I know that Microsoft Certificate store contains certificates with their corresponding private key.
Now when using Microsoft certificate store, do we have to create it ? If yes then how ? or we get it by default with windows, then where it is located in windows 7 ?
If possible, please give an example of using MS certificate Store to display all its contents.
If you're asking how to manage certs in Windows, type certmgr.msc into search and it will bring up the manager utility.
It is default snap-in. Click on Start Ord, type certmgr.msc. If you need a cert it will import here automatically when cert is activated. This can happen a few ways, installing an application, logon script if in domain, etc. The certification is made by the developers when creating an application or portal.
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We are using InfoPath 2007 forms on workstations as an input form for a medical EMR package that a developer wrote in house, the user wanted the form to look pretty and have the ability to print exactly how it was scene on the screen so this was the solution the developer came up with. The forms are part of a windows application and are opened within our application using the InfoPath 2007 viewer .Net Control.
We have been using a self signed certificate and have been inserting the certificate into the Trusted Publisher cert store on application startup so that we can update the application with a self extracting zip file, however we are tightening security on our machines at work and the practice of allowing the application to control the certificates will no longer work as they are locking down user privileges, also in my opinion this is bad practice. It has been decided to move away from this practice and want to use a certificate deployed by our intermediate Domain CA, and utilize Group Policy to deploy certificates to user machines.
I have a signed InfoPath 2007 form using a domain CA issued code signing certificate using a sha256RSA signature algorithm and a sha256 hash. The certificate contains a private key and is imported to the developer personal cert store. We create a full trust InfoPath form and sign it on the developers machine using the cert mentioned in the previous sentence. We then exported the binary .cer of the certificate and deployed this cert using Group Policy to all user machines in our organization unit into the Local Machine Trusted Publisher certificate store. To test the signature piece we click on the InfoPath .xsn file outside of the application environment to launch the form in native InfoPath 2007. If we get the error that the form cannot verify the signature we know it will not work in our application as the form cannot be displayed by the Microsoft InfoPath viewer .NET control. It is as if the InfoPath form cannot recognize the certificate installed in the cert store. I check the cert store and see the certificate, however i do not see any registry entries where i would expect them to live:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\TrustedPublisher
I am confused why none of this is working.
Does anyone have an idea as to why the certificate is not recognized by InfoPath. Can InfoPath 2007 utilize certificates that are sha256 signed and hashed?
The issue is that prior to InfoPath 2007 Build 12.0.6735.5000 SP3 MSO (12.0.6766.5000) Certificates using SHA256 algorithms are not supported. Upgrade InfoPath to the latest build.
I have tried an online version, but that turned out to not be exportable.
can't get openssl to work on my only (windows) comp for some reason.
I can't find a linke to download IIS full - which presumably has an IIS manager with it. I can only get iisexpress to run.
How do i generate a CSR that I can export to a .pfx (using a private key) so that I can upload said .pfx to azure?
Thanks!
You don't have to download IIS from internet. It's already in your PC. You can turn it on by: Control Panel -> Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off. Check Internet Information Services to proceed installation:
Install IIS on you PC
Once you done CSR creation, you can submit it to certification provider so that you will get a pfx.
Install IIS
Create CSR
Copy Txt and paste it into your certificate request
Complete the SSL certificate order
Compete the domain ownership verification by the supplier of the SSL
Supplier will email you a link to download PFX (if you are lucky), or they will email you a bunch of text starting with '---BEGIN CERTIFICATE--'
Paste that into a new text file, save as: cert.cer
Import that into your certificate store
Export the certificate as a PFX, choose a password (keep it somewhere safe)
I followed this tut to add a self service certificate for testing my website,
http://www.jayway.com/2014/09/03/creating-self-signed-certificates-with-makecert-exe-for-development/
When I go to MMC console, In personal > Certificates
I can see my certificate, but when I go to IIS Manager then "Server Certificates" I don't see it there.
Any idea how can I add it ? when I try to import it, it asks for network key which I am not sure what is.
I found it, in IIS 8.5 all you have to do is go to IIS Manager and then Server Certificates and then on empty space right click.
It will ask you to create self signed certificate, give it the name you want and click on finish. It should work as it worked for me.
