(VB.NET UWP/WinRT) PKCS11 Find Specific Certificate on Smart Card or USB Token

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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 Universal Windows Platform (UWP) / WinRT Downloads Chilkat for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

' 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 Chilkat.Pkcs11

pkcs11.SharedLibPath = "aetpkss1.dll"

Dim success As Boolean = pkcs11.Initialize()
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(pkcs11.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


' We need to call Discover to get the slot ID.
' (A slot is a smart card reader or USB token.)
Dim onlyTokensPresent As Boolean = True
Dim json As New Chilkat.JsonObject
success = pkcs11.Discover(onlyTokensPresent,json)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(pkcs11.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


' Make sure we have at least one slot.
If (json.SizeOfArray("slot") <= 0) Then
    Debug.WriteLine("No occuplied slots.")
    Exit Sub
End If


' Get the ID of the 1st slot
Dim slotID As Integer = json.IntOf("slot[0].id")

' Open a session.
Dim readWrite As Boolean = True
success = pkcs11.OpenSession(slotID,readWrite)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(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 Integer = 1
Dim pin As String = "0000"
success = pkcs11.Login(userType,pin)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(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 Chilkat.Cert
' 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 = True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine("Cert with private key: " & cert.SubjectCN)
Else
    Debug.WriteLine("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 = True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine("Found: " & cert.SubjectCN)
Else
    Debug.WriteLine("Not found: " & cert.SubjectCN)
End If


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


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



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


Debug.WriteLine("Success.")