certutil - Page 2 - Uwe Gradenegger

Restoring certificates from the SMTP Exit Module data

If you restore a certification authority from a backup after a disaster has occurred, you will probably find that certificates were issued in the period between the last backup and the system failure with corresponding data loss.

These certificates are now not stored in the restored certificate authority database, so they cannot be restored if needed.

If you are using the SMTP Exit Module, you can at least determine the serial numbers of the certificates from the sent e-mails and revoke them.

The local certificate store for trusted root certificate authorities is not synchronized from Active Directory

Assume the following scenario:

A certification authority hierarchy is established in the network and the root certification authority is mapped in the configuration partition of the Active Directory forest.
Domain members are configured to run the autoenrollment process to update trusted root certificate authorities from the Configuration partition.
However, this process does not work for some clients. The root CA certificates are not automatically downloaded and entered into the local trust store.
As a consequence certificate requests can failbecause, for example, the certification authority hierarchy is not trusted.

Troubleshooting for automatic certificate request (autoenrollment) via RPC/DCOM (MS-WCCE)

Assume the following scenario:

A certificate template is configured for automatic certificate request (autoenrollment).
The certificate template is published on a certification authority (Enterprise Certification Authority) integrated into Active Directory.
However, the users or computers configured for automatic Certificate Enrollment do not apply for certificates as intended.

The following is a troubleshooting guide.

No certificate is requested via autoenrollment if a user is connected via Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Assume the following scenario:

A user works remotely via Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Actually, a certificate should be requested via autoenrollment, but this is not done
A connection test (certutil -ping) to the certification authority throws the following error message:

Server could not be reached: The RPC server is unavailable. 0x800706ba (WIN32: 1722 RPC_S_SERVER_UNAVAILABLE) -- (31ms)

CertUtil: -ping command FAILED: 0x800706ba (WIN32: 1722 RPC_S_SERVER_UNAVAILABLE)
CertUtil: The RPC server is unavailable.

Revocation of an issued certificate fails with error message "The data is invalid. 0x8007000d (WIN32: 13 ERROR_INVALID_DATA)".

Assume the following scenario:

A certificate is revoked via the command line (certutil -revoke).
The operation fails with the following error message:

ICertAdmin::RevokeCertificate: The data is invalid. 0x8007000d (WIN32: 13 ERROR_INVALID_DATA)

Microsoft Outlook: Find out recipient certificates for S/MIME encrypted mails

For troubleshooting e-mail messages encrypted using Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), the encrypted part of a message can be exported. See article "Microsoft Outlook: Extracting an encrypted S/MIME message from an email„.

To find out with which certificates a message has been encrypted, you can proceed as follows...

Microsoft Outlook: View which algorithm was used for an S/MIME encrypted or signed email

Below is a description of where it is possible to view which symmetric algorithm was used to encrypt an email received, and which hash algorithm was used for a signed email.

Configure logging level for the certification authority event log.

Some Windows events generated by the certification authority are only generated from a certain logging level.

The following describes how to determine and change the logging level of a certification authority.

Windows Defender detects certutil as malware (Win32/Ceprolad.A)

Assume the following scenario:

One leads a Functional test for the Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Server (CEP) by.
For this, one uses a certutil command that uses Kerberos authentication, e.g.:

certutil -ping -kerberos -config "https://{Servername}/ADPolicyProvider_CEP_Kerberos/service.svc/CEP" CEP

The certutil command is incorrectly detected by Windows Defender or Windows Defenter Advanced Threat Protection as Win32/Ceprolad.A.

Perform functional test for a Certification Authority

After installing a certification authority, after migrating to a new server, or after more extensive maintenance work, an extensive functional test should be performed to ensure that all components of the certification authority are working as desired.

Publish a certificate revocation list (CRL) to an Active Directory revocation list distribution point (CDP).

Sometimes it is necessary for a certificate issued by a certification authority to be withdrawn from circulation even before its expiration date. To make this possible, a certification authority keeps a revocation list. This is a signed file with a relatively short expiration date, which is used in combination with the certificate to check its validity.

In some cases (for example, with an offline certificate authority, or if non-standard LDAP revocation list distribution points have been configured), the certificate revocation list must be manually published to Active Directory.

Create and publish a certificate revocation list

After a certificate has been revoked, a new revocation list must be created and published so that entities that check the revocation status are informed of the revocation. Since the revocation list has a relatively short expiration date, it must be reissued at regular intervals even if the content is not changed.

Revoking an issued certificate

When a certificate is revoked, its serial number is placed on the revocation list. Entities that check the revocation of a certificate then consider it to be no longer valid.