Acc2003 - Digital Signature for VBA project

[Brendan]

I am having trouble attaching a self-signed certificate
created using makecert to a VBA project. In the VB window
I go to Tools > Digital Signature... and do not see the
certificate listed. The certificate was created using the
command:

makecert -sv "dummy.pvk" -r -n "CN=dummy" -d "dummy"
dummy.cer

I have installed certificate and see it listed on the
Trusted Root Certification Authorities tab in Certificates
window (CntrlPanel > Users > Advanced).

I do not have this problem with certificate created by
selfcert. Before investing several hundred dollars to
purchase a certificate I want to get a better handle on
what needs to be done and how to do it. I suspect the
problem is with the creation or installation of the
certicate. Any assistance in this matter would be
appreciated.

 

[Paul Overway]

Create your certificate using selfcert....and use THAT certificate. Or set
macro security to low.

 

[Brendan]

Yes that works, but that is not a desireable/viable
solution for my situation. This is shared db which
resides on network and will be opened from multiple
workstations. Theoretically, we could tell our clients to
use selfcert to create a certificate on each workstation,
but even if they were willing to do this, our db security
prevents them from opening the VB project to add digital
certificate. So far we have required our few clients that
upgraded to Acc 2003 to set macro security to low/medium.
We can only get away with this for so long, hence we are
trying to explore other possibilities.

Any further information as to why the certificate created
with makecert is not appearing in the list is appreciated.

 

[Paul Overway]

You might want to buy a certificate then...a certificate generated using
selfcert is only good for the PC it was generated on. The alternative is to
create a certificate and distribute it via certificate server...but this may
not an option for you, if you are distributing to other companies. The
other alternative is to set macro security to low when your app is
installed....which is what I am doing.

Macro security in Access databases is assinine....and I expect that if
Microsoft gets enough complaints about it (and they probably are already
getting a lot), it will be removed. Nearly every Access database has forms,
reports, and code. Forcing everyone to pay $400 every 2 years for a
certificate will kill Access as a development platform. I am telling
customers to forgo any upgrade to Access 2003 (if possible) until this has
been resolved. Most are happy to comply, especially since 2003 offers so
little in respect to new functionality. For those that have Access 2003, I
tell them macro must be set to low.