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c#asp.netx509certificate

How to retrieve all certificates in your X509Store

I am using the following code to retrieve all certificates in my PC from an asp.net webapp. The certificates collection is empty, and I can't understand why.

I tried impersonating my own user account and I didn't succeed as well. What am I doing wrong?

var store = new X509Store(StoreLocation.CurrentUser); //StoreLocation.LocalMachine fails too
var certificates = store.Certificates;
foreach (var certificate in certificates)
{
    var friendlyName = certificate.FriendlyName;
    Console.WriteLine(friendlyName);
}

//original problem: fetch a single certificate by its subject name
X509Certificate2 clientCertificate = CertificateUtility.GetCertificate(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser,  "CN=mypc.domainname"); //returns null :(
Solution

  • Add this line of code to the second line and see how it works:

    store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);

    and then this at the bottom :):

    store.Close();