Client Certificate data format

Here is the code:

 

 

'create a file name for the temporary storage of the certificate to disk and its converted form
                temp_file_name = "cert_PEM_" & Replace(Replace(DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay.ToString.Replace(".", "_"), ":", ""), " ", "") & ".cer"
                temp_output_file_name = "cert_DER_" & Replace(Replace(DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay.ToString.Replace(".", "_"), ":", ""), " ", "") & ".cer"
                file_save_result = SaveTextToFile(certificateContent, temp_file_name)
                'create a new process that runs the CRL utility to dump the CRL file contents to a text file
                CertConversion = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(certConversionBatchPath, temp_file_name & " " & temp_output_file_name)
                'wait until the process completes before continuing
                CertConversion.WaitForExit(1000)
                'close the process
                CertConversion.Close()
                CertConversion.Dispose()
                CertConversion = Nothing
                'using the created .cer file, load it as a certificate object
                cert = X509Certificates.X509Certificate.CreateFromCertFile(temp_output_file_name)
                'delete the temporary .cer file and its converted form
                File.Delete(temp_file_name)
                File.Delete(temp_output_file_name)

 

 

It depends on a free utility from Microsoft called CERTUTIL.EXE which you can Google and download. For some reason, I had problems in .NET calling CERTUTIL.EXE directly with the parameters, so I had to create a batch file with the following content:

 

 

CERTUTIL.EXE -decode -f %1 %2

 

 

Where %1 is the passed-in source filename and %2 is the passed-in output filename - so the code calls the batch file which then calls CERTUTIL.EXE