Categories: Java | How To | Security | Signing and Certification

This page was last modified 21:27, 30 January 2008.

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A commercial application which requires access to some specific APIs like JSR 75, JSR 205, JSR 135 etc. benefits from getting signed with a commercial certificate from third party certificate providers like VeriSign or Thawte. Before buying any certificate from these third parties, you have to make sure that the target phone's of your device has the corresponding root certificate installed and set to allow MIDlet signing. You can check this from the settings of the target mobile device.

The following paragraphs contain the description of the process and steps required to get a certificate from VeriSign and to sign & test you MIDlet.

Getting the certificate

Step 1

Make sure, you have the latest JDK installed on your computer.

Step 2

Create a keystore

You have to generate a public/private key pair, for this enter the following command, specifying a name for your keystore and an alias as well.

C:\jdk1.3\bin\keytool -genkey -keyalg rsa -keystore <keystore_filename> -alias <alias_name>

Keytool prompts you to enter a password for your keystore, your name, organization, and address. The public/private key pair generated by keytool is saved to your keystore and will be used to sign J2ME applications. This key is never sent to VeriSign and is required to sign code. So you should make a copy of the public/private key pair and store it in a safe deposit box or other secure location. If the key is lost or stolen, contact VeriSign immediately to have it revoked.

Step 3

Create a CSR

You need to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for the enrollment process.

1. The following command requests Keytool to create a CSR for the key pair in the keystore:

 C:\jdk1.3\bin\keytool -certreq -file certreq.csr -keystore <keystore_filename> -alias <alias_name>

2. Begin the enrollment process for a Code Signing ID from the products and services section of the VeriSign Web site.

3. Copy the contents of the CSR and paste them directly into the VeriSign enrollment form. Open the file in a text editor that does not add extra characters (Notepad or Vi are recommended).

This is the end of requesting the certificates from VeriSign.

Signing the MIDlet

Step 1

After VeriSign has verified your request, they will send an email with the digital id attached. You have to import it to the keystore.

To import your Sun Java Signing Code Signing Digital ID into your keystore, enter the following code with the path correct name for your file (for example, "cert.cer") to your Code Signing Digital ID.

C:\jdk1.3\bin\keytool -import -trustcacerts -keystore <keystore_filename> -alias <alias_name> -file cert.cer

Step 2

Now sign the application by the two command prompt

java -jar JadTool.jar [ -addcert -alias keyAlias [ -keystore keystore ] [ -storepass password ]   -inputjad inputJadFile -outputjad outputJadFile ]

java -jar JadTool.jar [ -addjarsig [ -jarfile jarFile ] -alias keyAlias [ -keystore keystore ]  -storepass password -keypass keyPassword    -inputjad inputJadFile -outputjad outputJadFile ]

For all the signing steps, Courtesy:

• VeriSign

• Sun Signing