Error importing key - object already exists.

[Alun Jones]

I'm getting the above error in a dialog box from Visual Studio 2005 when
trying to sign an assembly using a PFX file, and would like to know how to
resolve the problem.

Background:

The PFX file has been used for code-signing before (to sign an InfoPath
form), so therefore the file contains a valid code-signing key.

I have the correct password to the PFX file (because I get a different error
if I enter the wrong password - it helpfully tells me I've entered the wrong
password).

The assembly is a DLL which will be installed as an Outlook add-in, is
written in C#, and was created by using the Outlook Add-in template from
VSTO 2005. I'm signing the assembly simply by checking the "Sign The
Assembly" box, and selecting my PFX file in the drop-down list below that
box.

The Usenet news article
<http://groups.google.com/group/micr...read/thread/774d0c593789658a/d4dabaeecd4c5430>
seems to discuss a similar issue, but doesn't have any good suggestions on
fixing it that I can use.

I can sign the assembly using a key that I generate, but I need to use the
code-signing certificate that has already been deployed to our existing
users.

When building the assembly with my key file selected for signing, I first
get a dialog box that reads "Import Key File", "This project includes a
password-encrypted key used for signing. Enter the password for the key
file to import the key file into the local crypto-store database for use."

Entering the password, and clicking OK, I get the dialog "Error importing
key", "Object already exists".

Often it asks me for the password several times over.

If I try to build the project, the following error is listed immediately
after the first appearance of the "Object already exists" dialog:

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7):
error MSB3321: Importing key file "codesign.pfx" was canceled.

Please let me know if you have any good ideas on solving this issue.

Thanks in advance,

Alun Jones

 

[graham]

Alun,

How many times have you run the key generation etc, I'm sure there are
only so many spaces for private keys that can be generated. I'm sure it
was only about 16 private keys....

Have you tried doing this on a box that you didn't do the development
on?

I mean clean install, then import the PFX....

Cheers,

Graham
"sometimes no help is better than some help"

 

[Alun Jones]

How many times have you run the key generation etc, I'm sure there are
only so many spaces for private keys that can be generated. I'm sure it
was only about 16 private keys....

Have you tried doing this on a box that you didn't do the development
on?

I mean clean install, then import the PFX....

Just tried it - clean install of Windows, clean install of VS2005, SP1,
VSTO, then open and build the project.

It asked me four times - once while opening, and three times while
building - for the pfx file's password, and while it accepted the password
without error on the first open, on the build dialogs, it gave "object
already exists".

Judging by the posters at
https://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showpost.aspx?postid=1046090&siteid=1,
this is apparently an actual, real, honest-to-goodness bug, rather than
something stupid I did (or if it's something "stupid", it needs to be
documented, because it's the kind of stupid that lots of people are going to
do).

Alun.
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