to create one.
Suggested improvement
Add a section to the Windows code signing document describing how to generate a self-signed certificate. We need to retain the advisory that self-signed certificates will be problematic in practice.
The following commands can be issued at a PowerShell prompt to generate a self-signed certificate:
PS C:\> $cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate -Subject "My self-signed certificate" -Type CodeSigningCert -Certstorelocation Cert:\CurrentUser\My
PS C:\> Export-Certificate -Cert $cert -FilePath my-self-signed-certificate.crt
Once you've done this, you can get the identity of the certificate by running:
This will output the 40-character hexadecimal identity that is used by Briefcase to identify the certificate.
The certificate can be converted into a password-protected PFX file using:
PS C:\> $password = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "<your password>" -Force -AsPlainText
PS C:\> Export-PfxCertificate -Cert "Cert:\CurrentUser\My\$($cert.Thumbprint)" -FilePath my-self-signed-certificate.pfx -Password $password
What kind of documentation issue is this?
Missing documentation
Affected page
https://briefcase.beeware.org/en/stable/how-to/code-signing/windows/
Describe the issue
The documentation for Windows code signing describes that self-signed certificates exist, but doesn't describe how to create one.
Suggested improvement
Add a section to the Windows code signing document describing how to generate a self-signed certificate. We need to retain the advisory that self-signed certificates will be problematic in practice.
The following commands can be issued at a PowerShell prompt to generate a self-signed certificate:
Once you've done this, you can get the identity of the certificate by running:
This will output the 40-character hexadecimal identity that is used by Briefcase to identify the certificate.
The certificate can be converted into a password-protected PFX file using: