Digitally Signing an Access application (in Access 2003)

[Scott M. Lyon]

There is an existing Access 2002/XP application that I need to get working
under Access 2003. Unfortunately, we get numerous security warnings when we
try because the original application isn't digitally signed.


So I got a digital certificate, and have applied it to other Access 2002/XP
applications without a problem. However, for two applications in particular,
when I try to sign the application, it fails.


For each, it acts as if I can sign the application (in other words, it
doesn't give any errors right away), which is using the same certificate as
other applications that I've signed successfully.

However, when I go to save the application (either saving directly, or
compiling, or exiting Access), it fails with the following message:


There was a problem with the digital certificate. The VBA project could
not be signed. The signature will be discarded.


However, I believe the certificate is fine, as I have applied it to other
Access 2002/XP applications. In fact, as a test, I even created a blank
database and applied the certificate, and that worked too.


So what could be causing it to fail in this way?


Thanks!
-Scott M. Lyon

 

[Joan Wild]

So I got a digital certificate, and have applied it to other Access
2002/XP applications without a problem.

How exactly did you do this? There is no ability to sign in Access 2002.

 

[TC]

If your database is not secured, a waaaaaaaay easier method of
suppressing the security warnings, may be to use the automationsecurity
property. Google this group for posts from me, containing that term,
for more information.

HTH,
TC

 

[Scott M. Lyon]

How exactly did you do this? There is no ability to sign in Access 2002.

Yes, I had to use Access 2003 to add the signature... Unfortunately, when I
used Access 2003 to make the MDE, when I tried to run it under Access 2002,
it told me that the project was corrupt...

 

[Scott M. Lyon]

If your database is not secured, a waaaaaaaay easier method of
suppressing the security warnings, may be to use the automationsecurity
property. Google this group for posts from me, containing that term,
for more information.

HTH,
TC

I did search for that term, and it seems to reference the idea of lowering
Access security as to not get the warning messages.


Truth be told, that was my original plan - I already have a small
application (WinBatch) that starts the application, so I just modified it to
lower the Access security level, then run the program.

Then when the program would exit, it would put the security level back.


Unfortunately, this was a violation of our security policy, and I was told
to use a digital certificate instead.


The problem, is it needs to support both Access 2002 and 2003, but in such a
way as to not get all the security "warning" messages in 2003.

 

[TC]

Security policies often state that the macro security level of a pc,
must be set to high (or medium; but not low). That is quite
appropriate, imho. The oft-quoted suggestion to lower the general macro
security level to low, is unwise, again imho.

But, your IT people might not understand, that the automationsecurity
method /does not affect/ the pc's macro security level. It just tells
one specific instance of Access, to run at a lower level, for that
specific invocation. This has no affect on other Acces, Word, or other
Office programs on your pc.

The downside is, that my method uses a script. (There is no way to use
the automationsecurity property from a command-line.) And, if your
security policies are tight, they have probably disabled scripts.

If you go the certificate way, just be sure that your app does not do
anything (through code) that breaks the certificate! For example, I
/think/ (but am not sure) that modifying the sql of a stored query,
will break the certificate, & cause the warnings to start occurring
again.

Cheers,
TC