Cert ActiveX Reference Documentation

Cert

Current Version: 9.5.0.97

Digital certificate component / class

Object Creation

(ASP)
set obj = Server.CreateObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Cert")

(AutoIt)
$obj = ObjCreate("Chilkat_9_5_0.Cert")

(Visual Basic 6.0)
Dim obj As New ChilkatCert

(VBScript)
set obj = CreateObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Cert")

(Delphi)
obj := TChilkatCert.Create(Self);

(FoxPro)
loObject = CreateObject('Chilkat_9_5_0.Cert')

(PowerBuilder)
lole_object = create oleobject
li_rc = lole_object.ConnectToNewObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Cert")

(SQL Server)
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat_9_5_0.Cert', @obj OUT

(Javascript)
var obj = new ActiveXObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Cert");

Properties

AuthorityKeyId
AuthorityKeyId As String (read-only)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.40

The authority key identifier of the certificate in base64 string format. This is only present if the certificate contains the extension OID 2.5.29.35.

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AvoidWindowsPkAccess
AvoidWindowsPkAccess As Long

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.

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CertVersion
CertVersion As Long (read-only)

The version of the certificate (1, 2, or 3). A value of 0 indicates an error -- the most likely cause being that the certificate object is empty (i.e. was never loaded with a certificate). Note: This is not the version of the software, it is the version of the X.509 certificate object. The version of the Chilkat certificate software is indicated by the Version property.

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CspName
CspName As String (read-only)

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) If the HasKeyContainer property is 1, then the certificate is linked to a key container and this property contains the name of the associated CSP (cryptographic service provider). When a certificate is linked to a key container , the following properties will provide information about the key container and private key: CspName, KeyContainerName, MachineKeyset, and Silent.

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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.

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Expired
Expired As Long (read-only)

Has a value of 1 if the certificate or any certificate in the chain of authority has expired. (This information is not available when running on Windows 95/98 computers.)

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ExtendedKeyUsage
ExtendedKeyUsage As String (read-only)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Returns a string containing a comma separated list of keywords with the extended key usages of the certificate. The list of possible extended key usages are:

  • serverAuth - TLS WWW server authentication
  • clientAuth - TLS WWW client authentication
  • codeSigning - Signing of downloadable executable code
  • emailProtection - Email protection
  • timeStamping - Binding the hash of an object to a time
  • OCSPSigning - Signing OCSP responses

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ForClientAuthentication
ForClientAuthentication As Long (read-only)

1 if this certificate can be used for client authentication, otherwise 0.

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ForCodeSigning
ForCodeSigning As Long (read-only)

1 if this certificate can be used for code signing, otherwise 0.

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ForSecureEmail
ForSecureEmail As Long (read-only)

1 if this certificate can be used for sending secure email, otherwise 0.

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ForServerAuthentication
ForServerAuthentication As Long (read-only)

1 if this certificate can be used for server authentication, otherwise 0.

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ForTimeStamping
ForTimeStamping As Long (read-only)

1 if this certificate can be used for time stamping, otherwise 0.

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HasKeyContainer
HasKeyContainer As Long (read-only)

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) Indicates whether this certificate is linked to a key container. If 1 then the certificate is linked to a key container (usually containing a private key). If 0, then it is not.

When a certificate is linked to a key container , the following properties will provide information about the key container and private key: CspName, KeyContainerName, MachineKeyset, and Silent.

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IntendedKeyUsage
IntendedKeyUsage As Long (read-only)

Bitflags indicating the intended usages of the certificate. The flags are:
Digital Signature: 0x80
Non-Repudiation: 0x40
Key Encipherment: 0x20
Data Encipherment: 0x10
Key Agreement: 0x08
Certificate Signing: 0x04
CRL Signing: 0x02
Encipher-Only: 0x01

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IsRoot
IsRoot As Long (read-only)

1 if this is the root certificate, otherwise 0.

