Powershell – Unable to Sign PowerShell Scripts

powershell

I can't seem to get my scripts to sign in PowerShell. I have a valid code signing cert installed on my machine and run the following commands. Any suggestions?

PS C:\Users\u00\bin> $cert = @(Get-ChildItem cert:\CurrentUser\My -codesigning)[0]
PS C:\Users\u00\bin> $cert | fl


Subject      : E=operations@contoso.com, CN=contoso , OU=Operations, O=contoso,
               L=Mayberry, S=Florida, C=US
Issuer       : CN=contoso Intermediate CA1, DC=contoso, DC=com
Thumbprint   : XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
FriendlyName : contoso 
NotBefore    : 7/20/2010 12:58:55 AM
NotAfter     : 7/20/2011 12:58:55 AM
Extensions   : {System.Security.Cryptography.Oid, System.Security.Cryptography.Oid, System.Security.Cryptography.Oi
               ystem.Security.Cryptography.Oid...}



PS C:\Users\u00\bin> Set-AuthenticodeSignature .\testsign.ps1 -Certificate $cert


    Directory: C:\Users\u00\bin


SignerCertificate                         Status                                 Path
-----------------                         ------                                 ----
                                          UnknownError                           testsign.ps1


PS C:\Users\u00\bin> Get-AuthenticodeSignature .\testsign.ps1

    Directory: C:\Users\u00\bin


SignerCertificate                         Status                                 Path
-----------------                         ------                                 ----
                                          NotSigned                              testsign.ps1

Best Answer

Figured it out. The script file was created using PowerShell ISE and apparently you can't sign scripts created in PowerShell ISE or more accurately you can't sign Unicode Big Endian encoded files which is the default for ISE. There's workaround to change the default encoding as documented in link.

Originally added to question by Chad Miller. Relocated his update to an answer so this question no longer shows up as unanswered.

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