Signing ISV Models

As an ISV, you will want to sign your models so your
customers know who made the models and the models cannot be tampered with. The
steps for strong naming your model and Authenticode signing it are:

1. Generate a key pair file using Visual Studio’s strong
   naming tool. If you have Visual Studio installed go to Start >
   Programs > Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 > Visual Studio Tools > Visual
   Studio Command Prompt. In the VS command
   prompt enter something like this:
   1. sn.exe –k YourKeyPair.snk
2. Acquire a signing certificate from a company that issues
   certificates, I believe this also comes with a private key. For more
   information do a Bing search for
   Authenticode signing and you’ll find companies that issue these certificates.
3. Once you have the certificate open certificate manager by
   going to a Windows command prompt and typing certmgr.msc.
4. In the certificate manager that opens, go to Trusted Root
   Certification Authorities. In there is a
   Certificates directory, right-click on the Certificates directory and choose
   All Tasks > Import. Go through the wizard to import your certificate.
5. In AX create your model.
6. In Windows go to Administrative Tools > Microsoft
   Dynamics AX 2012 Management Shell. Run
   axutil to export the file using the key.
   To do this in the management shell prompt type something like:
   1. axutil export /key:YourKeyPair.snk /file:YourModel.axmodel /model:YourModel
7. Sign the model using the signtool from VS and the pfx
   file from step #2. Go to Start >
   Programs > Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 > Visual Studio Tools > Visual
   Studio Command Prompt. In the VS command
   prompt enter something like this
   1. signtool sign /f c:\Files\IsvTestCert.pfx /p PasswordForKey c:\Files\YourModel.axmodel
   2. The Sign Tool should return “Successfully signed: c:\Files\YourModel.axmodel
8. In Windows go to Administrative Tools > Microsoft
   Dynamics AX 2012 Management Shell. Use
   axutil to import the model file. You can
   force it to check the signing so in the command prompt enter something like
   this:
   1. axutil import /file:c:\Files\YourModel.axmodel –forcesigncheckdialogs

There are a couple of different articles you can look at for
more information on this topic. They are:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mfp/archive/2009/09/29/introducing-ax-models-part-2.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh352314.aspx