What is a .snk for?

Question

What is a .snk file for? I know it stands for Strongly Named Key, but all explanations of what it is and how it works goes over my head.

Is there a

Answer 1

A .snk file is a persisted version of your "Key" produced by the sn utility in the framework utility set. You then use this file to 'digitally sign' your assemblies. It is a 2-part key.. private-public key combination. The public part of the key is published i.e. known to everyone. The private part is known to only you, the component/app developer and intended to be kept that way.

When you sign your assembly, it uses the private key and a hash value for your assembly to create a digital signature which is embedded in your assembly. Thereafter, anyone who loads your assembly goes through a verification step. The public key is used to validate if the assembly really comes from you.. you just need the public key for this (which is also embedded in a tokenized form in the assembly manifest). If the assembly has been tampered with, the hash value would be different and the assembly load would be aborted. This is a security mechanism.