(Visual Basic 6.0) PKCS11 Find Specific Certificate on Smart Card or USB Token

See more PKCS11 Examples

This example code shows how to find a particular certificate on a smart card or USB token.

Note: This example requires Chilkat v9.5.0.88 or later.

Chilkat ActiveX Downloads ActiveX for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows

' This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
' See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

' Note: Chilkat's PKCS11 implementation runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and other supported operating systems.

Dim pkcs11 As New ChilkatPkcs11

' Set your shared lib path -- either a full path to the DLL, .so, or .dylib,
' or just the filename if the driver is in a location that can be automatically found. (Such as in C:\Windows\System32)
pkcs11.SharedLibPath = "C:/Program Files (x86)/Gemalto/IDGo 800 PKCS#11/IDPrimePKCS1164.dll"

Dim success As Long
success = pkcs11.Initialize()
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print pkcs11.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Pass -1 for the slotID to open a session on the first non-empty slot.
Dim slotID As Long
slotID = -1

' Open a session.
Dim readWrite As Long
readWrite = 1
success = pkcs11.OpenSession(slotID,readWrite)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print pkcs11.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Make it an authenticated session by calling Login.
' 
' If we don't authenticate, then we won't be able to see the private keys, and thus
' we won't know which certificates have an associated private key stored on the smart card.

' The smart card PIN is passed to the Login method.
' userType 1 indicates a "Normal User".
Dim userType As Long
userType = 1
Dim pin As String
pin = "0000"
success = pkcs11.Login(userType,pin)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print pkcs11.LastErrorText
    success = pkcs11.CloseSession()
    Exit Sub
End If

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------
' The FindCert method can find a particular certificate in a number of different ways.
' I'll demonstrate some common ways..

' 1) In many cases you'll be working with a smart card that contains one certificate that is to be used for 
' signing, and it is the certificate that is associated with the private key also stored on the smart card (or USB token).
' There may be other certificates on the card, but these are the issuer certificates in the chain of authentication.
' You're just interested in getting the certificate with the private key.
' You can do it like this:
Dim cert As New ChilkatCert
' Pass the keyword "privateKey" in the 1st argument, and an empty string in the 2nd arg.
' This returns the 1st certificate that has a private key.
success = pkcs11.FindCert("privateKey","",cert)
If (success = 1) Then
    Debug.Print "Cert with private key: " & cert.SubjectCN
Else
    Debug.Print "No certificates having a private key were found."
End If

' 2) Find a certificate by the Subject Common Name
success = pkcs11.FindCert("subjectCN","Chil application account (8c9be8e0-5544-4cd0-9062-290fbff353a7)",cert)
If (success = 1) Then
    Debug.Print "Found: " & cert.SubjectCN
Else
    Debug.Print "Not found: " & cert.SubjectCN
End If

' 3) Find a certificate by hex serial number
success = pkcs11.FindCert("serial","5087bf1feda006af54a02f23a851104948acc26f",cert)
If (success = 1) Then
    Debug.Print "Found: " & cert.SerialNumber
Else
    Debug.Print "Not found: " & cert.SerialNumber
End If

' 4) Find a certificate by hex serial number and Issuer Common Name
success = pkcs11.FindCert("serial:issuerCN","5087bf1feda006af54a02f23a851104948acc26f:Ibanity Production Third Party Application CA",cert)
If (success = 1) Then
    Debug.Print "Found: " & cert.SubjectCN
Else
    Debug.Print "Not found: " & cert.SubjectCN
End If

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------

' Revert to an unauthenticated session by calling Logout.
success = pkcs11.Logout()
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print pkcs11.LastErrorText
    success = pkcs11.CloseSession()
    Exit Sub
End If

' When finished, close the session.
' It is important to close the session (memory leaks will occur if the session is not properly closed).
success = pkcs11.CloseSession()
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print pkcs11.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.Print "Success."