Importing a .key (Private Key) file into the local computers Personal Certificate Store.

[Jeremy]

Hi,

I've installed an X.509 certificate from a .cer file into the Personal
Certificate Store of the Local Computer. This works perfectly, accept
for when I check the properties of the certificate I don't get the
message that "You have a private key that corresponds to this
certificate.", and therefore this certificate does not actually work
correctly.

I have the Private Key (.key) file, that I would like to
import/associate with this certificate. How do I do this?

Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of generating a .pfx file, as
this application is using an Apache (Open SSL) server.

Thanks,
Jeremy.

 

[Drew Cooper [MSFT]]

Open SSL has a cmdline tool that will create a PKCS #12 file from the .cer
and the key.
openssl pkcs12 . . .

The output is in PKCS #12 format, the stuff Windows users think of as .pfx
files.

 

[Jeremy]

Thanks Drew for pointing me in the right direction.

After downloading a copy of the OpenSSL Toolkit from either of these
sites...
http://www.kerio.com/dwn/kms/sslcert.zip
http://www.shininglightpro.com/products/x86/OpenSSL/official/OpenSSL.exe
....I was then able to run the following command to create the PKCS #12
file.
openssl pkcs12 -export -in webmail.cer -inkey webmail.key -out
webmail.p12

Whilst researching I came across these two URL's that may be of use to
someone that reads this post in the future.
http://support.ipswitch.com/kb/IM-20030415-DM01.htm
http://www.dylanbeattie.net/docs/openssl_iis_ssl_howto.html

Cheers,
Jeremy.