CertStore PureBasic Reference Documentation

CertStore

Current Version: 10.1.0

Represents a collection of certificates that can be loaded from various sources, including:

.pfx or .p12 file containing certificates and private keys.
PEM file containing multiple certificates and keys.
Windows Certificate Store
Apple Keychain (starting in version Chilkat v10.0.0)
Connected Smartcards and USB Tokens

Object Creation

obj.i = CkCertStore::ckCreate()

; Make sure to dispose of the object when finished like this:
CkCertStore::ckDispose(obj);

Properties

AvoidWindowsPkAccess

Declare.i ckAvoidWindowsPkAccess(obj.i)
Declare setCkAvoidWindowsPkAccess(obj.i, value.i)

Applies only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system. If 1, 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 0.

DebugLogFilePath

Declare.s ckDebugLogFilePath(obj.i)
Declare setCkDebugLogFilePath(obj.i, value.s)

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

More Information and Examples

Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.

LastErrorHtml

Declare.s ckLastErrorHtml(obj.i) ; (read-only)

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

LastErrorText

Declare.s ckLastErrorText(obj.i) ; (read-only)

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

More Information and Examples

Concept of LastErrorText LastErrorText Standard Information

LastErrorXml

Declare.s ckLastErrorXml(obj.i) ; (read-only)

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

LastMethodSuccess

Declare.i ckLastMethodSuccess(obj.i)
Declare setCkLastMethodSuccess(obj.i, value.i)

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: 1 means success, 0 means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages.

NumCertificates

Declare.i ckNumCertificates(obj.i) ; (read-only)

The number of certificates held in the certificate store.

SmartCardPin

Declare.s ckSmartCardPin(obj.i)
Declare setCkSmartCardPin(obj.i, value.s)

Introduced in version 9.5.0.86

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

UncommonOptions

Declare.s ckUncommonOptions(obj.i)
Declare setCkUncommonOptions(obj.i, value.s)

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.

VerboseLogging

Declare.i ckVerboseLogging(obj.i)
Declare setCkVerboseLogging(obj.i, value.i)

If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

Version

Declare.s ckVersion(obj.i) ; (read-only)

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

More Information and Examples

How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.

Methods

AddCertificate

Declare.i ckAddCertificate(obj.i, cert.i)

On Windows, this updates or adds cert to the open Windows certificate store.

Beginning with Chilkat v10.0.0, on macOS and iOS, this adds the certificate, including any private keys and intermediate CA certificates, to the Apple Keychain.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Import a PFX/P12 into the Windows Certificate Stores Apple Keychain - Import Pfx

CloseCertStore

Declare.i ckCloseCertStore(obj.i)

Introduced in version 9.5.0.94

This method closes any open certificate stores, removes all certificates from the object, and sets the NumCertificates property back to 0.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

CreateFileStore

Declare.i ckCreateFileStore(obj.i, filename.s)

This method, available only on Microsoft Windows, creates a new file-based certificate store. You can save certificates to this store by using the AddCertificate function.

Internally, the Microsoft function CertOpenStore is called with the provider type CERT_STORE_PROV_FILE and the flag CERT_STORE_CREATE_NEW_FLAG, to create a new, empty certificate store that is backed by a file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

CreateMemoryStore

Declare.i ckCreateMemoryStore(obj.i)

This method, available only on Microsoft Windows, creates an in-memory certificate store. Certificates may be added by calling AddCertificate.

Internally, the Microsoft function CertOpenStore is called with the provider type CERT_STORE_PROV_MEMORY to create a new in-memory certificate store. This store acts as a temporary container for managing certificates during runtime. The store exists only in memory and is not backed by a file or persistent storage. Certificates can be added, retrieved, or removed, but the store is lost when the application ends unless explicitly saved elsewhere.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

CreateRegistryStore

Declare.i ckCreateRegistryStore(obj.i, regRoot.s, regPath.s)

This method, available only on Microsoft Windows, creates a new registry-based certificate store. You can save certificates to this store by using the AddCertificate function.

