Creating a private key to sign a PowerShell Script with makecert is no longer possible?

[olspookishmagus]

Hello.

I'm struggling to create a private key in order then to use to sign a PowerShell Script and I would really use some help on this.

Firstly I wanted to be able to run PowerShell scripts without having to lower PowerShell's Execution-Policy and in order to do that one should have to be able to sign scripts.

Therefore and after installing the Windows SDK I'm trying to create a private key (and then a certificate) in order to be able to sign scripts.

But this fails likewise:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin>makecert -n "CN=PowerShell Local Certificate Root" -a sha1 -eku 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.3 -r -sv root.pvk root.cer -ss Root -sr localMachine
Error: Can't create the key of the subject ('root.pvk')
Failed

And so I've begun trying to debug this, with no success.

So far I've checked with these:

• I checked with makecert's documentation to check whether the command parameters are correct
• executed the command from within a non-special directory
• executed the command as the local Administrator user
• executed the command from an "elevated" Command Prompt or an "elevated" PowerShell
• made sure the security permissions for _ALL_ the Crypto/RSA directories are set as indicated

If you have any ideas or you would like to share your insights or have me walk again over again something I've already tried/mentioned please feel free to comment.

Thanks in advance.

 

[olspookishmagus]

OK, this has been resolved following some guidance receive in another community I cross-posted this to and now the least I can do for it is to update this thread with the solution along with my apologies.

As it seems, the makecert I was trying to execute that command was not the correct one. The correct one comes bundled with the Windows SDK I've already linked and it has version: 6.1.7600.16385 and SHA1SUM: 7fd7f36b5acbe69de6c966b397341fd1ddbb04a1.

With that particular makecert the above command with those options (and even more advanced ones) are being carried out flawlessly.