CertFromExe 1.0.0.1
his freeware program allows you to extract the X.509 Certificate from any signed EXE file (32-bit and 64-bit) which will then be automatically decoded: The Certificate text itself, the Metadata fields, the Issuer fields, the Subject fields. All decoded data can be selected with the mouse and then copied to the clipboard by clicking on the right-click context menu. The program-file (i.e. exe-file) can be loaded e.g. by drag&drop (e.g. from the Windows Start-Menu or from the desktop), or from the command-line, or with a file-open dialog.
The data decoded from the Certificate can help you to verify the security of the program file. Also, the result in the 'Response' field gives you an overall security assessment of the program file. For example, the Response '(0) Trusted Code' means that everything is OK with the certificate in this program-file.
Other possible responses (beside the response number) could be: 'Not Trusted Code', or 'Trust Provider Unknown', or 'Unsigned Code', or 'Error: The code has not been signed', or 'Certificate Marked as Untrusted by the User', or 'Code has been Modified', or 'Signed Code But Certificate Expired', or 'Signed Code But Certificate Chain Not Trusted', or 'Signed Code But Certificate Root Not Trusted', or 'Local Security Options Prevent Verification', etc.
You can read more about X.509 certificates in this Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.509
You can also read more about how program-files are signed using Certificates here in this Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_signing
A program file signed by a trusted CA (Certificate Authority) gives you the assurance that the program comes from a known software vendor and that the program file has not been changed (i.e. it has not been infected by malware) since it has been signed by the software publisher.
So you should always test every program downloaded from the Internet with this highly recommendable security tool CERTFROMEXE!