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IssuerC
IssuerC As String (read-only)

The certificate issuer's country.

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IssuerCN
IssuerCN As String (read-only)

The certificate issuer's common name.

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IssuerDN
IssuerDN As String (read-only)

The issuer's full distinguished name.

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IssuerE
IssuerE As String (read-only)

The certificate issuer's email address.

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IssuerL
IssuerL As String (read-only)

The certificate issuer's locality, which could be a city, count, township, or other geographic region.

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IssuerO
IssuerO As String (read-only)

The certificate issuer's organization, which is typically the company name.

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IssuerOU
IssuerOU As String (read-only)

The certificate issuer's organizational unit, which is the unit within the organization.

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IssuerS
IssuerS As String (read-only)

The certificate issuer's state or province.

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KeyContainerName
KeyContainerName As String (read-only)

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) If the HasKeyContainer property is 1, then the certificate is linked to a key container and this property contains the name of the key container.

When a certificate is linked to a key container , the following properties will provide information about the key container and private key: CspName, KeyContainerName, MachineKeyset, and Silent.

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LastBinaryResult
LastBinaryResult As Variant (read-only)

The binary data returned by the last (binary data returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large varbinary results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting large amounts of data returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for binary properties).

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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

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.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (read-only)

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.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

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.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Long

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of 1 indicates success, a value of 0 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 = 1 and failure = 0.
  • 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 1. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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LastStringResult
LastStringResult As String (read-only)

The string return value of the last (string returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large string results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting long strings returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for string properties).

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LastStringResultLen
LastStringResultLen As Long (read-only)

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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MachineKeyset
MachineKeyset As Long (read-only)

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) If the HasKeyContainer property is 1, then the certificate is linked to a key container and this property indicates whether the key container is in the machine's keyset or in the keyset specific to the logged on user's account. If 1, the key container is within the machine keyset. If 0, it's in the user's keyset.

When a certificate is linked to a key container , the following properties will provide information about the key container and private key: CspName, KeyContainerName, MachineKeyset, and Silent.

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OcspUrl
OcspUrl As String (read-only)

If present in the certificate's extensions, returns the OCSP URL of the certificate. (The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) is an Internet protocol used for obtaining the revocation status of an X.509 digital certificate.)

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PrivateKeyExportable
PrivateKeyExportable As Long (read-only)

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) Indicates whether the private key was installed with security settings that allow it to be re-exported.

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Revoked
Revoked As Long (read-only)

1 if the certificate or any certificate in the chain of authority has been revoked. This information is not available when running on Windows 95/98 computers. Note: If this property is 0, it could mean that it was not able to check the revocation status. Because of this uncertainty, a CheckRevoked method has been added. It returns an integer indicating one of three possible states: 1 (revoked) , 0 (not revoked), -1 (unable to check revocation status).

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Rfc822Name
Rfc822Name As String (read-only)

The RFC822 name of the certificate. (The RFC822 name is one part of the Subject Alternative Name extension of a certificate, if it exists. It is often the only part of the SAN.)

If the certificate contains a list of RFC822 names then this property will return the comma separated list of names.

Starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.85, to get the complete Subject Alternative Name extension as XML, use the SubjectAlternativeName property.

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SelfSigned
SelfSigned As Long (read-only)

1 if this is a self-signed certificate, otherwise 0.

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SerialDecimal
SerialDecimal As String (read-only)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.75

The certificate's serial number as a decimal string.

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SerialNumber
SerialNumber As String (read-only)

The certificate's serial number as a hexidecimal string.

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Sha1Thumbprint
Sha1Thumbprint As String (read-only)

Hexidecimal string of the SHA-1 thumbprint for the certificate. (This is the SHA1 hash of the binary DER representation of the entire X.509 certificate.)

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SignatureVerified
SignatureVerified As Long (read-only)

Returns 1 if the certificate and all certificates in the chain of authority have valid signatures, otherwise returns 0.

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Silent
Silent As Long (read-only)

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.)

