Generate Pfx Without Private Key

Exporting Your SSL Certificate from a Microsoft Server for Importing to Another Microsoft Server

Background

Windows servers use .pfx files that contain the public key file (SSL certificate file) and the associated private key file. DigiCert provides your SSL certificate file (public key file). You use your server to generate the associated private key file as part of the CSR.

You need both the public and private keys for an SSL certificate to function. So, if you need to transfer your SSL certificates from one server to another, you need to export is as a .pfx file.

Export Prerequisite

The PFX file is always password protected, as it contains the private key. When generating the file, choose the password wisely as it can protect your certificate from unauthorised use. Any attacker would be delighted, if the password for the file were “12345” – the faster they can obtain access to the certificate. I would like to obtain a trusted S/MIME certificate, but all the certificate authorities I have asked so far generate the keypair on their server, sign the certificate and send me both the private. Stack Exchange Network. Stack Exchange network consists of 175 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow. Nov 10, 2011  How to Generate A Public/Private SSH Key Linux By Damien – Posted on Nov 10, 2011 Nov 18, 2011 in Linux If you are using SSH frequently to connect to a remote host, one of the way to secure the connection is to use a public/private SSH key so no password is transmitted over the network and it can prevent against brute force attack.

May 15, 2015  This article will show you how to combine a private key with a.p7b certificate file to create a.pfx file on Windows Internet Information Server (IIS). These instructions presume that you have already used “Create Certificate Request” from within IIS to generate a private key and CSR on the server/laptop you are using. Is it possible to create a pfx file without import password? Or is it possible to remove the import password from pfx file that I've already created? Windows PFX certificate import: protect private key using virtualization-based security? How to convert my cert chain to PFX without a password. There is a very handy GUI tool written in java called portecle which you can use for creation of an empty PKCS#12 keystore and also for an import of the certificate without the private key into the PKCS#12 keystore - this functionality is available under 'Import trusted certificate (Ctrl-T)' button. Nov 09, 2019 A.PFX (Personal Information Exchange) file is used to store a certificate and its private and public keys. For example, if we need to transfer SSL certificate from one windows server to another, You can simply export it as.pfx file using IIS SSL export wizard or MMC console.

To create a .pfx file, the SSL certificate and its corresponding private key must be on the same computer/workstation. You may need to import the certificate to the computer that has the associated private key stored on it. (e.g., the laptop/desktop computer where you created the CSR) before you can successfully export it as a .pfx file.

For help importing the certificate, see SSL Certificate Importing Instructions: DigiCert Certificate Utility.

How to Export Your SSL Certificate w/Private Key Using the DigiCert Certificate Utility

These instructions explain how to export an installed SSL certificate from a Microsoft server and its corresponding private key as a .pfx file for importing to another server. If you need your SSL Certificate in Apache .key format, please see Export a Windows SSL Certificate to an Apache Server (PEM Format).

  1. On your Windows Server, download and save the DigiCert® Certificate Utility for Windows executable (DigiCertUtil.exe).

  2. Run the DigiCert® Certificate Utility for Windows (double-click DigiCertUtil).

  3. In the DigiCert Certificate Utility for Windows©, click SSL (gold lock), select the certificate that you want to export as a .pfx file, and then click Export Certificate.

  4. In the Certificate Export wizard, select Yes, export the private key, select pfx file, and then check Include all certificates in the certification path if possible, and finally, click Next.

    A .pfx file uses the same format as a .p12 or PKCS12 file.

    Note: If the Yes, export the private key option is grayed out (not unusable), the certificate's matching private key is not on that computer. This prevents you from being able to create the .pfx certificate file. To fix this problem, you will need to import the certificate to the same machine where the certificate's CSR was created. See Export Prerequisite.

  5. In the Password and Confirm Password boxes, enter and confirm your password, and then, click Next.

    Note: This password is used when you import this SSL certificate onto other Windows type servers or other servers or devices that accept a .pfx file.

  6. In the File name box, click … to browse for and select the location and file name where you want to save the .pfx file, provide a file name (i.e. mySSLCertificate), click Save, and then, click Finish.

  7. After you receive the 'Your certificate and key have been successfully exported' message, click OK.

Import PFX Certificate into Microsoft Windows Server and Configure it

To import your certificate to your server using the DigiCert Certificate Utility, you need to follow the instructions for that particular server type:

IIS 10Exchange 2013
IIS 8Exchange 2010
IIS 7Exchange 2007
IIS 6

Troubleshooting

/monster-hunter-generations-ultimate-village-key-quests-document.html. After importing your certificate on to the new server, if you run into certificate errors, try repairing your certificate trust errors using DigiCert® Certificate Utility for Windows. If this does not fix the errors, contact support.

