Problem with digital certificate

[Stan Brown]

(Office 2003 Professional)

I created a digital certificate for myself a few days ago, so that I
could sign my own macros and not get the macro warning when I open my
workbook. It worked fine for a few days, but now it's stopped
working.

The first symptom this morning was that when I opened my workbook a
message displayed my certificate name and something to the effect of
"You should not trust macros from this publisher". No problem, I
thought, I'll just re-sign the VBA.

When I tried that, the actual signing went fine but on saving the
workbook I got "There was a problem with the digital certificate. The
VBA project could not be signed. The signature will be discarded."
(exact text) When I closed and reopened the workbook, I got the macro
warning and when I checked I found the VBA was no longer signed.

I thought this might just be a problem with this workbook, so I did a
copy/paste of the VBA to a new workbook's VBA module. (I copied the
VBA by highlighting all the code and doing Ctrl-C, not by copying the
modules in the Explorer-style pane of the VB Editor.) Same problem:
I could sign the new book but got the above message on saving.

Okay, so I tried to create myself a new certificate. (Microsoft
Office Tools > Digital Certificate for VBA). This time I get "An
error occurred during certificate creation. Selfcert was unable to
create your certificate." (exact text)

Neither of those messages is very helpful about how to remedy the
problem. I've only signed two workbooks at this point, so I don't
mind starting over if that's the easiest way. Advice?

 

[Bob Flanagan]

For what its worth: I just created a certificate using the Office tools and
signed a vb project in Excel 2003. I then took it to another PC which has
2007 and opened it. Excel 2007 said that the certificate was invalid (it
works fine on the Excel 2003 PC) and gave no option to enable macros.

Bob Flanagan
Macro Systems
http://www.add-ins.com
Productivity add-ins and downloadable books on VB macros for Excel

 

[Gord Dibben]

Stan

Have a go at changing the DC to a Trusted Certifiicate.

With Excel closed......................

Start>Run "mmc" to open the Microsoft Management Console.

File>Add/Remove Snap-in. Select Certificates snap-in.

Expand and open Personal Certificates folder.

Select your SelfCert DC and drag it to the Trusted Root
Certificates>Certificates folder.

Close MMC...........you can save changes to Comsole1.msc if you choose, but not
necessary unless you want the snap-in to stay loaded.

Now open Excel and your workbook.

Any difference?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Stan Brown]

Thanks, Gord.

Maybe this is the problem: the certificate shows up both in Personal
and in Trusted Root.

Should I delete one or both of them?

Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/


Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:25:49 -0700 from <Gord Dibben

 

[Gord Dibben]

Stan

I have the same DC's in both folders and see no negative effects.

If you double-click on the DC in your Personal Folder does it still have the big
red cross on it signifying not trusted?

Once moved to the Trusted Root folder that red cross should disappear.

I am still concerned about the second part of your original posting, that is the
part about

I don't understand that unless you are trying to create another selfcert DC with
the same name as your original.

Maybe an idea to open MMC and delete the selfcert DC from both folders and start
over building a new one.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Stan Brown]

Hi, Gord.

No, neither the Personal one nor the Trusted Root one has a red
cross. Under "Certification path", "Certificate stats", both say the
certificate is OK.

(puzzled) No, the old name is Stan Brown - Tompkins County and the
new name was Stan Brown at Oak Road Systems.

Oh dear. I deleted both those certificates, then tried to create a
new one. "An error occurred during certificate creation. Selfcert was
unable to create your certificate." I am certain that there is no
name conflict -- there are no certificates in Personal and there's
nothing in Trusted Root that starts with Stan.

Help!

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:00:50 -0700 from <Gord Dibben

 

[Gord Dibben]

Stan

Sounds like the SelfCert process is gibbled somehow.

May have to do with OS permissions or somesuch. I don't know enough to
trouble-shoot. Are you logged in as Administrator?

SelfCert is installed as part of Office Shared Features during installation and
must have been working at some point in order for you to create DC's.

You could try a Detect and Repair from Help.

In short...........no more ideas about why you can no longer create DC's or why
the valid one stopped working.


Gord

 

[Stan Brown]

Gord, thanks anyway for responding.

I don't normally run as administrator. Out of curiosity, I logged in
as admin and was able to create a certificate, but it did not appear
in the "Choose..." list when I went back to the limited user account
and tried to sign my macros.

I'll try Detect and Repair, as you suggest. If that doesn't work, is
there maybe a more appropriate newsgroup to ask my question?


Mon, 02 Apr 2007 11:54:02 -0700 from <Gord Dibben

 

[Gord Dibben]

Maybe someone over in the microsoft.public.office.setup news group would have a
suggestion.

SelfCert is an Office Tool not just confined to Excel.


Gord