how can i create security catalog(.cat file)

Question

A catalog file contains a list of files and a digest of those files. A digest is a number generated by an algorithm to uniquely identify a given file, like a fingerprint. The digest is used for security/validation purposes.

what is usage of this file??
how can i create .cat file?

Answer 1

.cat files are usually used to sign driver installation packages. Such a package usually contains multiple files (a minimum of .sys + .inf, often several others files), so instead of signing (and later validating) each file separately, the maker produces a .cat file which lists all the included files' names and hashes, and then signs only the .cat file (ideally through WHQL).

To create a .cat, you can use either:

• MakeCat.Exe (from Windows SDK)
• Signability (from WDK (Windows Driver Kit) ref)
• Inf2Cat (ref)