Digital certificate issue

G

Guest

I'm using Access 2003 under WinXP Pro and having trouble with the digital
certificate signing process.

I created the digital cert on my laptop and then exported it to a file. I
moved that file to my desktop computer and imported it to my Personal certs
folder.

When I sign the MDB on the laptop it works fine. When I attempt to sign it
on the desktop it seems to work fine but then when I save or close the
project I get the following error message:

"There was a problem with the digital certificate. The VBA project could not
be signed. The signature will be discarded."

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, stullhe104
 
P

Peter Yang [MSFT]

Hello,

To know the issue better, I'd like to know the following information:

1. How you you create digital certificate? Do you get it from a CA or you
create it as a self-signed certificate by using some tool such as
selfcert.exe?

2. If you create a certificate on the desktop directly and sign the VBA
project in Access, can you reproduce the problem?

3. What's the OS on desktop? Is it also WinXP that is the same as Laptop?

4. What is the MDB file format? Is it Access 2000? If so, will you try to
convert it to a Access 2003 format and try the sign process again, what's
the result?

5. You may want to try on a new MDB file and let me know the result.

If you have other related information, please also let's know. I look
forward to your reply. Thank you.

Best Regards,

Peter Yang
MCSE2000/2003, MCSA, MCDBA
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Microsoft Online Community Support
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G

Guest

Hello Peter and thanks for the reply.

In answer to your questions:

I created the cert using the tool found in MS Office > Office Tools >
Digital Cert for VBA Project.

The OS is the same on both the laptop and desktop, WINXP Pro.

I created a brand new MDB on the desktop machine in Access 2002-2003 format
and signed it. When I attempted to save the module or exit MS Access it gave
me the same error message.

These digital certificates are a big pain-in-the-butt! Is there a better way
to do this? All I want to do is prevent the caution messages from displaying
everytime a user opens the application.

Thank you, Herb
 
P

Peter Yang [MSFT]

Hello Herb,

The self-signed certificate is just for test purpose and may expire in a
few days even it is installed properly. You may want to get a certificate
from commerical CA or you may want to install CA in your own domain.

Also, this certificate is not valid to be exported to use a digi-sign
certificate because its private key is not able to be exported. Therefore,
when you import the certificate on a different machine, you cannot import
the private key. As you know, the private key is actually used to sign the
VBA project code. Therefore, it's normal that you encounter issues when
trying to sign code by using the imported certificate.

If you don't want to manage/install your own CA in your domain, you could
get certificate from commerical CA such as Verisign. If you only want to
test, you might be able to get a free test certificate from them.

Microsoft Root Certificate Program Members
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995347.aspx

Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Certification
Authority
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998956.aspx

Public Key Infrastructure
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/32aacfe8-83af-4676-a4
5c-75483545a9781033.mspx

As for the security cautuion message to open the application, can you
describe it more details? How do you open the MDB file? Do you open it from
UNC from remote folder?

You may want to set macro security to low to see if this could work around
the security warning:

Tools->Macro->Security

I understand that your frustration for this issue. The security warning is
just for security purpose. You need to notice the security risk if you set
the security to low for macro.

Please let me know if you have any update or comments, thank you.

Best Regards,

Peter Yang
MCSE2000/2003, MCSA, MCDBA
Microsoft Online Partner Support

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
P

Peter Yang [MSFT]

Hello Jim,

Thank you for your reply. You may want to add a digital signature to the
VBA code of the ADP file, and test it again.

For testing purpose, you could use self-sign certificate include in Office

MS Office > Office Tools > Digital Cert for VBA Project.

If you don't want to manage/install your own CA in your domain, you could
get certificate from commerical CA such as Verisign. If you only want to
test, you might be able to get a free test certificate from them.

Microsoft Root Certificate Program Members
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995347.aspx

Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Certification
Authority
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998956.aspx

Public Key Infrastructure
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/32aacfe8-83af-4676-a4
5c-75483545a9781033.mspx

If there is any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let's
know. Thanks.

Best Regards,

Peter Yang
MCSE2000/2003, MCSA, MCDBA
Microsoft Online Partner Support

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

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PLEASE NOTE: The partner managed newsgroups are provided to assist with
break/fix
issues and simple how to questions.

We also love to hear your product feedback!

Let us know what you think by posting
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We look forward to hearing from you!

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
P

Peter Yang [MSFT]

Hello Herb,

Please kindly ignore my last reply and it's for another thread in a
different newsgroup. Sorry.

Regards,

Peter Yang
MCSE2000/2003, MCSA, MCDBA
Microsoft Online Partner Support

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 

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