Another addition to JDK 1.1 is a tool to manage identities, to generate and manage keys and certificates, and to sign and verify JAR files. The tool, javakey is a simple command-line driven utility which uses a persistent database. This involves associating identity names with keys, and keys with certificates, as well as associating names and trust levels. Creating, adding, and removing identities and signers. Identities are real-world entities that can be authenticated using a public key that is associated with them.
Signers are real-world entities which can both be authenticated and can produce signatures.
Associating trust with certain identities. This will mean that code signed by trusted identities will have system code status. In later releases, we will provide greater granularity in the trust levels that we allow. This involves generating a signature for a given Signer and including that signature in a given JAR file. A Signed JAR file includes at least one signature file, in addition to the manifest file.