If the HasKeyContainer property is 1, then the certificate is linked to a key container and this property indicates that the key container will attempt to open any keys silently without any user interface prompts.

When a certificate is linked to a key container , the following properties will provide information about the key container and private key: CspName, KeyContainerName, MachineKeyset, and Silent.

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SmartCardNoDialog
SmartCardNoDialog As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

If set to 1, then no dialog will automatically popup if the SmartCardPin is incorrect. Instead, the method requiring the private key on the smart card will fail. The default value of this property is 0, which means that if the SmartCardPin property is incorrect, a dialog with prompt will be displayed.

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SmartCardPin
SmartCardPin As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.75

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

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SubjectAlternativeName
SubjectAlternativeName As String (read-only)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

The subject alternative name (SAN) name of the certificate returned as XML. See the examples linked below.

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SubjectC
SubjectC As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's country.

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SubjectCN
SubjectCN As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's common name.

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SubjectDN
SubjectDN As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's full distinguished name.

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SubjectE
SubjectE As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's email address.

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SubjectKeyId
SubjectKeyId As String (read-only)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.40

The subject key identifier of the certificate in base64 string format. This is only present if the certificate contains the extension OID 2.5.29.14.

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SubjectL
SubjectL As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's locality, which could be a city, count, township, or other geographic region.

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SubjectO
SubjectO As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's organization, which is typically the company name.

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SubjectOU
SubjectOU As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's organizational unit, which is the unit within the organization.

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SubjectS
SubjectS As String (read-only)

The certificate subject's state or province.

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TrustedRoot
TrustedRoot As Long (read-only)

Returns 1 if the certificate has a trusted root authority, otherwise returns 0.

Note: As of version 9.5.0.41, the notion of what your application deems as trusted becomes more specific. The TrustedRoots class/object was added in v9.5.0.0. Prior to this, a certificate was considered to be anchored by a trusted root if the certificate chain could be established to a root (self-signed) certificate, AND if the root certificate was located somewhere in the Windows registry-based certificate stores. There are two problems with this: (1) it's a Windows-only solution. This property would always return 0 on non-Windows systems, and (2) it might be considered not a strong enough set of conditions for trusting a root certificate.

As of version 9.5.0.41, this property pays attention to the new TrustedRoots class/object, which allows for an application to specificallly indicate which root certificates are to be trusted. Certificates may be added to the TrustedRoots object via the LoadCaCertsPem or AddCert methods, and then activated by calling the TrustedRoots.Activate method. The activated trusted roots are deemed to be trusted in any Chilkat API method/property that needs to make this determination. In addition, the TrustedRoots object has a property named TrustSystemCaRoots, which defaults to 1, which allows for backward compatibility. It will trust CA certificates stored in the Windows registry-based certificate stores, or if on Linux, will trust certificates found in /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt.

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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.

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ValidFromStr
ValidFromStr As String (read-only)

The date (in RFC822 string format) that this certificate becomes (or became) valid. It is a GMT/UTC date that is returned.

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ValidToStr
ValidToStr As String (read-only)

The date (in RFC822 string format) that this certificate becomes (or became) invalid. It is a GMT/UTC date that is returned.

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Long

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.

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Version
Version As String (read-only)

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

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Methods

CheckRevoked
CheckRevoked() As Long

Returns 1 if the certificate has been revoked, 0 if not revoked, and -1 if unable to check the revocation status.

Note: This method is only implemented on Windows systems. It uses the underlying Microsoft CertVerifyRevocation Platform SDK function to check the revocation status of a certificate. (Search "CertVerifyRevocation" to get information about it.)

Non-Windows (and Windows) applications can send an OCSP request as shown in the example below.

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CheckSmartCardPin
CheckSmartCardPin() As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Verifies that the SmartCardPin property setting is correct. Returns 1 if correct, 0 if incorrect, and -1 if unable to check because the underlying CSP does not support the functionality.