Test Your Installation

To verify that the installation is correct, use our DigiCert® SSL Installation Diagnostics Tool and enter the DNS name of the site (e.g., www.yourdomain.com, or mail.yourdomain.com) that you are securing to test your SSL certificate.


Sometimes, when an SSL certificate is already installed on a Windows server, you may need to reinstall it on another Windows machine. This may be required when you have a Wildcard or a Multi-domain certificate, and the subdomains or different domains are hosted on different machines.

In this case, the certificate can be moved from one server to another in a PFX file. PFX is a common certificate format for Windows servers. The file in this format contains the certificate associated with its private key and, if applicable, intermediate certificates that sign the domain end-entity certificate. As a rule, it has a *.pfx or *.p12 extension. Basically, creating a PFX file is the only way to export a private key from a Microsoft Windows server on which the CSR code was generated.

Follow these steps to perform the certificate export:

Creating a .pfx file

Creating a .pfx file in MMC

Launch Microsoft Management Console. Press Win+R, type in mmc and press OK.

Click File and select the Add/Remove Snap-in option.

Click on Certificates in the list of Available snap-ins and then, on the Add button.

Select Computer account and click Next.

Choose Local Computer and click on the Finish button.

File

Click OK to add the certificate snap-in and get back to console.

Expand the Personal store in the left-side menu, and choose Certificates. Right-click on the certificate you want to export >> All Tasks >> Export.

This will run the Certificate Export Wizard.

Select Yes, export the private key.

If the radio button ‘Yes, export the private key’ is grayed out, it means that either the private key was not marked as exportable during the certificate request generation, or that you do not have the corresponding private key on the machine you are using.

Note: if you used IIS Manager certificate request wizard to generate the CSR code, the private key will be marked as exportable by default.

In this case, you will not be able to create a PFX file, only export the certificate without the private key. To have the opportunity to export the certificate to another machine, you will need to create a new CSR code marking the private key as exportable and perform a certificate reissue. Otherwise, you can generate a new CSR code for the same common name on the new machine and import the certificate to it after the reissue is completed.

With a COMODO (now Sectigo) certificate you can perform a reissue an unlimited amount of times for each server.

If you can export the private key, proceed to the next stage. The window Export File Format will have the format Personal Information Exchange – PKCS #12 (.PFX) selected. Please check Include all certificates in the certification path if possible to have the certificate exported with the chain of intermediate CA certificates into a .pfx file. Then click Next.

Note: do not choose ‘Delete the private key if the export is successful’.

Type and confirm password on the next window and click Next. Make sure you remember the password; it will be used later during the import of a .pfx file to a new server.

In the File to Export window select the name and location of the .pfx file to which the certificate and private key will be exported.

Click Finish to complete the export wizard. The certificate has been successfully imported.

Creating a .pfx file via OpenSSL

If there’s an OpenSSL client installed on the server, you can create PFX file out of a certificate in PEM format (.pem, .crt, .cer) or PKCS#7/P7B format (.p7b, .p7c) and the private key using the following commands.

PEM (.pem, .crt, .cer) to PFX

*where “more.crt” is the name of the CA Bundle file


PKCS7/P7B (.p7b, .p7c) to PFX

P7B file must be converted to PEM first:

Next, run:

*where “more.crt” is the name of the CA Bundle file

Import a .pfx file to a new machine

The certificate can be imported either using MMC or via Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

To perform the import using MMC, add the Certificate snap-in as it was described above, and right-click on Personal >> All Tasks >> Import

It will run the Certificate import wizard:

Select the .pfx file you want to import on your server, click Next.What is a key problem associated with electrical power generation.

Specify the certificate password you used when exporting the .pfx file. Optionally, you can check Mark this key as exportable to be able to export it from this server later. Then press the Next button.

On the Certificate store page check Automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certificate. This will place the certificates from the .pfx file into the corresponding folders.

Click Finish. The certificate wizard is completed and the certificate is imported to the new server successfully.

      • To import the certificate using IIS Manager, select the server you want to import the certificate to in the IIS Manager and double-click on Server Certificates.

Click on the Import button in the right-side Actions menu.

Select the certificate file and specify the .pfx password. Check Allow this certificate to be exported and click OK.

Create Pfx From Cer Without Private Key

After the certificate is imported either via IIS Manager, or using MMC, it will appear on the list of server certificates in IIS Manager. All you need to do now is to set up the bindings for the website. You can check the steps from this article for further information about the Bindings.