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SSLStream example - how do I get certificates that work?

Asked 2012-04-02T19:49:56.500
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I'm using the SSLStream example from msdn here. The client code "seems" to work fine, as I can connect to google and it at least gets past authentication, but the server doesn't.

From the comments from the msdn page, I used the procedure on this page to generate my own private key, but it just doesn't work. I get an exception of System.NotSupportedException: The server mode SSL must use a certificate with the associated private key. So I'm pretty sure whatever I'm doing is wrong.

So my question is simple: how do I get/generate keys that will work for my own little example program from msdn? It can be self-signed, whatever, but I'm too new to SSL to even know what exactly I need. All I want to do is to run the example as-given, except for specifying my own certificates for my local server. And it'd be great to know what I'd have to install on my 2nd machine if I just want to communicate between the two of them too (so it's not a 100% localhost example).

Personally I see this as a flaw in the example document. It should say "to run this, you need to do A, B, C, etc," but it doesn't.

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You can get the example to work even with self-signed certificates. I've extracted the commands from the makecert tutorial that you're using with minor modifications:

makecert -sv RootCATest.pvk -r -n "CN=FakeServerName" RootCATest.cer
makecert -ic RootCATest.cer -iv RootCATest.pvk -n "CN=FakeServerName" -sv  TempCert.pvk -pe -sky exchange TempCert.cer
cert2spc TempCert.cer TempCert.spc
pvkimprt -pfx TempCert.spc TempCert.pvk

makecert and cert2psc can be found in your Microsoft SDKs\Window\v7.0A\Bin folder. The pvkImport.exe installer can be downloaded here (Provided by @Jospeph and VirusTotal verified). This used to be downloadable from the Microsoft Site, but they have since taken it down. Alternatively, @Dweeberly pointed us to a new Microsoft-provided replacement, pvk2pfx.

For this next step make sure that you select to EXPORT the private key when the dialog from pvkimprt comes up:

pvkimprt -pfx TempCert.spc TempCert.pvk

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pvkimprt will prompt you for a password when you elect to include the private key. You will need to provide this password later when you import the generated .pfx file into the personal store of your server machine

enter image description here

Next, import RootCATest.cer into your Computer store's Trusted Root Certification Authorities (on both the server and client). Notice that the certificate is issued to FakeServerName. This must match the server name that the SslTcpClient expects: sslStream.Authent

answered 2012-04-07T11:01:29.030

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