The question has already been answered but I am adding this in case anyone is having the same issue and is forced to use a certificate which has been generated already.
In order to have it available in the IIS, you have to import the .pfx file in the Personal store or in the Web Hosting store (for scaling purposes).
I'm trying to create a WCF application hosted in IIS. This WCF App will call a third party website to download a CSV file. Third party website has provided a certificate to authenticate the WCF call. My development environment is,
-OS: Windows 2008R2
-Tools: Visual Studio 2010 (.Net 4.x)
During development I've no problem to make the calls using a HttpWebRequest, but after I deploy the same thing in IIS, it gives me the following error, even if I run the Visual Studio 2010 using IIS as dev server,
"\r\nCertificate information doesn't match login, connection denied."
The certificate during installation requires a password. I've installed it in "My User account" and "Computer account". It is also installed in IE. In all the installation it is installed in "Trusted Root Certification Authorities". But, still I'm getting the error message. I've given my code snippet below,
X509Certificate2 xc = new X509Certificate2(CertPath, GetCertificatePassword());
HttpWebRequest wc = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(QryUrl);
wc.ClientCertificates.Add(xc);
Stream str = wc.GetResponse().GetResponseStream();
If someone can provide me any information, would be nice, thanks again,
This is just a guess: check that the user account that IIS runs under has access to the private key associated with the certificate.
If you use the MMC Certificates snap-in, select the certificate and then right-click -> All Tasks -> Manage Private Keys, and from there if you don't see the user account of IIS listed, you can add it there by clicking Add, and then in the dialog that comes up if for example you run IIS as Network Service, type "network service" (with the space) and click Check Names and then when you are back to Manage Private Keys you can set the security access.
I believe you only need to allow Read access to use the private key for a TLS connection.
You can set the access to the private key whether installed in Local Computer or Current User, but IIS won't have access to your Current User unless it runs as your user account.
Also, if it is a client certificate with a private key it almost certainly should go in the Personal store, and not in Trusted Root Certification Authorities. So try Local Computer, Personal, and give access to the private key to the account that IIS (or the application) runs under.
Looking for some advice about the use of client certs to retro-fit access control to an existing app.
Our company has an existing intranet app (classic ASP/IIS) which we licence to others. Up till now it's been hosted within each organisation that used it and the security consisted of "if you're able to access the intranet you're able the access the application".
I'm now looking for a way to host this app externally so that other organisations who don't wish to host it themselves can use it (each new client would have their own installation).
All user in the new organisation would have a client cert so what I'd like to do is use the 'Require Client Certificate' stuff in IIS. It allows you to say "if Organisation=BigClientX then pretend they're local userY".
What I would prefer is something that says "if Organisation=BigClientX then let them access resources in virtualdirectoryZ otherwise ignore them".
I would be very happy to buy an addon (perhaps an ISAPI filter ?) which would do this for me if that was the best approach. Any advice / war stories would be welcomed.
You likely want to do this. client certs are really intended for a second factor of authentication, but not the primary source. To say it differently, you still need to configure your app for basic or forms authentication.
The technology behind public/private keys is rock solid. However, you need a very mature IT organization who is dealing with certificate lifecycle management. If you do not have this, you will get untold failure scenarios because the certificate was expired, wasn't copied to the new computer, etc.
This is especially true in your scenario where your application is internet facing (in thee 'hosted' scenario) - you have little control about the issuance of the certificates to your users.
I've done something similar...
Generate the certificates internally from your org's domain controller. Export them both as PFX format for distribution, and CER format for you to import in IIS.
Distribute the PFX format exports along with the CA certificate for your DC, so your customers machines will "trust" your CA.
Now in the app properties IIS, go to the Directory Security tab, and under "Secure Communications" click "Edit". In there, click "Accept client certificates", "Enable Client Certificate Mapping", then "Edit".
Under the 1-to-1 tab, click "Add" and import the CER file. Enter the account you'd like to map this certificate to.
As for the "let them access resources" I'd advise doing that by the user account they're mapped through - that is, you can provide access to resources based on that account either through NTFS permissions, or through code by identifying the security context of the logged-in user.