concept of strong names

Strong name is similar to GUID(It is supposed to be unique in space and time) in the COM components.Strong Name is only needed when we need to deploy assembly in the  GAC. Strong Names helps GAC in differentiation b/w the two versions. Strong names use the public key cryptography (PKC) to ensure that no one can spoof it ever.PKC use the concept of public key and private key concept.

Following are the steps  to generate a strong name and sign a assembly :-

(1) Go to "Visual Studio Command Prompt". See figure "Visual studio Command Prompt". Please Note that the samples are compiled in 2005 but 2003 users do not have to worry about it. Same type of command prompt will display in 2003 also.

(2) When you are in command prompt type sn.exe -k "c:\test.snk".

(3) After generation of the file  view the SNK file in a simple notepad.

(4) After the SNK file is generated its time to sign project with this SNK file.

(5) Click on project -- properties and the browse the SNK file to the respective folder and compile the project.