Cosign vs SignPath Foundation

Cosign is a free tool for signing and verifying OCI container images and other software artifacts. It can store container signatures in an OCI registry and publish generic artifacts through OCI. Supported targets include blobs, binaries, scripts, configuration files, SBOMs, WASM modules, Tekton bundles, eBPF modules, and in-toto attestations whose payloads use DSSE. Its default keyless workflow uses temporary keys held in memory, short-lived certificates from Sigstore’s Fulcio certificate authority, and entries in the Rekor transparency log. Other signing options include hardware and KMS-backed keys, encrypted keypairs generated by Cosign, and user-provided PKI. Cosign supports CI/CD signing, with guidance for GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD. Offline verification is possible when the image and signature materials are available locally and a trusted root is supplied. The project describes Cosign as a legacy signing system and recommends Sigstore-go for verification integrations. Its CLI-focused design has no API stability guarantees, and the documentation does not recommend it for application integration.

SignPath Foundation provides code-signing certificates to eligible open-source projects, with signing carried out through SignPath.io. For each release, SignPath.io checks that signed files are automated builds from the project’s stated source repository. Certificate private keys are generated and stored on a hardware security module. Each signing request requires a team member’s approval, and every release requires manual approval. Projects must assign author, reviewer, and approver responsibilities, while all team members must use multi-factor authentication for SignPath and repository access. Eligibility requires an actively maintained project with an existing release, an OSI-approved open-source license, and no proprietary code or malware. Supported build systems include Jenkins, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, TeamCity, and AppVeyor. Supported targets span Windows executables and scripts, MSI, CAB, AppX/MSIX, NuGet, Java archives, Android packages, RPM and Debian packages, Office macros, XML, JSON, OCI container images, ClickOnce, and other files. The free plan is free for eligible projects. Its certificate identifies SignPath Foundation as publisher, and the Foundation may decline applications.