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ExportCertDer
ExportCertDer() As Variant

Exports the digital certificate to ASN.1 DER format.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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ExportCertDerBd
ExportCertDerBd(cerData As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.70

Exports the digital certificate in ASN.1 DER format to a BinData object.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ExportCertDerFile
ExportCertDerFile(path As String) As Long

Exports the digital certificate to ASN.1 DER format binary file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ExportCertPem
ExportCertPem() As String

Exports the digital certificate to an unencrypted PEM formatted string.

Returns Nothing on failure

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ExportCertPemFile
ExportCertPemFile(path As String) As Long

Exports the digital certificate to an unencrypted PEM formatted file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ExportCertXml
ExportCertXml() As String

Exports a certificate to an XML format where the XML tags are the names of the ASN.1 objects that compose the X.509 certificate. Binary data is either hex or base64 encoded. (The binary data for a "bits" ASN.1 tag is hex encoded, whereas for all other ASN.1 tags, such as "octets", it is base64.)

Returns Nothing on failure

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ExportPrivateKey
ExportPrivateKey() As PrivateKey

Exports the certificate's private key.

Returns Nothing on failure

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ExportPublicKey
ExportPublicKey() As PublicKey

Exports the certificate's public key.

Returns Nothing on failure

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ExportToPfxBd
ExportToPfxBd(password As String, ByVal includeCertChain As Long, pfxData As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.70

Exports the certificate and private key (if available) to pfxData. The password is what will be required to access the PFX contents at a later time. If includeCertChain is 1, then the certificates in the chain of authority are also included in the PFX.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ExportToPfxData
ExportToPfxData(password As String, ByVal includeCertChain As Long) As Variant
Introduced in version 9.5.0.31

Exports the certificate and private key (if available) to an in-memory PFX image. The password is what will be required to access the PFX contents at a later time. If includeCertChain is 1, then the certificates in the chain of authority are also included in the PFX.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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ExportToPfxFile
ExportToPfxFile(pfxFilename As String, pfxPassword As String, ByVal bIncludeCertChain As Long) As Long

Exports the certificate and private key (if available) to a PFX (.pfx or .p12) file. The output PFX is secured using the pfxPassword. If bIncludeCertChain is 1, then the certificates in the chain of authority are also included in the PFX output file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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FindIssuer
FindIssuer() As ChilkatCert

Finds and returns the issuer certificate. If the certificate is a root or self-issued, then the certificate returned is a copy of the caller certificate. (The IsRoot property can be check to see if the certificate is a root (or self-issued) certificate.)

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetCertChain
GetCertChain() As ChilkatCertChain
Introduced in version 9.5.0.40

Returns a certficate chain object containing all the certificates (including this one), in the chain of authentication to the trusted root (if possible). If this certificate object was loaded from a PFX, then the certiicates contained in the PFX are automatically available for building the certificate chain. The UseCertVault method can be called to provide additional certificates that might be required to build the cert chain. Finally, the TrustedRoots object can be used to provide a way of making trusted root certificates available.

Note: Prior to v9.5.0.50, this method would fail if the certificate chain could not be completed to the root. Starting in v9.5.0.50, the incomplete certificate chain will be returned. The certificate chain's ReachesRoot property can be examined to see if the chain was completed to the root.

On Windows systems, the registry-based certificate stores are automatically consulted if needed to locate intermediate or root certificates in the chain. Chilkat searches certificate stores in the following order. See System Store Locations for more information.

  1. Current-User "CA" Certificate Store
  2. Local-Machine "CA" Certificate Store
  3. Current-User "Root" Certificate Store
  4. Local-Machine "Root" Certificate Store
  5. Current-User "MY" Certificate Store
  6. Local-Machine "MY" Certificate Store
  7. Current-User "ADDRESSBOOK" Certificate Store (if it exists)
  8. Local-Machine "ADDRESSBOOK" Certificate Store (if it exists)

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetEncoded
GetEncoded() As String

Returns a base64 encoded string representation of the certificate's binary DER format, which can be passed to SetFromEncoded to recreate the certificate object.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetExtensionAsText
GetExtensionAsText(oid As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.89

Returns the certificate extension data as a string. This method should only be called for those extensions with text values NOT stored as binary ASN.1. In most cases, applications should call GetExtensionAsXml because most extensions contain ASN.1 values that need to be decoded..

