artefactsigning

Artefactsigning is the practice of applying cryptographic signatures to artifacts—digital objects such as software builds, libraries, container images, or documents—to establish authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation. By signing an artifact, a signer creates evidence that the producer authored the artifact and that its contents have not been altered since signing. Verifiers can check the signature against a trusted public key or certificate, enabling automated validation in distribution pipelines and end-user environments.

Process and components: A signing key held in a secure environment (usually a hardware security module) is used to generate a digital signature for the artifact. The signature is distributed with the artifact, or the artifact is accompanied by separate signature files and a public key or certificate. Verification uses the corresponding public key to confirm the signature and may also check a trust policy and certificate revocation status. Artefactsigning is central to software supply chain security and is used for code signing, package signing, and container image signing. Popular tooling includes general purpose tools like GPG/OpenPGP and dedicated signing systems such as Cosign and Sigstore, which integrate into CI/CD pipelines and repository ecosystems.

Governance and challenges: Key management is critical; keys should be protected, rotated, and revoked as needed. Verification policies must account for expired or compromised credentials and may rely on certificate authorities, timestamping, or transparency logs. Common concerns include revocation, reproducible builds, and cross-platform interoperability. Best practices emphasize minimal signing permissions, hardware-backed keys, separation of duties, and auditing of artifact provenance.