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Code signing policy

Status: releases are not code-signed yet. This page describes how signed releases of HelixBoot.exe are to be made, and what the program does on your PC and on the network. Until a release is signed, check a download with its SHA256SUMS file and build attestation (how).

Signing

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

  • Only HelixBoot.exe is signed, and only as built by this repository's own GitHub Actions workflow (windows.yml) from a tagged commit on main. Nothing built on anyone's own PC is signed.
  • The build is tested before it is signed: the workflow runs the real .exe through an install, an update, a stick check and the Look window.
  • Every release is approved by hand before it is signed.
  • The .exe carries its product name and version (Properties > Details); the version matches helix --version and the release's tag.

Team roles

Role Who
Committers and reviewers Commanderx-code
Approvers Commanderx-code

Changes from anyone else come in as pull requests and are reviewed before they are merged. Accounts with access to the repository or to signing use multi-factor authentication.

Privacy policy

Helix Boot has no accounts, no telemetry and no analytics. It sends nothing to this project or to its maintainer, and it collects no information about you or your PC.

It does make ordinary web requests to the publishers of the tools it puts on a stick, and to nobody else:

  • When the app starts, it asks GitHub, SourceForge and the tools' own download sites for the latest version number of each tool, to tell you which have newer versions. It does this at most once every 6 hours. To turn it off, put check_for_updates = false under [settings] in local.toml, next to the .exe.
  • When you press Install or Update with the internet chosen, it downloads the tools and their checksums from those same sites. With a pack chosen it downloads nothing.

Like any download, those requests show the site your IP address. They carry no identifier of yours. If you set a GITHUB_TOKEN yourself, it is sent to api.github.com only.

What it changes on your PC

  • Install erases the USB stick you pick, after you type its disk number to confirm. Only USB and SD disks are offered, never the disk Windows runs from.
  • Update, Look… and Check stick write only to the stick you pick. Update first shows what it will copy, remove and keep, and asks.
  • Downloads are kept in %LOCALAPPDATA%\HelixBoot. A log, your local.toml and your byo folder sit next to the .exe.
  • It installs nothing into Windows and changes no Windows settings.

Removing it

Delete HelixBoot.exe and the files next to it, and the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\HelixBoot. Nothing else is left behind.