Internally, the Microsoft function CertOpenStore is called with the provider type CERT_STORE_PROV_REG and a registry key to create a new, empty certificate store in the Windows registry.

regRoot can be the string "CurrentUser" or "LocalMachine". regPath is a registry key path such as "Software/MyApplication/Certificates".

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

FindCert

Declare.i ckFindCert(obj.i, json.i, cert.i)

Introduced in version 10.1.2

Searches for a certificate using the criteria in json and stores the result in cert. See the examples below for details.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Find Certificate by Subject CN (Common Name)Find Certificate by Serial Number Find Certificate by SHA1 Thumbprint Find Certificate by Email Address Find Certificate by Subject O (Organization)Find Certificate by Subject OU (Organizational Unit)

FindCertBySerial

Declare.i ckFindCertBySerial(obj.i, str.s)

This method is deprecated. It will be removed in a future version.

This method is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version. Use FindCert instead.

Returns 0 on failure

More Information and Examples

Find Certificate by Serial Number

FindCertBySha1Thumbprint

Declare.i ckFindCertBySha1Thumbprint(obj.i, str.s)

This method is deprecated. It will be removed in a future version.

This method is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version. Use FindCert instead.

Returns 0 on failure

More Information and Examples

Find Certificate by SHA1 Thumbprint

FindCertBySubjectCN

Declare.i ckFindCertBySubjectCN(obj.i, str.s)

This method is deprecated. It will be removed in a future version.

This method is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version. Use FindCert instead.

Returns 0 on failure

More Information and Examples

Find Certificate by Subject CN (Common Name)

FindCertBySubjectE

Declare.i ckFindCertBySubjectE(obj.i, str.s)

This method is deprecated. It will be removed in a future version.

This method is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version. Use FindCert instead.

Returns 0 on failure

More Information and Examples

Find Certificate by Email Address

FindCertBySubjectO

Declare.i ckFindCertBySubjectO(obj.i, str.s)

This method is deprecated. It will be removed in a future version.

This method is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version. Use FindCert instead.

Returns 0 on failure

More Information and Examples

Find Certificate by Subject O (Organization)

FindCertForEmail

Declare.i ckFindCertForEmail(obj.i, emailAddress.s)

This method is deprecated. It will be removed in a future version.

This method is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version. Use FindCert instead.

Returns 0 on failure

More Information and Examples

Find Certificate by Email Address

GetCert

Declare.i ckGetCert(obj.i, index.l, cert.i)

Introduced in version 10.1.2

Loads the Nth certificate into cert. The first certificate is at index 0.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Iterate over Certificates in a Certificate Store

GetCertificate

Declare.i ckGetCertificate(obj.i, index.l)

This method is deprecated. It will be removed in a future version.

Returns the Nth certificate from the store, with indexing starting at 0. This function is deprecated; please use GetCert instead, as demonstrated in the example below.

Returns 0 on failure

More Information and Examples

Iterate over Certificates in a Certificate Store

LoadPemFile

Declare.i ckLoadPemFile(obj.i, pemPath.s)

Loads the certificates contained within a PEM formatted file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

LoadPemStr

Declare.i ckLoadPemStr(obj.i, pemString.s)

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

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

LoadPfxBd

Declare.i ckLoadPfxBd(obj.i, bd.i, password.s)

Introduced in version 10.1.2

Loads the PFX/P12 bytes contained in bd. password is the password to the PFX.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

LoadPfxFile

Declare.i ckLoadPfxFile(obj.i, pfxFilename.s, password.s)

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Load PFX/P12 File into Certificate Store Object

OpenCurrentUserStore

Declare.i ckOpenCurrentUserStore(obj.i, readOnly.l)

On Windows, this method opens the Current-User\Personal certificate store in the registry. Set readOnly to 1 to open the store in read-only mode, which allows you to fetch certificates without adding or removing them. This prevents "permission denied" errors that require read-write access.

Starting in version 10.0.0, this method opens the Apple Keychain on MacOS and iOS systems. The readOnly is ignored.

