Programmatically adding certificate to personal store

Question

The project that I'm working on consists of an MVC website talking to WCF web services, authenticated by windows identity. I have a certificate for identity delegation that I'm trying to add programmatically. To do it manually I open the certificates snap-in in mmc, import the .pfx file into Personal and enter the password. I then have to click on manage private keys and allow permission to IIS_IUSRS. To replicate this process I've come up with the following console app:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var cert = new X509Certificate2("location.pfx", "password", X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet);
        AddCert(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.LocalMachine, cert);
        AddAccessToCertificate(cert, "IIS_IUSRS");
    }

    private static void AddCert(StoreName storeName, StoreLocation storeLocation, X509Certificate2 cert)
    {
        X509Store store = new X509Store(storeName, storeLocation);
        store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadWrite);
        store.Add(cert);
        store.Close();
    }

    private static void AddAccessToCertificate(X509Certificate2 cert, string user)
    {
        RSACryptoServiceProvider rsa = cert.PrivateKey as RSACryptoServiceProvider;

        if (rsa != null)
        {
            string keyfilepath =
                FindKeyLocation(rsa.CspKeyContainerInfo.UniqueKeyContainerName);

            FileInfo file = new FileInfo(keyfilepath + "\\" +
                rsa.CspKeyContainerInfo.UniqueKeyContainerName);

            FileSecurity fs = file.GetAccessControl();

            NTAccount account = new NTAccount(user);
            fs.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(account,
            FileSystemRights.FullControl, AccessControlType.Allow));

            file.SetAccessControl(fs);
        }
    }
    private static string FindKeyLocation(string keyFileName)
    {
        string text1 =
        Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);
        string text2 = text1 + @"\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys";
        string[] textArray1 = Directory.GetFiles(text2, keyFileName);
        if (textArray1.Length > 0)
        {
            return text2;
        }
        string text3 =
        Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
        string text4 = text3 + @"\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\";
        textArray1 = Directory.GetDirectories(text4);
        if (textArray1.Length > 0)
        {
            foreach (string text5 in textArray1)
            {
                textArray1 = Directory.GetFiles(text5, keyFileName);
                if (textArray1.Length != 0)
                {
                    return text5;
                }
            }
        }
        return "Private key exists but is not accessible";
    }
}

Unfortunately this gives the error:

The address of the security token issuer is not specified. An explicit issuer address must be specified in the binding for target 'https://service.svc' or the local issuer address must be configured in the credentials.

I recognise that I have a large knowledge gap with this stuff so I'd appreciate some guidance!

My question is, what's the difference between my manual and automated process?

Answer 1

This line:

var cert = new X509Certificate2("location.pfx", "password", X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet);

should have been

var cert = new X509Certificate2("location.pfx", "password", X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet | X509KeyStorageFlags.PersistKeySet);

It was X509KeyStorageFlags.PersistKeySet that was missing.

I got some helpful information on certificates from here.