VB.NET

Set the Signing Certificate for an Email

Demonstrates the Chilkat Email.SetSigningCert method, which sets the certificate (with access to its private key) used to create a digital signature when sending signed email. This example loads the signing certificate from a PFX, sets it, and enables signed sending.

Background: Signing uses your own private key (the opposite of encrypting, which uses the recipient's public key), so the signing certificate must include private-key access. A PFX (PKCS#12) file bundles the certificate and its private key together, which is why it is loaded here with LoadPfxFile. If the certificate and key are in separate files, use SetSigningCert2 instead.

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Dim success As Boolean = False

'  Demonstrates the SetSigningCert method, which sets the certificate (with access to its
'  private key) used for creating a digital signature when sending signed email.

Dim email As New Chilkat.Email
email.Subject = "Signed email"
email.Body = "This message will be sent with a digital signature."
email.From = "alice@example.com"
email.AddTo("Bob","bob@example.com")

'  Load a signing certificate together with its private key from a PFX file.
Dim cert As New Chilkat.Cert
success = cert.LoadPfxFile("qa_data/certs/signer.pfx","pfx_password")
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(cert.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


'  Set the certificate used to create the signature.
success = email.SetSigningCert(cert)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


'  Request that the email be sent with a digital signature.
email.SendSigned = True

Debug.WriteLine("Signing certificate set.")

'  Note: The path "qa_data/certs/signer.pfx" is a relative local filesystem path,
'  relative to the current working directory of the running application.