1. Snk File
2. Generate Snk File From Public Key System
3. How To Get Public Key From Snk File

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To sign an assembly with a strong name, you must have a public/private key pair. This public and private cryptographic key pair is used during compilation to create a strong-named assembly. You can create a key pair using the Strong Name tool (Sn.exe). Key pair files usually have an .snk extension.

In a nutshell, you will generate a public and private key pair. The public key will be placed on the server by your system administrator, giving you access. You will keep the file containing the private key in a safe place. You’ll login by simply by providing that private key file to your SSH or SFTP supporting client. It really is that simple. From this key pair you can extract the Public Key and then calculate the Public Key Token. For this step you need sn.exe again – sn.exe filename.snk filenamepublickey.snk. This generates another snk file that only holds the Public Key. This second file can now be used to calculate the Public Key Token, again by using sn.exe – sn.exe –tp.

Note

1. But that is the main purpose of SNFs anyway: They provide a way to generate a unique identifier for an assembly or a specific version of an assembly, a strong name. An SNF contains just the public and the private key of an asymmetric key pair. There is no additional information stored in the file.
2. Figure 2: Output from running the sn.exe utility to generate the Public Key Token. My utility can generate the Public Key Token from either the Key pair file or Public key file. Here is the output generated for the above mentioned Public Key with my utility. Note that 'snkeypair.snk' contains Key pair and 'snpublickey.snk' contains only the.
3. Jul 02, 2009  Key pair written to bar.snk. As you can see, this creates a.SNK file, which contains a public and a private key. However, its contents are not human readable. Further, the InternalsVisibleTo attribute requires that you provide the public key in the constructor. (Don’t even think about trying it without it.).
4. May 23, 2010  From Version 2 of SN tool, there is support for creating strong name key files protected with a private key (that is a.pfx file). Though this is a great improvement over the old.snk file, it is a pain during the development.

In Visual Studio, the C# and Visual Basic project property pages include a Signing tab that enables you to select existing key files or to generate new key files without using Sn.exe. In Visual C++, you can specify the location of an existing key file in the Advanced property page in the Linker section of the Configuration Properties section of the Property Pages window. The use of the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute attribute to identify key file pairs was made obsolete beginning with Visual Studio 2005.

Create a key pair

To create a key pair, at a command prompt, type the following command:

sn –k <file name>

In this command, file name is the name of the output file containing the key pair.

The following example creates a key pair called sgKey.snk.

If you intend to delay sign an assembly and you control the whole key pair (which is unlikely outside test scenarios), you can use the following commands to generate a key pair and then extract the public key from it into a separate file. First, create the key pair:

Next, extract the public key from the key pair and copy it to a separate file:

Once you create the key pair, you must put the file where the strong name signing tools can find it.

When signing an assembly with a strong name, the Assembly Linker (Al.exe) looks for the key file relative to the current directory and to the output directory. When using command-line compilers, you can simply copy the key to the current directory containing your code modules.

If you are using an earlier version of Visual Studio that does not have a Signing tab in the project properties, the recommended key file location is the project directory with the file attribute specified as follows:

See also

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A strong name consists of the assembly's identity—its simple text name, version number, and culture information (if provided)—plus a public key and a digital signature. It is generated from an assembly file using the corresponding private key. (The assembly file contains the assembly manifest, which contains the names and hashes of all the files that make up the assembly.)

Warning

Do not rely on strong names for security. They provide a unique identity only.

Snk File

A strong-named assembly can only use types from other strong-named assemblies. Otherwise, the integrity of the strong-named assembly would be compromised.

Note

Although .NET Core supports strong-named assemblies, and all assemblies in the .NET Core library are signed, the majority of third-party assemblies do not need strong names. For more information, see Strong Name Signing on GitHub.

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Strong name scenario

The following scenario outlines the process of signing an assembly with a strong name and later referencing it by that name.

Generate Snk File From Public Key System

1. Assembly A is created with a strong name using one of the following methods:

   • Using a development environment that supports creating strong names, such as Visual Studio.

   • Creating a cryptographic key pair using the Strong Name tool (Sn.exe) and assigning that key pair to the assembly using either a command-line compiler or the Assembly Linker (Al.exe). The Windows SDK provides both Sn.exe and Al.exe.

2. The development environment or tool signs the hash of the file containing the assembly's manifest with the developer's private key. This digital signature is stored in the portable executable (PE) file that contains Assembly A's manifest.

3. Assembly B is a consumer of Assembly A. The reference section of Assembly B's manifest includes a token that represents Assembly A's public key. A token is a portion of the full public key and is used rather than the key itself to save space.

4. The common language runtime verifies the strong name signature when the assembly is placed in the global assembly cache. When binding by strong name at run time, the common language runtime compares the key stored in Assembly B's manifest with the key used to generate the strong name for Assembly A. If the .NET Framework security checks pass and the bind succeeds, Assembly B has a guarantee that Assembly A's bits have not been tampered with and that these bits actually come from the developers of Assembly A.

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Note

This scenario doesn't address trust issues. Assemblies can carry full Microsoft Authenticode signatures in addition to a strong name. Authenticode signatures include a certificate that establishes trust. It's important to note that strong names don't require code to be signed in this way. Strong names only provide a unique identity.

Bypass signature verification of trusted assemblies

Starting with the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1, strong-name signatures are not validated when an assembly is loaded into a full-trust application domain, such as the default application domain for the MyComputer zone. This is referred to as the strong-name bypass feature. In a full-trust environment, demands for StrongNameIdentityPermission always succeed for signed, full-trust assemblies, regardless of their signature. The strong-name bypass feature avoids the unnecessary overhead of strong-name signature verification of full-trust assemblies in this situation, allowing the assemblies to load faster.

How To Get Public Key From Snk File

The bypass feature applies to any assembly that is signed with a strong name and that has the following characteristics:

• Fully trusted without StrongName evidence (for example, has MyComputer zone evidence).

• Loaded into a fully trusted AppDomain.

• Loaded from a location under the ApplicationBase property of that AppDomain.

• Not delay-signed.

This feature can be disabled for individual applications or for a computer. See How to: Disable the strong-name bypass feature.

Related topics

Title	Description
How to: Create a public-private key pair	Describes how to create a cryptographic key pair for signing an assembly.
How to: Sign an assembly with a strong name	Describes how to create a strong-named assembly.
Enhanced strong naming	Describes enhancements to strong-names in the .NET Framework 4.5.
How to: Reference a strong-named assembly	Describes how to reference types or resources in a strong-named assembly at compile time or run time.
How to: Disable the strong-name bypass feature	Describes how to disable the feature that bypasses the validation of strong-name signatures. This feature can be disabled for all or for specific applications.
Create assemblies	Provides an overview of single-file and multifile assemblies.
How to delay sign an assembly in Visual Studio	Explains how to sign an assembly with a strong name after the assembly has been created.
Sn.exe (Strong Name tool)	Describes the tool included in the .NET Framework that helps create assemblies with strong names. This tool provides options for key management, signature generation, and signature verification.
Al.exe (Assembly linker)	Describes the tool included in the .NET Framework that generates a file that has an assembly manifest from modules or resource files.