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetExtensionAsXml
GetExtensionAsXml(oid As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.49

Returns the certificate extension data in XML format (converted from ASN.1). The oid is an OID, such as the ones listed here: http://www.alvestrand.no/objectid/2.5.29.html

Note: In many cases, the data within the XML is returned base64 encoded. An application may need to take one further step to base64 decode the information contained within the XML.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetExtensionBd
GetExtensionBd(oid As String, bd As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

Returns the certificate extension data specified by oid in bd.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetPrivateKeyPem
GetPrivateKeyPem() As String

Exports the certificate's private key to a PEM string (if the private key is available).

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetPubKeyDer
GetPubKeyDer(ByVal preferPkcs1 As Long, bd As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.92

Loads the bd with the certificate's public key in ASN.1 DER format. If the key type (such as RSA) supports both PKCS1 and PKCS8 formats, then preferPkcs1 selects which format to return.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetSignature
GetSignature(bd As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.92

Loads the bd with the certificate's signature.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetSpkiFingerprint
GetSpkiFingerprint(hashAlg As String, encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.55

Returns the SPKI Fingerprint suitable for use in pinning. (See RFC 7469.) An SPKI Fingerprint is defined as the output of a known cryptographic hash algorithm whose input is the DER-encoded ASN.1 representation of the Subject Public Key Info (SPKI) of an X.509 certificate. The hashAlg specifies the hash algorithm and may be "sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "sha1", "md2", "md5", "haval", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320". The encoding specifies the encoding, and may be "base64", "hex", or any of the encoding modes specified in the article at the link below.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetSubjectPart
GetSubjectPart(partNameOrOid As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Returns a part of the certificate's subject by name or OID. The partNameOrOid can be a part name, such as "CN", "O", "OU", "E", "S", "L", "C", or "SERIALNUMBER", or it can be an OID such as "2.5.4.3".

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetValidFromDt
GetValidFromDt() As CkDateTime

Returns the date/time this certificate becomes (or became) valid.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetValidToDt
GetValidToDt() As CkDateTime

Returns the date/time this certificate becomes (or became) invalid.

Returns Nothing on failure

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HashOf
HashOf(part As String, hashAlg As String, encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.75

Returns an encoded hash of a particular part of the certificate. The part may be one of the following:

  • IssuerDN
  • IssuerPublicKey
  • SubjectDN
  • SubjectPublicKey

The hashAlg is the name of the hash algorithm, such as "sha1", "sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "md5", etc. The encoding is the format to return, such as "hex", "base64", etc.

Returns Nothing on failure

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HasPrivateKey
HasPrivateKey() As Long

Returns 1 if a private key associated with the certificate is available.

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LinkPkcs11
LinkPkcs11(session As ChilkatPkcs11) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

Links to the certificate's private key located on an HSM (smart card, token, or cloud HSM). Once linked, the certificate can be used for signing where the signing occurs on the HSM. See the example below for more detailed information.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadByCommonName
LoadByCommonName(cn As String) As Long

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) Searches the Windows Local Machine and Current User registry-based certificate stores for a certificate having the common name specified. If found, the certificate is loaded and ready for use.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadByEmailAddress
LoadByEmailAddress(emailAddress As String) As Long

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) Searches the Windows Local Machine and Current User registry-based certificate stores for a certificate containing the email address specified. If found, the certificate is loaded and ready for use.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadByIssuerAndSerialNumber
LoadByIssuerAndSerialNumber(issuerCN As String, serialNumber As String) As Long

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) Searches the Windows Local Machine and Current User registry-based certificate stores for a certificate matching the issuerCN and having an issuer matching the serialNumber. If found, the certificate is loaded and ready for use.

