Can't install Thawte Certificate using Account Settings

B

bobinsky

Hi, all. I just got a Thawte Certificate and imported it into MS
Certificat Manager. The certificate name is one of my email
IDs/accounts, and I'm trying to add it via the Account
Settings/Security tab. When I pull up the dialog it says (of course)
"no certificate selected" and when I when I click "select" (a) the
dropdown menu only lists "None" as and option and when I click "Choose"
the dialog just disappears. The certificate is in my keychain and
valid; I thought maybe it couldn't be found so I exported it to my
Desktop, hoping I could "Choose" it there. But, again, the "Choose"
just closes the dialog. Any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

Eric
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

Hi, all. I just got a Thawte Certificate and imported it into MS
Certificat Manager. The certificate name is one of my email
IDs/accounts, and I'm trying to add it via the Account
Settings/Security tab. When I pull up the dialog it says (of course)
"no certificate selected" and when I when I click "select" (a) the
dropdown menu only lists "None" as and option and when I click "Choose"
the dialog just disappears. The certificate is in my keychain and
valid; I thought maybe it couldn't be found so I exported it to my
Desktop, hoping I could "Choose" it there. But, again, the "Choose"
just closes the dialog. Any suggestions. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


What version of the system do you have ?? You could import the cert in
the keychain direcly (just double-click it in the Finder) if you are in
10.3 or 10.4. THe cert is then accessible in Entourage as well (I just
renewed all my certs for all my e-mail accounts and that's how I
proceeded).

Corentin
 
B

bobinsky

Merci, Corentin! I am running Tiger (10.4), but so far have been
unable to do as you suggest. The certs are imported into the keychain
correctly, but they do not appear in the Entourage "Select" or "Choose"
options under Account Settings. I'll have to keep trying...!
Eric
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

Merci, Corentin! I am running Tiger (10.4), but so far have been
unable to do as you suggest. The certs are imported into the keychain
correctly, but they do not appear in the Entourage "Select" or "Choose"
options under Account Settings. I'll have to keep trying...!
Click to expand...

Perhaps you don't have a "Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA" also in
Keychain Access. That's a root certificate that needs to be in the X.509
Anchors. I _think Apple includes it, but maybe you have to add it: that's
quite complicated. Do you have it already in Keychain Access?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
B

bobinsky

Paul- I checked and I've got "Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA" and
"Thawte Code Signing CA" (as well as my "[email protected]" cert)
listed under Certificates in the Keychain Access list (personal and
X509). They expire in 2013.

FWIW, I imported the Thawte cert into MS Certificate Manager, sort of
trying to follow the Entourage info dialogs. The two Thawte CA's show
up under "Microsoft_Intermediate_Certificates" and my personal cert
under "Microsoft_Entity_Certificates". Seems to me that last should
make things work, but still, nothing shows up in the dropdown list when
I try to select a certificate, and "Choose" just make the dialog go
away. This occurs for any of my accounts.

PS- interestingly, the Thawte Issuing CA certs listed under my personal
keychain expire in 2013, but the ones with the same names listed under
X509 expire in 2020-- different certs, apparently. Could this be an
issue?

Thanks for your assistance!

Best,
Eric
 
B

bobinsky

I just had another thought: my "Microsoft User Data" folder is in my
"Documents" folder that actually resides on an external Lacie drive. I
have a "Documents" alias in my home directory. Doesn't seem that this
would be a problem, but...
Eric
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

Hi Eric,
I just had another thought: my "Microsoft User Data" folder is in my
"Documents" folder that actually resides on an external Lacie drive. I
have a "Documents" alias in my home directory. Doesn't seem that this
would be a problem, but...
Eric
Click to expand...

That's not the problem. Could you double-chek that n "My certificates"
in Keychain access" you indeed see the proper cert for the address you
want ?? Two of the addresses I was trying to update yesterday were
really a pain to get to work. I used Mozilla to export the cert and I
think there was something fishy with the resulting file. I couldn't get
the certs in my keychain. I ended up imp[orting the certs from IE on a
PC and then I had no problem getting the cert in the keychain (and
Entourage).

It should also appear in the Microsoft Cert Manager (if you have Office
2004)

Corentin
 
B

bobinsky

Interesting-- I used Firefox, which should work like Mozilla. As I
pointed out in my response to Paul, the address
"[email protected]" does appear correctly in the My Certificates
and in the MS Certificate Manager. I think I'll try what you did:
import using IE on my PC then see what happens.

Also, just in case anyone else is interested, I did temporarily move my
Documents folder back to my startup drive and it made no difference.

And I am using Office 2004.

Thanks,
Eric
 
B

bobinsky

Paul & Corentin, many thanks for your help. I resolved the problem.
Corentin's remark about browsers gave me an idea. Apparently, the
"backup certificate" function in my 1.0.3 version of Firefox (which I
had installed under OSX 10.3) was not working correctly. On a hunch, I
installed Firefox 1.0.4 and requested a new certificate. This time I
backed it up and imported it into the Keychain. Everything LOOKS
precisely the same, except that this time Entourage recognized it and I
was able to set my account option correctly.

I don't know WHY this worked, of course, but it did. Again, many
thanks for your help!

Best regards,
Eric
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

Also, just in case anyone else is interested, I did temporarily move my
Documents folder back to my startup drive and it made no difference.
Click to expand...

My User folder has been on a secondary partition since the first days of
MacOS X and it worked fine for me. I don't see how that could have been
the issue (not that other issues might arise - but not this one).


Corentin
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

Everything LOOKS
precisely the same, except that this time Entourage recognized it and I
was able to set my account option correctly.
Click to expand...

Wonderful, I'm quite glad it finally worked. Thanks for posting the
solution back in the newsgroup,


Corentin
 
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