IIS: Export Private Key Option is Grayed When Exporting a Server Certificate

• Microsoft Internet Information Services version 5.0

SYMPTOMS

Using the Certificates snap-in in Windows 2000, you can do many tasks regarding certificates and certificate management. One of these tasks is exporting server certificates for use in an Internet Information Services 5.0 web server. In order for a server certificate to be used by the web server, you must export the private key along with the certificate. Without the private key, data encryption (and therefore secure communications) is not possible.

When exporting the server certificate from the server's personal certificate store, you may not have the option to export the private key. If this is the case, when the certificate was imported, the option to allow the private key to be exported may have been unchecked. This is a security measure to prevent a possible compromise of the server's private key. Since this could be a potential security risk, the option to mark the private key as exportable is not checked by default.

RESOLUTION

In order to correct this problem, you will need access to the original certificate backup (.pfx) file. To ensure this problem does not happen in the future (should you want to export the private key again) make sure during the import process that you select the box "mark the private key as exportable."

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about importing server certificates, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q232137 How to Import a Server Certificate for Use in IIS 5.0

Q232136 How to Back Up an IIS 5.0 Server Certificate

Additional query words: iis

Keywords : kbIIS kbiis500
Version : winnt:5.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb