Problem with digital certificate

[Stan Brown]

(Office 2003 Professional)

I created a digital certificate for myself a few days ago, so that I
could sign my own macros and not get the macro warning when I open my
workbook. It worked fine for a few days, but now it's stopped
working.

The first symptom this morning was that when I opened my workbook a
message displayed my certificate name and something to the effect of
"You should not trust macros from this publisher". No problem, I
thought, I'll just re-sign the VBA.

When I tried that, the actual signing went fine but on saving the
workbook I got "There was a problem with the digital certificate. The
VBA project could not be signed. The signature will be discarded."
(exact text) When I closed and reopened the workbook, I got the macro
warning and when I checked I found the VBA was no longer signed.

I thought this might just be a problem with this workbook, so I did a
copy/paste of the VBA to a new workbook's VBA module. (I copied the
VBA by highlighting all the code and doing Ctrl-C, not by copying the
modules in the Explorer-style pane of the VB Editor.) Same problem:
I could sign the new book but got the above message on saving.

Okay, so I tried to create myself a new certificate. (Microsoft
Office Tools > Digital Certificate for VBA). This time I get "An
error occurred during certificate creation. Selfcert was unable to
create your certificate." (exact text)

Neither of those messages is very helpful about how to remedy the
problem. I've only signed two workbooks at this point, so I don't
mind starting over if that's the easiest way. Advice?

 

[Bob Flanagan]

For what its worth: I just created a certificate using the Office tools and
signed a vb project in Excel 2003. I then took it to another PC which has
2007 and opened it. Excel 2007 said that the certificate was invalid (it
works fine on the Excel 2003 PC) and gave no option to enable macros.

Bob Flanagan
Macro Systems
http://www.add-ins.com
Productivity add-ins and downloadable books on VB macros for Excel

 

[Gord Dibben]

Stan

Have a go at changing the DC to a Trusted Certifiicate.

With Excel closed......................

Start>Run "mmc" to open the Microsoft Management Console.

File>Add/Remove Snap-in. Select Certificates snap-in.

Expand and open Personal Certificates folder.

Select your SelfCert DC and drag it to the Trusted Root
Certificates>Certificates folder.

Close MMC...........you can save changes to Comsole1.msc if you choose, but not
necessary unless you want the snap-in to stay loaded.

Now open Excel and your workbook.

Any difference?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Stan Brown]

Thanks, Gord.

Maybe this is the problem: the certificate shows up both in Personal
and in Trusted Root.

Should I delete one or both of them?

Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/


Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:25:49 -0700 from <Gord Dibben