CODEWITHSUNDEEP
digital-signaturesignaturewindows-installer
Ashif Nataliya
Ashif Nataliya

Reputation: 922

What does MSI installer contains apart from files and folders

Our jenkin process builds and produce an MSI. during process when it first builds, it produce msi(say 500kb.msi). this MSI is already digitallysigned. After that it resigns(not sure why) and generate msi(say 496kb.msi). 2nd Msi have difference of 4kb in size. I have extracted both MSIs using the lessmsi tool and compared both extracted contents and realized both are exactly same.

Problem is, when client try to install 496kb.msi it is not producing expected behaviour. Only difference between them I can see is digital signature. And both have been signed with sh1.

Any help with this will also be helpful, however, my question is, what does installer is bundled with apart from files and folders. Before extraction, It had a difference of 4kb and after extraction size for both are exactly same. Where does this 4kb consumed in case of first MSI?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 199

Answers (1)

Bogdan Mitrache
Bogdan Mitrache

Reputation: 10993

An MSI can be very complex, not just a simple file/folder manager. It can have custom actions (code) that modify your system, or predefined MSI tables that also modify the system.

The easiest way to find the difference is to diff the MSIs with SuperOrca, it is a free tool. It should highlight the different tables.

Upvotes: 1

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