Internal Code Signing: Key Distribution, or Certificate Server?
- by Myrddin Emrys
I should first note that we have nobody in IT with significant familiarity with self-signed certification. We have a moderately sprawling network (one forest, many locations), and we are now rolling out internal code signing; until now users have run untrusted code, or we even disabled(!) the warnings. Intranet applications, scripts, and sites will now be signed with self certification.
I am aware of two obvious ways we can deploy this: Distributing the keys directly via a group policy, and setting up a cert server. Can someone explain the trade-offs between these two methods? How many certs before the group policy method is unwieldy? Are they large enough that remote users will have issues? Does the group policy method distribute duplicates on every login? Is there a better method I am not aware of?
I can find a lot of documentation on certifications and various ways to create them, but I have not been able to find something that summarizes the difference between the distribution methods and what criteria make one or the other superior.
