Microsoft® Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit

How Office Performs Certificate Revocation

Microsoft Office uses some of the security settings set by Microsoft Internet Explorer when it attempts to authenticate certificates of trust prior to use, even if the certificate is already accepted and present on a user’s computer. Each time an Office application attempts to run an executable signed with an attached certificate, one of the following events occurs if the Check for publisher’s certificate revocation check box is checked in the Internet Explorer Advanced settings dialog: either the server maintained by the certificate authority who issued the certificate is checked for a revocation status, or a cached file downloaded from that same certificate authority is examined (dependent on the ...