Secure updates. A focused follow-up to v0.9.0 that makes the in-app auto-updater verify what it downloads before it installs it.
Highlights
- SHA-256-verified updates, fail-closed. WinBlaze now hashes the update it downloads and checks it against a signed-by-hash release manifest shipped alongside the release. Only an explicit match proceeds — a mismatch, a missing or unfetchable manifest, or a blank/absent hash all abort the install. A tampered or truncated download can no longer be applied.
What's new since v0.9.0
Update security
- The updater computes the downloaded portable zip's SHA-256 (via WinRT crypto) and verifies it against
winblaze-update-manifest.json, published as a release asset, before handing off to the helper that swaps files. - Verification is fail-closed: anything other than a confirmed hash match stops the install.
- The manifest parser is object-scoped, so it can never read a sibling artifact's hash, and blank hashes are rejected rather than treated as a match. Covered by unit tests in the Rust core (
parse_manifest_sha256,hash_matches,wb_verify_download). - The release manifest is generated from the exact versioned zip that is uploaded, so the hash the app computes always matches the real download.
CI
- Gated signature verification (activates when a code-signing cert is configured) plus an always-on Release check that recomputes the packaged zip's SHA-256 and fails the build if it disagrees with the manifest.
Download & run
Grab WinBlaze-v0.9.1-windows-x64-portable.zip below, unzip, and run WinBlaze.UI.exe. If you already run v0.9.0, it will offer this update in-app and verify it before installing.
- Run as Administrator for the fast NTFS MFT path (otherwise WinBlaze falls back to a directory walk).
Requirements: Windows 11 x64 (build 19041+), Windows App SDK 1.8 runtime.
SHA-256 (portable zip): 4c128d5b77e4f7243c8cb28b7e1cb07e3387f64d71a8b665ddfc83dfd9381b7c