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).
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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.
Is there a way to create a self signed certificate in IIS in windows 2012 R2 using command prompt?
I went many documents, everywhere there is tutorial using Windows powershell but not using command prompt.
I do not have makecert utility installed in my system. Is there any other command or utility.
I saw a selfssl utility but i am not sure whether it will work on windows 2012 RE server.
Try certreq tool. Data are given in a form of inf file. The before mentioned link contains information about the file structure. This link contains example inf file of an SSL certificate (could be of more help).
Then run
certreq -new your_inf_file.inf generated_req.req
As a side effect it will generate a self signed certificate in Certificate Enrollment Requests in the store you specified in the inf file. Just move the certificate to My store and also (because it is self signed) to Trusted Root Certification Authorities.
You can also use xca. It is a nice utility built on openssl which lets you create any certificates (self signed or any chain of CAs) and it is easy to use.
I wouldn't bother with makecert as it is deprecated. Instead, I would suggest you use PowerShell as it is the mainstream administration tool in Windows Server. Windows Server 2012 has a built-in cmdlet to generate self-signed certificates: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh848633(v=wps.630).aspx
When Microsoft deprecated makecert tool, they enhanced the certreq cmdline tool with the ability to generate self-signed certificates, though, with an overhead: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2012/08/14/rsa-key-blocking-is-here.aspx
The article rsa-key-blocking-is-here.aspx moved here.
rsa-key-blocking-is-here
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.
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).
I have made an application for Windows & everytime I run the application by opening the executable file I get the "Publisher Unverified" warning in Windows. It is fine if I was the only audience for this app but thats not the case. Is there any way to program my app such that this message does not show up for the users.
The only way to do this is to obtain and use a code signing certificate from a trusted source. Microsoft calls this Authenticode.
Unfortunately for the little guy, these cost. Verisign sells theirs for about four hundie a year.
Here are some starting points you should read about Authenticode:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537359(VS.85).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750035.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa379872(VS.85).aspx
Some certificate dealers:
http://www.verisign.com
http://www.thawte.com
http://www.globalsign.net
http://www.geotrust.com
For a cheaper code signing certificate, you can use Comodo. There is a reseller called KSoftware which sells their certificates for $99/yr:
http://www.ksoftware.net/code_signing.html
I used them a few years ago and had no problems.
You can then use SignTool from the .net SDK to sign your EXE files. There is a tutorial here:
http://www.tech-pro.net/code-signing-for-developers.html
I think there is a way to resolve this. We need to add digital signature to the executables. The way to add digital signatures is very nicely outlined at,
http://blog.didierstevens.com/2008/12/30/howto-make-your-own-cert-with-openssl/
http://blog.didierstevens.com/2008/12/31/howto-add-a-digital-signature-to-executables/
Basically we will use OpenSSL to create our own digital signatures and then use the SignTool application by Microsoft to add it to our executable.