CertStore VB.NET WinRT Reference Documentation

CertStore

Current Version: 9.5.0.90

Represents a collection of certificates. The certificates may be loaded from a PFX (PKCS#12) or from a Windows-based certificate store.

Many of the methods of this class are only applicable when running on a MS Windows operating system. The methods for opening, creating, and modifying Windows-based certificate stores (registry-based, file-based, and memory-based) are (of course) Windows-only. However, the methods for loading certs from PFX (PKCS#12), are valid on all supported operating systems, including Linux, MAC OS X, Windows, etc.

Object Creation

Dim obj As New Chilkat.CertStore()

Properties

AvoidWindowsPkAccess
AvoidWindowsPkAccess As Boolean

Applies only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system. If True, then any method that returns a certificate will not try to also access the associated private key, assuming one exists. This is useful if the certificate was installed with high-security such that a private key access would trigger the Windows OS to display a security warning dialog. The default value of this property is False.

top
DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

  1. a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
  2. the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
  3. there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

top
LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

top
LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (ReadOnly)

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

top
LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

top
LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.52

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of True indicates success, a value of False indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = True and failure = False.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to True. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

top
NumCertificates
NumCertificates As Integer (ReadOnly)

The number of certificates held in the certificate store.

top
SmartCardPin
SmartCardPin As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.86

Can be set to the PIN value for a certificate / private key stored on a smart card.

top
UncommonOptions
UncommonOptions As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

This is a catch-all property to be used for uncommon needs. This property defaults to the empty string, and should typically remain empty.

top
VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Boolean

If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

top
Version
Version As String (ReadOnly)

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.63"

top

Methods

FindCertByKeyContainer
Function FindCertByKeyContainer(ByVal name As String) As Cert
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Finds a certificate by it's key container name.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
FindCertByRfc822Name
Function FindCertByRfc822Name(ByVal name As String) As Cert

Locates and returns a certificate by its RFC 822 name.

If multiple certificates match, then non-expired certificates will take precedence over expired certificates. In other words, Chilkat will aways return the non-expired certificate over the expired certificate.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
FindCertBySerial
Function FindCertBySerial(ByVal str As String) As Cert

Finds and returns the certificate that has the matching serial number.

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
FindCertBySha1Thumbprint
Function FindCertBySha1Thumbprint(ByVal str As String) As Cert

Finds a certificate by it's SHA-1 thumbprint. The thumbprint is a hexidecimal string.

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
top
FindCertBySubject
Function FindCertBySubject(ByVal str As String) As Cert

Finds a certificate where one of the Subject properties (SubjectCN, SubjectE, SubjectO, SubjectOU, SubjectL, SubjectST, SubjectC) matches exactly (but case insensitive) with the passed string. A match in SubjectCN will be tried first, followed by SubjectE, and SubjectO. After that, the first match found in SubjectOU, SubjectL, SubjectST, or SubjectC, but in no guaranteed order, is returned. All matches are case insensitive.

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
FindCertBySubjectCN
Function FindCertBySubjectCN(ByVal str As String) As Cert

Finds a certificate where the SubjectCN property (common name) matches exactly (but case insensitive) with the passed string

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
FindCertBySubjectE
Function FindCertBySubjectE(ByVal str As String) As Cert

Finds a certificate where the SubjectE property (email address) matches exactly (but case insensitive) with the passed string. This function differs from FindCertForEmail in that the certificate does not need to match the ForSecureEmail property.

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
FindCertBySubjectO
Function FindCertBySubjectO(ByVal str As String) As Cert

Finds a certificate where the SubjectO property (organization) matches exactly (but case insensitive) with the passed string.

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
FindCertForEmail
Function FindCertForEmail(ByVal emailAddress As String) As Cert

(This method only available on Microsoft Windows operating systems.)
Finds a certificate that can be used to send secure email to the passed email address. A certificate matches only if the ForSecureEmail property is TRUE, and the email address matches exactly (but case insensitive) with the SubjectE property. Returns NULL if no matches are found.

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
GetCertificate
Function GetCertificate(ByVal index As Integer) As Cert

Returns the Nth certificate in the store. The first certificate is at index 0.

Returns Nothing on failure.

Returns Nothing on failure

top
LoadPemFile
Function LoadPemFile(ByVal pemPath As String) As Boolean

Loads the certificates contained within a PEM formatted file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

top
LoadPemStr
Function LoadPemStr(ByVal pemString As String) As Boolean

Loads the certificates contained within an in-memory PEM formatted string.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

top
LoadPfxData
Function LoadPfxData(ByVal pfxData As Byte(), ByVal password As String) As Boolean

Loads a PFX from an in-memory image of a PFX file. Once loaded, the certificates within the PFX may be searched via the Find* methods. It is also possible to iterate from 0 to NumCertficates-1, calling GetCertificate for each index, to retrieve each certificate within the PFX.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

top
LoadPfxFile
Function LoadPfxFile(ByVal pfxFilename As String, ByVal password As String) As Boolean

Loads a PFX file. Once loaded, the certificates within the PFX may be searched via the Find* methods. It is also possible to iterate from 0 to NumCertficates-1, calling GetCertificate for each index, to retrieve each certificate within the PFX.

Note: This method does not import certificates into the Windows certificate stores. The purpose of this method is to load a .pfx/.p12 into this object so that other API methods can be called to explore or search the contents of the PFX. The Chilkat Pfx class also provides similar functionality.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

top