VBA Project Signing

[isladogs]

If anyone is interested, I’ve spent some time testing the new VBA Project Signing feature which is currently available to anyone running Office 365 on an Insiders channel (either Beta or Current Channel Preview). It will soon be released more widely to all those on the Current Channel.

The feature requires the developer to add a digital signature using a code signing certificate prior to distributing ACCDB/ACCDE apps.

This has always been possible in MDB/MDE files, but until now, not in ACCDB/ACCDE files

From my tests, it is certainly more complex to setup, at least initially but it will offer some advantages over using Trusted Locations or Trusted Documents:

1. Digitally signed files will run equally fast from untrusted locations. This is important for those users whose organisations prevent them running files from trusted locations and who, in recent months, may have experienced poor performance due to an anti-malware scan (AMSI) running EVERY time any code is run from an untrusted location

2. The digital signature is invalidated (and code can no longer run) if any changes are made to code or if action queries are modified.
This provides additional security for the developer in that files cannot be modified in those respects after distribution

If you are interested in knowing more, see my web article and example app:

VBA Project Signing - 1

This article explains how to use the new VBA project signing feature in Access. It also compares the use of this feature with using trusted locations when distributing your Access applications

www.isladogs.co.uk

I've also done a YouTube video to accompany this article

Hope these are useful to others

 

[arnelgp]

This has always been possible in MDB/MDE files, but until now, not in ACCDB/ACCDE files

i think this is around for sometimes.
VBA->Tools->Digital Signature

 

[isladogs]

The menu item has always existed and, as already stated, has always worked for MDB/MDE files.
However, again as stated above, it has never worked for ACCDB/ACCDE files until now.
The functionality was removed when the ACCDB file format was introduced with A2007. Only 15 years later, MS are finally rectifying that