R – How to get a Domain Controller to give me a ClickOnce Certificate

certificateclickoncedns

I need to get hold of a new ClickOnce Certificate because my temporary one has expired. My applications are only used internally so I'd like to get a certificate from our Domain Controller so installation does not have a security prompt (and doesn't expire a quickly)

There are a number of Questions that come close to my issue:
Signing ClickOnce with a certificate? (Very close)
Visual Studio ClickOnce deployment – certificate expiration
How can I renew my expired ClickOnce certificate?

Best Answer

If your Domain Controller is already trusted, it seems very natural to simply start up Certificate Services on that DC and turn it into a CA. Once you get that set up, you will be able to request Code Signing certificates from the developer PCs through the Certificates Snap-in (MMC). The certificates will be in the name of the developer but we like that where I work because it conveys accountability.

BTW, we are running that exact same configuration at my company and it works like a charm.

Related Solutions

Visual-studio – Visual Studio ClickOnce deployment – certificate expiration

I found a blog entry, ClickOnce and Expiring Code Signing Certificates by James Harte, that describes a method to have your application remove itself and launch the new ClickOnce install. It worked for me.

How to generate a self-signed SSL certificate using OpenSSL

You can do that in one command:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -sha256 -days 365

You can also add -nodes (short for no DES) if you don't want to protect your private key with a passphrase. Otherwise it will prompt you for "at least a 4 character" password.

The days parameter (365) you can replace with any number to affect the expiration date. It will then prompt you for things like "Country Name", but you can just hit Enter and accept the defaults.

Add -subj '/CN=localhost' to suppress questions about the contents of the certificate (replace localhost with your desired domain).

Self-signed certificates are not validated with any third party unless you import them to the browsers previously. If you need more security, you should use a certificate signed by a certificate authority (CA).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Visual-studio – Visual Studio ClickOnce deployment – certificate expiration

How to generate a self-signed SSL certificate using OpenSSL

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