I'm setting up a new development laptop, and have installed a self-issued code signing certificate. I can see it in certmgr under my Current Users's Personal Certificates.
When I try to build from the Developer Command Prompt For Visual Studio 2017 I get:
error : SignTool Error: No certificates were found that met all the given criteria.
This always worked fine on my old laptop.
I have found if I run the same build from the command prompt after starting it as admin that signtool succeeds and can find the cert.
This has happened to 3/4 colleagues when we've set up new laptops. One guy is ok and can sign without running as admin. On our old laptops we never had to run as admin.
I've tried googling to find what could be the cause because I wasn't aware that running as admin or not should have any affect over this. I haven't found any reference to this problem.
How can we use signtool.exe without running it as admin?
When not running as admin it appears to be at the Private Key filter step where the cert I'm expecting to be selected gets filtered out:
**********************************************************************
** Visual Studio 2017 Developer Command Prompt v15.9.12
** Copyright (c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation
**********************************************************************
C:\>signtool sign /v /debug /ph /i "<issuedby>" /fd sha256 /td sha256 "C:\TestSign.dll"
The following certificates were considered:
Issued to: Scott Langham
Issued by: <issuedby>
Expires: Sun Sep 25 09:54:55 2022
SHA1 hash: <a_hash>
Issued to: Scott Langham
Issued by: <issuedby_somethingelse>
Expires: Wed May 13 15:51:14 2020
SHA1 hash: <b_hash>
After EKU filter, 1 certs were left.
After expiry filter, 1 certs were left.
After Issuer Name filter, 1 certs were left.
After Private Key filter, 0 certs were left.
SignTool Error: No certificates were found that met all the given criteria.
I've ensured the version of signtool.exe I'm using is the same as the one that my colleague who has this working is using (10.0.18362.1). I've been able to spot any other differences between our systems.
I ran into this today and here is how I am now able to run signtool.exe via command line without elevating to admin.
Run 'mmc' and add the 'Certificates' snap-in
Select the correct key store location
(mine is in Local Computer so I select 'Computer account' here)
Find and select the certificate
Right click on the certificate, select All Tasks > Manage Private Keys...
In the 'Permissions for private keys' dialog, Add your user account and then give yourself 'Full Control'. You will now be able to sign using a normal command prompt.
Note: If you use a build machine, do the above steps for the account that performs the builds.
Similar to what #Baget said, I'd compare the certificates on your machine to that of your colleague who can successfully run the SignTool.exe command without the elevation token. Here's a chunk of PowerShell to assist you:
get-childitem -Path Cert:\ | foreach-object ({
$location = $_.Location
foreach($store in $_.StoreNames.Keys) {
get-childitem -Path "Cert:\$location\$store" | foreach-object ({
$thumb = $($_.ThumbPrint)
$issuer = $($_.Issuer)
if ($issuer -eq "CN=EXAMPLE, DC=EXAMPLE, DC=EXAMPLE, DC=EXAMPLE") {
write-host "$location $store $issuer"
}
})
}
})
Bear in mind that the output of the above may differ slightly if you run as a normal user and 'run as admin'.
Finally, do you and your colleague have the same UAC settings?
I found myself in a similar situation with signtool, it refused to work with an admin user but does work as actual Administrator.
In my case, I am not actually importing the certificate into the certificate store, but using a .pkcs12 file exported from a comodo certificate in firefox, so this makes things even stranger, as no permissions on any keys in the store are involved.
I tried granting myself permissions on some server key, but that did nothing.
I hope someone finds a solution to this problem.
In the meantime, I am signing my exe with osslsigncode instead, which works perfectly.
