Windows – Cheap Windows driver signing for 64 bit Windows 7

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I need to install the libusb-win32 driver on Windows 7 64 bit machines. This driver is open source so it is not digitally signed so I want to do this myself, but I wonder if this can be done WITHOUT paying lot of money. Is it possible to use a certificate which is NOT signed by Verisign or GlobalSign? Maybe self-signed or by using StartSSL instead?

And if yes, how do I do it? According to a how-to, The Practical Truth About x64 Kernel Driver Signing, I have to use a "cross-certificate" (and there are only six available on the Microsoft list and most of them are for CAs which are no longer active).

I don't care if the user is confronted with a warning message. I can even accept if the user has to install a special CA certificate first. I only require that the driver runs without manually disabling the signature check on each Windows startup.

Best Answer

No, the driver has to be cross signed by one of those specific certificates and thus the driver has to be signed by one of those CAs. You can disable driver signing on the machine for testing purposes, but obviously you don't want to do this on production machines. Sorry, that's just the way it is.