Can a South Korean sole proprietor use Microsoft Artifact Signing?

A South Korean sole proprietor can apply only through Organization/Public Trust validation, but Microsoft’s published requirements do not confirm that a Korean sole proprietorship or Business Registration Certificate will necessarily qualify, so obtain an eligibility determination through Azure Support before creating the billable Artifact Signing account.

Eligibility and application route

• Public Trust is available to organizations in South Korea.
• The Individual Developer route is limited to developers in the United States and Canada, so it is not available based on South Korean residence.
• Organization validation accepts an organization or DBA application and requests:
  • legal organization name and business identifier;
  • business address and website;
  • two monitored email addresses on the organization-owned domain;
  • the legal name and government ID of the representative completing identity verification.
    Organization validation does not require an Azure billing account whose account type is Organization.^1^

The documentation does not say whether a Korean sole proprietor is treated as a qualifying legal business entity, nor does it identify the Korean Business Registration Certificate as an accepted Artifact Signing document. Do not use the Individual route as a workaround: it is geographically unavailable in this case.

For an official determination:

1. Ensure that you have a paid Azure subscription; free, trial, and sponsored subscriptions are unsupported.
2. In the Azure portal, create an Azure Support request for Artifact Signing and ask whether your precise legal form and Korean business identifier qualify for Organization/Public Trust.
3. Include the document type and issuing authority, but provide registration numbers or documents only through the private support case—not in Microsoft Q&A.
4. If support directs you to submit validation, create the Artifact Signing account and select:
   Artifact Signing account → Objects → Identity validations → Organization → New Identity → Public.

The Artifact Signing FAQ identifies Azure Support as the official assistance channel for setup and identity-validation questions.^2^

Temporary use and cancellation

Artifact Signing can be used for several months and then unenrolled from:

1. Sign and timestamp every release that you intend to keep distributing.
2. Delete the Artifact Signing account.
3. Unregister the Microsoft.CodeSigning resource provider if Artifact Signing is no longer used in that subscription.
4. If it is no longer needed elsewhere in the subscription, explicitly delete the shared identity validation.

Deleting the account removes its certificate profiles and stops certificate renewal and new signing, but it does not affect certificates already used to sign files.^2^

Billing starts when the Artifact Signing account is created. Pricing is monthly and not prorated: the full SKU amount is invoiced regardless of when during the billing period the account was created or used.^3^

Previously signed EXE files

Customers can continue validating and installing previously signed files after the Artifact Signing account is deleted, provided each signature has a valid RFC 3161 timestamp and the relevant signing or timestamp certificate has not been revoked. A valid countersignature keeps the signature valid long after those certificates expire.^4^

Use Microsoft’s timestamp endpoint during signing:

signtool.exe sign /v /debug /fd SHA256 ^
  /tr "http://timestamp.acs.microsoft.com" /td SHA256 ^
  /dlib "<path>\Azure.CodeSigning.Dlib.dll" ^
  /dmdf "<path>\metadata.json" "MyApp.exe"

Artifact Signing certificates are short-lived, so timestamping is critical for continued signature validation.^5^

This signature validation does not require an ongoing Artifact Signing subscription or licensing server. It also does not guarantee an immediate Microsoft Defender SmartScreen reputation; new files can still display warnings while reputation develops.^6^

Reactivation and revalidation

You can later create an Artifact Signing account and sign new files, but the validation requirement depends on what was retained:

• Identity validation retained and still valid: it is available at subscription scope and can be shared across Artifact Signing accounts in that subscription.^1^
• Validation approaching expiration: renew it from Artifact Signing account → Identity Validation → select validation → Renew. Renewal opens 60 days before expiration and performs a full review; additional documents may be required.
• Validation expired or deleted: create a new identity validation. Deleted validations cannot be recovered.^7^

A newly created certificate profile receives a new profile-specific EKU. Account deletion therefore should not be treated as preserving the same durable certificate-profile identity for policies or systems pinned to the old EKU.^4^

Publisher name

The publisher identity comes from the validated organization or individual identity. Artifact Signing does not permit a custom Common Name or Organization value; for Public Trust, the name must be the validated legal entity name.^2^

Therefore:

• Your registered business name can appear only if Microsoft validates it as the legal business entity or eligible DBA.
• If the sole proprietorship is legally represented only by your personal name, support/validation may require that legal name instead.
• A brand or trading name cannot be inserted merely as a preferred publisher name.

The identity-validation form provides a Certificate subject preview before submission; review that preview to see the proposed certificate identity.^1^

References

1. Quickstart: Set up Artifact Signing
2. Artifact Signing FAQ
3. Artifact Signing pricing
4. Artifact Signing certificate management
5. Set up signing integrations to use Artifact Signing
6. Code signing options for Windows app developers
7. Renew or delete Artifact Signing Identity Validations