Summary

Strong names are a way of distinguishing similarly named assemblies from different publishers. They also provide a mechanism for ensuring that only the publisher of an assembly can modify its content—provided the publisher can guarantee the secrecy of a private key.

The identity of a publisher is represented using a public key or, in some circumstances, the shortened form known as a public key token.

A special public key known as the ECMA key is used to name all core assemblies provided in the .NET Framework. This ensures the future portability of the Framework.

During the development process, techniques exist to allow for the signing aspect of strong naming an assembly to be skipped. This allows development in the absence of a readily available private key while maintaining the maximum testability of the assemblies involved.

Strong names are roughly similar to Authenticode signatures, but provide a more integrated, lightweight solution at the cost of some flexibility.