Note: The hex serial number should be uppercase. Starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.88, the hex serial number is case-insensitive.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadBySubjectOid
LoadBySubjectOid(oid As String, value As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) Searches the Windows Local Machine and Current User registry-based certificate stores for a certificate containing a subject part matching the oid and value.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadByThumbprint
LoadByThumbprint(thumbprint As String, encoding As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.83

(Relevant only when running on a Microsoft Windows operating system.) Searches the Windows Local Machine and Current User registry-based certificate stores for a certificate having an MD5 or SHA1 thumbprint equal to the thumbprint. The hash (i.e. thumbprint) is passed as a string using the encoding specified by encoding (such as "base64", "hex", etc.).

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFromBase64
LoadFromBase64(encodedCert As String) As Long

Loads an ASN.1 or DER encoded certificate represented in a Base64 string.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFromBd
LoadFromBd(certBytes As ChilkatBinData) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.70

Loads an X.509 certificate from data contained in certBytes.

Note: The certBytes may contain the certificate in any format. It can be binary DER (ASN.1), PEM, Base64, etc. Chilkat will automatically detect the format.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFromBinary
LoadFromBinary(data As Variant) As Long

Loads an X.509 certificate from ASN.1 DER encoded bytes.

Note: The data may contain the certificate in any format. It can be binary DER (ASN.1), PEM, Base64, etc. Chilkat will automatically detect the format.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFromFile
LoadFromFile(path As String) As Long

Loads a certificate from a .cer, .crt, .p7b, or .pem file. This method accepts certificates from files in any of the following formats:
1. DER encoded binary X.509 (.CER)
2. Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER)
3. Cryptographic Message Syntax Standard - PKCS #7 Certificates (.P7B)
4. PEM format
This method decodes the certificate based on the contents if finds within the file, and not based on the file extension. If your certificate is in a file having a different extension, try loading it using this method before assuming it won't work. This method does not load .p12 or .pfx (PKCS #12) files.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFromSmartcard
LoadFromSmartcard(csp As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Important: It's important to set the SmartCardPin property before calling this method.

Starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.87, the csp can be a string that specifies the certificate to be loaded by either Subject Common Name (CN) or hex serial number. For example, instead of passing a CSP name, your application would pass a string such as "CN=The cert subject common name" or "serial=01020304". See the linked examples below. If a certificate is specified by CN or Serial, then each connected smartcard and USB token is searched for the matching certificate. If the certificate is found, it is loaded and this method returns 1.

Otherwise, this method loads the X.509 certificate from the smartcard currently in the reader, or from a USB token.

If the smartcard contains multiple certificates, this method arbitrarily picks one.

If the csp does not begin with "CN=" or "serial=", then the csp can be set to the name of the CSP (Cryptographic Service Provider) that should be used. If csp is an empty string, then the 1st CSP found matching one of the following names will be used:

  • Microsoft Smart Card Key Storage Provider
  • Microsoft Base Smart Card Crypto Provider
  • Bit4id Universal Middleware Provider
  • YubiHSM Key Storage Provider (starting in v9.5.0.83)
  • eToken Base Cryptographic Provider
  • FTSafe ePass1000 RSA Cryptographic Service Provider
  • SecureStoreCSP
  • EnterSafe ePass2003 CSP v2.0
  • Gemalto Classic Card CSP
  • PROXKey CSP India V1.0
  • PROXKey CSP India V2.0
  • TRUST KEY CSP V1.0
  • Watchdata Brazil CSP V1.0
  • Luna Cryptographic Services for Microsoft Windows
  • Luna SChannel Cryptographic Services for Microsoft Windows
  • Safenet RSA Full Cryptographic Provider
  • nCipher Enhanced Cryptographic Provider
  • SafeSign Standard Cryptographic Service Provider
  • SafeSign Standard RSA and AES Cryptographic Service Provider
  • MySmartLogon NFC CSP
  • NFC Connector Enterprise
  • ActivClient Cryptographic Service Provider
  • EnterSafe ePass2003 CSP v1.0
  • Oberthur Card Systems Cryptographic Provider
  • Athena ASECard Crypto CSP"