I extracted the exe and dependent dlls from the msys2 mingw64 build, here is a zip of everything in case it is of use to anyone, just extract it to a directory and put it in your PATH.
http://cachemiss.com/files/osslsigncode.zip
To extract this program yourself from an msys2 installation, you can use this command:
pacman --noconfirm -S mingw-w64-x86_64-osslsigncode
cd /mingw64/bin
mkdir ~/osslsigncode
cp osslsigncode.exe $(ldd osslsigncode.exe | sed -n 's,^.*\(/mingw64/[^ ]*\).*,\1,p' | sort -u) ~/osslsigncode/
cd
zip -9r osslsigncode.zip osslsigncode
I am using this in Visual Studio cmake builds with no issue.
There are two Certificate Store in Windows, User Store, and a machine store, you probably installed the certificate to the local machine, or you installed it when you run as elevated user.
Firstly you are getting such an error and you are using visual studio then See the signing tab in project properties. You will see a previously assigned signature (strong assembly)
If you enter the correct password here:
If your environment is the same as the environment in which the project is written, you will skip this error. Look the post on about the error
The reasons behind this error are:
1- Visual Studio needs some features when using certificate file to sign strong assembly.
ClickOnce Manifest Signing and Strong-Name Assembly Signing Using Visual Studio Project Designer's Signing Page
You can try this code to determine
signtool sign /debug /f mypfxfile.pfx /p <password> (mydllexectuable).exe
2- These settings can vary from machine to machine, and windows does not write these settings to the environment setting by default. check the config path
This part is just a deep note! not interested with the question you should add your private keystore file to request header and those all for this. My favorite steps about the creation of a certificate on this post
I've transferred a Installshield 2011 (Because the Licence is so expensive, boss won't by a new one next time) from XP to Windows 8.1.
Because signing the msi will crash Installshield, I signed the msi in a post-build event.
But starting setup will prompt the yellow dialog. But when signing with Installshield in XP, the UAC is blue. Aaaand (the interesting part): After looking into the signature (showing the msi-file properties / digital signature / Details) the UAC is blue! (Tested on Windows 7). The /ac did not helped.
What can I do? Can anyone describe what happens?
Edit:
This is my Command line
"(somewere)\Signtool.exe" sign /f "(otherwere)\ext.pfx" /p XXX /d "YYYY" /du "ZZZZ" /tr "http://timestamp.comodoca.com" /a "(nowhere)\AAAA.msi" "(nowhere)\Setup.exe"
I'm using a SignTool version from one of the latest SDKs
I'm trying to use SignTool.exe to code sign an executable with a certificate installed into the Windows certificate store. I'm able to get it to work by installing the cert into the Local Machine/Personal section and then running as an administrator, but I can't seem to work out the right place where the certificate needs to be installed to run as the current user.
I've installed the cert into Current User/Personal and when I do:
Get-ChildItem -Path Cert:\CurrentUser\My
the certificate is in the list. But when I try sign with:
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1A\Bin\signtool.exe"
sign /v /n "West Wind Technologies"
/s MY
/tr "http://timestamp.digicert.com" /td SHA256 /fd SHA256
".\Builds\CurrentRelease\MarkdownMonsterSetup.exe"
running as a non-admin user it doesn't work. I get:
SignTool Error: No certificates were found that met all the given criteria.
If I add the /sm flag and run run as an administrator and have it in the personal store - it works.
Where do I have to put the certificate in the cert store to get it to run without administrator rights?
For the current user you can use Certmgr to import it to the Personal folder.
I use the signtool /n option.
A bit more difficult is when you use signtool in a automated environment as (if your security is setup correctly) the build agent is running under limited service account. An option could be to use a file then.
I am trying to sign a windows kernel driver with a SHA-256 certificate. I've been back and forth with MS support with no change in status. I've tried SignTool.exe from both the 32- and 64- bit directories of 3 different WDKs (7600, 8.0, 8.1).
My private key lives in a Luna CSP. I have the local cert and the cross-signing cert, and I can sign a SHA-1 signature to the driver in question, but any time I try to sign a SHA-256 cert, I get an error:
SignTool Error: An unexpected internal error has occurred. Error
information: "Error: SignerSign() failed." (-2146893795/0x8009001d)
I've searched for this error, but it seems to be unique to me. Since certs are private, I've redacted some information here. Please let me know if there is more I can provide to help solve the issue.
