Signed and Unsigned Updates

A signed update is one that has a digital signature applied to it. An update that has its digital signature verified has not been modified since the signature was applied. The digital signature of a signed update is verified after the update is downloaded to your system.

Updates and patches for Solaris releases are available as signed updates and as unsigned updates. Unsigned updates do not have a digital signature.

Signed updates are stored in Java^TM archive format (JAR) files and are available from the Sun update server. Unsigned updates are stored in directory format and are also available from the Sun update server as .zip files.