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
(AutoIt) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Common Name(Classic ASP) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Common Name(PowerBuilder) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Common Name(SQL Server) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Common Name(VBScript) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Common Name(Visual Basic 6.0) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Common Name(Visual FoxPro) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Common Name(AutoIt) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Serial Number(Classic ASP) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Serial Number(PowerBuilder) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Serial Number(SQL Server) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Serial Number(VBScript) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Serial Number(Visual Basic 6.0) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Serial Number(Visual FoxPro) Load Certificate from Smart Card by Serial Number(AutoIt) Load Certificate from Smartcard in Reader (or from USB Token)(Classic ASP) Load Certificate from Smartcard in Reader (or from USB Token)(PowerBuilder) Load Certificate from Smartcard in Reader (or from USB Token)(SQL Server) Load Certificate from Smartcard in Reader (or from USB Token)(VBScript) Load Certificate from Smartcard in Reader (or from USB Token)(Visual Basic 6.0) Load Certificate from Smartcard in Reader (or from USB Token)(Visual FoxPro) Load Certificate from Smartcard in Reader (or from USB Token)(AutoIt) Sign String to create a CAdES-T Signature(Classic ASP) Sign String to create a CAdES-T Signature(PowerBuilder) Sign String to create a CAdES-T Signature(SQL Server) Sign String to create a CAdES-T Signature(VBScript) Sign String to create a CAdES-T Signature(Visual Basic 6.0) Sign String to create a CAdES-T Signature(Visual FoxPro) Sign String to create a CAdES-T Signature
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LoadPem
LoadPem(strPem As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.49

Loads the certificate from a PEM string.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadPfxBd
LoadPfxBd(pfxData As ChilkatBinData, password As String) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.70

Loads the certificate from the PFX contained in pfxData. Note: If the PFX contains multiple certificates, the 1st certificate in the PFX is loaded.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadPfxData
LoadPfxData(pfxData As Variant, password As String) As Long

Loads a PFX from an in-memory image of a PFX file. Note: If the PFX contains multiple certificates, the 1st certificate in the PFX is loaded.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadPfxFile
LoadPfxFile(pfxPath As String, password As String) As Long

Loads a PFX file. Note: If the PFX contains multiple certificates, the 1st certificate in the PFX is loaded.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadTaskResult
LoadTaskResult(task As ChilkatTask) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.52

Loads the certificate from a completed asynchronous task.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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PemFileToDerFile
PemFileToDerFile(fromPath As String, toPath As String) As Long

Converts a PEM file to a DER file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SaveToFile
SaveToFile(path As String) As Long

Saves a certificate object to a .cer file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetCloudSigner
SetCloudSigner(json As ChilkatJsonObject) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

Provides information for a cloud signing service to do the signing via a remote signing server. Current supported services are AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, and ARSS (Aruba Remote Signing Service). See the examples below.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetFromEncoded
SetFromEncoded(encodedCert As String) As Long

Initializes the certificate object from a base64 encoded string representation of the certificate's binary DER format.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetPrivateKey
SetPrivateKey(privKey As PrivateKey) As Long

Used to associate a private key with the certificate for subsequent (PKCS7) signature creation or decryption.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetPrivateKeyPem
SetPrivateKeyPem(privKeyPem As String) As Long

Same as SetPrivateKey, but the key is provided in unencrypted PEM format. (Note: The privKeyPem is not a file path, it is the actual PEM text.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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UploadToCloud
UploadToCloud(jsonIn As ChilkatJsonObject, jsonOut As ChilkatJsonObject) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