This works, and signs with a SHA-1 signature:
signtool.exe sign /ac "<path>\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" /f "<cert>.cer" /csp "Luna Cryptographic Services for Microsoft Windows" /kc <keystore> /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timstamp.dll $file
These give me the above error:
signtool.exe sign /ac "<path>\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" /f "<cert>.cer" /csp "Luna Cryptographic Services for Microsoft Windows" /kc <keystore> /fd sha256 /sha1 <cert thumbprint> /tr http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timstamp.dll /td sha256 $file
signtool.exe sign /ac "<path>\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" /f "<cert>.cer" /csp "Luna Cryptographic Services for Microsoft Windows" /kc <keystore> /fd sha256 /sha1 <cert thumbprint> /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timstamp.dll $file
signtool.exe sign /ac "<path>\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" /f "<cert>.cer" /csp "Luna Cryptographic Services for Microsoft Windows" /kc <keystore> /fd sha256 /sha1 <cert thumbprint> /as /tr http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timstamp.dll /td sha256 $file
Adding /v /debug to the command line provides additional output, but has not offered any help with the error.
I'm signing this on a Win7 x64 machine that I have confirmed has access to the Luna server.
I am an individual, not a company and i am working on a virtual kernel mode device driver. I am aware that I can test sign a driver and run in test mode. However I want to distribute my driver free of cost , but i don't have the resources to buy signature through verisign or globalsign as it is very costly and i am not earning anything through this driver .
Also test signing a driver will be a daunting task for some of the user . So i want to know is there any workaround to use the driver without signature in 64bit ?. Like run it in compatibility for 32bit , or a script that can self sign the driver on behalf of the user.
So now the question essentially is , if i distribute all the exes mentioned in this procedure and make a script to run all these
commands . Then can the driver be signed by the user using the
script?
PROCEDURE :
1.execute Inf2Cat.exe /driver:"U:\MyDriver" /os:7_X64
2.Find makecert.exe in WDK Makecert -r -pe -ss PrivateCertStore -n "CN=TestCertforWDK" TestCert.cer
3.Use Signtool.exe in WDK to sign the cat file Signtool sign /v /s PrivateCertStore /n TestCertForWDK /t
http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll
"U:\MyDriver\MyDriver.cat"
4.Use Signtool.exe in WDK to sign the driver Signtool sign /v /s PrivateCertStore /n TestCertForWDK /t
http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll
"U:\MyDriver\MyDriver.sys"
5.On test computer, import the certificate: certmgr.exe /add TestCert.cer /s /r localMachine root
6.Add it to trusted publisher list certmgr.exe /add TestCert.cer /s /r localMachine trustedpublisher
7.Verify the sign for driver Signtool verify /pa /v MyDriver.sys
8.Verify the sign for cat file Signtool verify /pa /v /c MyDriver.cat MyDriver.inf
So the answer to this question is a big fat no. I'm sorry, but unless you find a user driven workaround, or some company willing to sponsor (sign your driver) it is impossible (i mean improbable :) ). This feature has been implemented in windows to prevent the installation of them pesky rootkits.
Although it probably seems harsh, it prevents a lot of rootkits from being able to install on user machines. In fact, Microsoft recently patched a flaw related to driver signing that was allowing hackers to use microsoft's signing engine within windows to sign drivers that would be accepted by the system.
I highly doubt that you find a way to get around this programmatically. And if you do, let me know.
Getting the driver signed is the only proper way to get your driver on user machines and run it without hassles. You cannot expect the user to put the machine in test signing mode. I think you can refer to test signing costs to have an idea how it costs and I recommend you try to invest in that considering your driver long term. Not sure if there has been any changes in rates.
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsdesktop/en-US/9a839ac3-4438-43bb-b1b8-4ed8da58ab45/how-much-does-it-cost-to-get-hck-certificates?forum=whck