(PowerShell) Find Certificate by Email Address

See more Cert Store Examples

In an X.509 certificate, an email address can typically be located in two places:

1. RFC822 Name (Subject Alternative Name extension) -
   • The certificate may include an email address in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) extension under the RFC822 Name field. This is a modern and preferred method because it allows for flexibility and alignment with security best practices.
   • To find it, Chilkat inspects the SAN extension in the certificate details.
2. Subject (Common Name or Email Address attribute) -
   • Older certificates may store the email address directly in the Subject field, typically under the Email Address attribute ("emailAddress") or, less commonly, the Common Name (CN).
   • This method is less preferred in modern standards but can still be encountered in legacy implementations. Chilkat also searches here for the email address.

Note: Requires Chilkat v10.1.2 or later.

Chilkat .NET Downloads Chilkat .NET Assemblies

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$certStore = New-Object Chilkat.CertStore

# This opens the Current User certificate store on Windows,
# On MacOS and iOS it opens the default Keychain.
$readOnly = $false
$success = $certStore.OpenCurrentUserStore($readOnly)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($certStore.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

# Find the certificate having the specified email address in either the RFC822 Name or in the Subject.
$json = New-Object Chilkat.JsonObject
$email_address = "joe@example.com"
$json.UpdateString("email",$email_address)

$cert = New-Object Chilkat.Cert
$success = $certStore.FindCert($json,$cert)
if ($success -eq $true) {
    # Show the full distinguished name of the certificate.
    $("Found: " + $cert.SubjectDN)
}
else {
    $("Not found.")
}