This is an open-ended method to accomodate uploading the private key to a cloud service, such as AWS KMS, or Azure Key Vault. For details, see the examples below.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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UploadToCloudAsync (1) (2) (AutoIt) (Classic ASP) (PowerBuilder) (SQL Server) (VBScript) (Visual Basic 6.0) (Visual FoxPro)
UploadToCloudAsync(jsonIn As ChilkatJsonObject, jsonOut As ChilkatJsonObject) As ChilkatTask
Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UploadToCloud method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UseCertVault
UseCertVault(vault As ChilkatXmlCertVault) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.40

Adds an XML certificate vault to the object's internal list of sources to be searched for certificates for help in building certificate chains and verifying the certificate signature to the trusted root.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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VerifySignature
VerifySignature() As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.40

Verifies the certificate signature, as well as the signatures of all certificates in the chain of authentication to the trusted root. Returns 1 if all signatures are verified to the trusted root. Otherwise returns 0.

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X509PKIPathv1
X509PKIPathv1() As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Returns the base64 representation of an X509PKIPathv1 containing just the calling certificate. This is typically used in an X.509 Binary Security Token. It is a PKIPath that contains an ordered list of X.509 public certificates packaged in a PKIPath. The X509PKIPathv1 token type may be used to represent a certificate path. (This is sometimes used in XAdES signatures.)

Returns Nothing on failure

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Events

AbortCheck
AbortCheck(abort As Long)

Provides the opportunity for a method call to be aborted. The AbortCheck event is fired periodically based on the value of the HeartbeatMs property. If HeartbeatMs is 0, then no AbortCheck events will fire. As an example, to fire 5 AbortCheck events per second, set the HeartbeatMs property equal to 200.

VB6 Event callback implementation:

Important: Event callbacks from asynchronous method calls are generally not possible from the ActiveX. See VB6 Async Callbacks

Dim WithEvents myCert As ChilkatCert

Private Sub myCert_AbortCheck(abort As Long)

	'Insert application code here.

End Sub
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PercentDone
PercentDone(ByVal pctDone As Long, abort As Long)

Provides the percentage completed for any method that involves network communications or time-consuming processing (assuming it is a method where a percentage completion can be measured). This event is only fired when it is possible to know a percentage completion, and when it makes sense to express the operation as a percentage completed. The pctDone argument will have a value from 1 to 100. For operations (Chilkat method calls) that complete very quickly, the number of PercentDone callbacks will vary, but the final callback should have a value of 100. For long running operations, no more than one callback per percentage point will occur (for example: 1, 2, 3, ... 98, 99, 100).

The PercentDone callback counts as an AbortCheck event. For method calls that complete quickly such that PercentDone events fire, it may be that AbortCheck events don't fire because the opportunity to abort is already provided in the PercentDone callback. For time consuming operations, where the amount of time between PercentDone callbacks are long, AbortCheck callbacks may be used to allow for the operation to be aborted in a more responsive manner.

The abort output argument provides a means for aborting the operation. Setting it to 1 will cause the method to abort and return a failed status (or whatever return value indicates failure).

VB6 Event callback implementation:

Important: Event callbacks from asynchronous method calls are generally not possible from the ActiveX. See VB6 Async Callbacks

Dim WithEvents myCert As ChilkatCert

Private Sub myCert_PercentDone(ByVal pctDone As Long, abort As Long)

	'Insert application code here.

End Sub
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ProgressInfo
ProgressInfo(ByVal name As String, ByVal value As String)

A general name/value event that provides information about what is happening during a method call. To find out what information is available, write code to handle this event and log the name/value pairs. Most are self-explanatory.

VB6 Event callback implementation:

Important: Event callbacks from asynchronous method calls are generally not possible from the ActiveX. See VB6 Async Callbacks

Dim WithEvents myCert As ChilkatCert

Private Sub myCert_ProgressInfo(ByVal name As String, ByVal value As String)

	'Insert application code here.

End Sub
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