I need to install a cert to allow a browser to talk to localhost via our app. The .pfx file created for this purpose works great when imported with the Windows 10 MMC tool. But that's a lot of steps to make our users do manually.
By following the steps in this answer (Install a pfx certificate in a users store in Windows using WiX), I can build an MSI and it runs on the target machine without errors.
However, the cert does not exist in the usual "Certificates - Local Computer" MMC tool, nor can the cert be bound to the app with netsh. After a bit of searching, it turns out the cert is installed "somewhere in IIS", and is only visible in the IIS tool (?!).
Using openssl, I converted the .pfx to a .pem file. When running the MSI, this DOES seem to install the cert to the proper place (?!). However, the cert is missing the private key, so it also can't be bound with netsh ('SSL Certificate add failed, Error 1312').
What on earth is going on, and how can I make Wix install the certificate properly?
Well, I guess I figured it out. I tried running the MSI on a virgin Windows 10 installation, and the .pfx file installed correctly and can be bound ok.
So, my guess is that "something" is checking the local computer to see if IIS is installed, and makes the decision to install the cert in a place that only IIS can see or use it. There's probably a lot more going on behind the scenes, but that's the gist of it.
In summary, use a .pfx file to get the private key, and remember that the installation will only work on computers without IIS installed.
Related
I'm trying to deploy and distribute a C++ app on Windows.
I've managed to create an MSI installer with Visual Studio (with the Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Project extension). When I run it on my computer, everything is fine. But if I run it on someone's else computer, Windows Defender displays a SmartScreen warning:
We are still in beta, so we don't have a lot of money or any certificates, but we want to make the beta available without this warning to allow users to test the product and give us feedback (we want to setup a build-measure-learn method).
I've seen that I can use EV certificates to remove this warning (but they are too expensive, so it's not an option).
How can I remove this warning for every user who downloads my installer from my website (without any cost, if possible)?
You need an officially code sign or and code sign EV certificate, it will cost some money, and sign with signtool or build events your output (dll, msi, exe) with that certificates. Then your setup, is from a known publisher (you / your brand).
You can use a self-signed cert, but then you need to install the cert on every machine ... that use case is useful for "internal" usage. In your case, when you offer a download from your Website, you need to inform the user, that you used a self-sign cert and you can offer the CA of your cert and ask the user to install it ... or you just mention that the cert is self-signed and share the Fingerprints / MD5 Hashes so your customers can verify the content on there own.
I'm using CAPICOM to load a certificate needed by a WebService client.
I need to have the certificate installed in Windows, and then open it from the certificate file itself, which I think is "kinda stupid".
Is there any way to either (in order of preference):
Save the PFX File contents to a memo field in the database, and load it from there, without installing it on Windows?
Load the PFX File from the file itself, without installing it on Windows
I'm using Delphi XE3, LibEay32 and Capicom 2.0
If you want to install the certificate in Windows you will ALWAYS get a popup asking the user for permission, unless the certificate comes from a root that is already trusted. If you don't want that the only option is to use the PFX contents from a memo field each time you need the certificate.
I have no experience with Capicom, but from what I read it is a Microsoft DLL that you use?
If you are having problems with Capicom and LibEay32 you might want to check out the Eldos Secure BlackBox components. I have very good experiences with those and their support is great.
On my machine, I’m using a signed application with an installed certificate to get a trusted publisher dialog from Windows. I’ve created a certificate with makecert.exe and installed it to the certification store in windows. From there, I’ve exported the PFX and signed with signtool.exe my application. In order to get the same trusted publisher dialog on another machine, a certificate is necessary. Instead of installing the certificate by hand, an installer should accomplish the importation of the certificate. Unfortunately, the windows installer doesn’t support this feature. Because of that, I’m looking for a solution like a classical API command in windows. Is there something built-in in windows to make it easier or something comparable?
To install certificate with respect of MSI setup you have to use custom actions. If you not familiar with custom actions I recommend you to use the simplest custom action which allows you to start an exe. It can be an existing utility like CertUtil.exe (see here some examples and try certutil -importPFX -? to see help about the import of PFX files).
I'm currently developping a website with Visual Studio 2010 and IIS Express 7.5 on Windows 7 x64 in a VirtualBox VM.
I have followed this article and made it works like a charm.
Working with SSL at Development Time is easier with IISExpress
The problem comes when I shut down my machine and start it back the next day. It doesn't work anymore, I have to redo the whole opertations in order to make it work.
Does anyone has an idea why everything is screwed up each time I restart my machine?
Thanks in advance.
I've had this exact problem with full blown IIS 7.5 and Server 2008.
My particular problem came about when moving the server authentication certificate (and associated private key) around (through dragging) in the MMC Certificate Manager.
There's a step in the tutorial you linked to where they ask you to "drag" the certificate from Personal to Trusted Root Certificates. I'd suggest deleting that certificate from the Certificate Manager and importing it directly into the Trusted Root Certificates.
I had the same problem with a Code-signing private certificate, after reboot it was gone.
I found this on ServerFault:
Right-click the certificate in MMC console ->All Tasks-> Manage Private Keys.
Add the needed users to access Now, Reboot the system and try it will work.
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Try editing the app.config as an administrator.
The other thing is you VM's hard drive might be writing changes to a read only delta which get's dropped when you restart, hence nothing is saved
Thias was the solution for me:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/asiatech/archive/2013/03/25/case-study-ssl-does-not-work-in-iis-7-5-after-server-reboots.aspx
Delete the certificate from the computer store and import it again. Dont drag and drop it from the user store.
I'm working to upgrade our source control from hg 1.6.0 to 1.8.2 and I'm looking to set up and use SSL certs. This is on a Windows Server 2008 Enterprise system running IIS 6.0, not my server so I need to use those versions of software right now. All my users are running Windows too.
To ease installation/configuration for my users I'd prefer to modify the Windows Cert Store instead of the cacert.pem file. Does Mercurial have access to the Windows Certificate Store? It doesn't seem to. I am using internally created certificates and I can get things to work without SSL warnings by adding my root cert to the cacert.pem file in Mercurial but I can't seem to get it to work by adding the certs to the Windows Cert Store. Am I missing something?
Thanks,
Scott
No, Mercurial does not access the Windows certificate store.
It includes in its distribution a cacert.pm (as you know, even though before 1.7.3, the story was a bit different)
The article "X.509 certificates and Mercurial" has more information.
A principal thing to remember here is that Mercurial will not work as a complete server out of the box, requesting authentication information, in the form of basic, digest, or certificates, at all.
This means that in order to use X.509 certificates with Mercurial, one needs to place a web server that knows of these authentication mechanisms in front of it.
This article includes makecert.exe, which actually knows about the Windows certificates store (contrary to Mercurial itself)
makecert.exe is a bit of a different beast from openssl as it interfaces directly with the machine’s or user’s certificate store (the special place where certificates live a happy life in Windows).