Patent ID: 8572368

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for generating code-specific code-signing certificates containing extended metadata, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing system comprising at least one processor, the method comprising: receiving a code-signing request from a software publisher to sign code, the code-signing request comprising: information that uniquely identifies the code; metadata that identifies at least one characteristic of the code; in response to the code-signing request, signing the code by generating a unique, code-specific digital certificate for the code, wherein the code-specific digital certificate is valid only for the code in question and includes at least a portion of the metadata contained within the code-signing request; providing the code-specific digital certificate to the software publisher to enable the software publisher to attest that the code originated from the software publisher and has not been altered since leaving the software publisher's possession; revoking the code-specific digital certificate to prevent relying parties from trusting the code associated with the code-specific digital certificate.