They only check the identity of the signer and that the code has not changed since signing. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x implements a security zone concept meant to ease the management of security policies for signed content such as ActiveX controls and Java applets. Local intranet zone, Trusted sites zone, Internet zone, and Restricted sites zone. The idea is to divide Web sites into these zones and assign the zones varying levels of trust. Microsoft Internet Explorer provides a dialog box that users can access to manage security zones.
Zones are a useful tool that can help make a security policy more coherent.
We think security zones are a useful tool that Java security systems beyond Microsoft's should support as well. Since most users are inclined to run cool-sounding code just to check it out regardless of the risk, popping a dialog box in front of a user and requiring an instant security decision is not a good idea. See Figure 1.8. Given the choice between dancing pigs and security, the world will pick dancing pigs every time. One way in which Authenticode addresses this problem is to put the security decisions in the hands of a system administrator.