After opening the store, you can search for certificates using the Find* methods. Alternatively, you can iterate through the certificates by indexing from 0 to NumCertificates-1, using GetCertificate to access each one.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

List Certificates in the Current User Certificate Store (Windows Only)Apple Keychain - List Certificates

OpenFileStore

Declare.i ckOpenFileStore(obj.i, filename.s, readOnly.l)

(This method only available on Microsoft Windows operating systems.)
Opens a file-based certificate store.

Once loaded, the certificates within the store may be searched via the Find* methods. An application may also iterate from 0 to NumCertficates-1 and call GetCertificate to access each certificate by index.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

OpenLocalSystemStore

Declare.i ckOpenLocalSystemStore(obj.i, readOnly.l)

(This method is only available on Microsoft Windows operating systems.)
Opens the registry-based Local-Computer\Personal certificate store. Set readOnly = 1 if only fetching certificates and not updating the certificate store (i.e. certificates will not be added or removed). Setting readOnly = 1 causes the certificate store to be opened read-only, and will prevent "permission denied" errors caused by the need for read-write permission.

Once loaded, the certificates within the store may be searched via the Find* methods. An application may also iterate from 0 to NumCertficates-1 and call GetCertificate to access each certificate by index.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

OpenRegistryStore

Declare.i ckOpenRegistryStore(obj.i, regRoot.s, regPath.s, readOnly.l)

(This method only available on Microsoft Windows operating systems.)
Opens an arbitrary registry-based certificate store. regRoot must be "CurrentUser" or "LocalMachine". regPath is a registry path such as "Software/MyApplication/Certificates".

Setting readOnly = 1 causes the certificate store to be opened read-only, and will prevent "permission denied" errors caused by the need for read-write permission.

Once loaded, the certificates within the store may be searched via the Find* methods. An application may also iterate from 0 to NumCertficates-1 and call GetCertificate to access each certificate by index.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

OpenSmartcard

Declare.i ckOpenSmartcard(obj.i, csp.s)

Introduced in version 10.1.2

This function identifies connected HSM devices such as smart cards and USB tokens, and loads the certificates from each device. It has been significantly enhanced in Chilkat v10.1.2 and is compatible with Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Linux. Android is not supported.

Note: If multiple HSM devices are connected, avoid setting the SmartCardPin property unless all devices share the same PIN. Otherwise, Chilkat will attempt to use that PIN for each device, which could cause issues.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Iterate over Certificates on Connected Smart Cards and USB Tokens Open Smartcard Certificate Store (or from USB Token)Apple Keychain - List Certs on Smartcards and USB Tokens

OpenWindowsStore

Declare.i ckOpenWindowsStore(obj.i, storeLocation.s, storeName.s, readOnly.l)

Introduced in version 9.5.0.49

(This method only available on Microsoft Windows operating systems.)
Opens a Microsoft Windows certificate store. storeLocation must be "CurrentUser" or "LocalMachine". storeName is the name of the certificate store to open. It may be any of the following:

AddressBook: Certificate store for other users.
AuthRoot: Certificate store for third-party certification authorities (CAs).
CertificationAuthority: Certificate store for intermediate certification authorities (CAs).
Disallowed: Certificate store for revoked certificates.
My: Certificate store for personal certificates.
Root: Certificate store for trusted root certification authorities (CAs).
TrustedPeople: Certificate store for directly trusted people and resources.
TrustedPublisher: Certificate store for directly trusted publishers.

Setting readOnly = 1 causes the certificate store to be opened read-only, and will prevent "permission denied" errors caused by the need for read-write permission.

Once loaded, the certificates within the store may be searched via the Find* methods. An application may also iterate from 0 to NumCertficates-1 and call GetCertificate to access each certificate by index.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Find a Certificate in the "Other People" Windows Certificate Store

RemoveCertificate

Declare.i ckRemoveCertificate(obj.i, cert.i)

(This method only available on Microsoft Windows operating systems.)
Removes the passed certificate from the store. The certificate object passed as the argument can no longer be used once removed.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.