.NET equivalent of keytool, and a sample?

[Derrick]

I've done only a small amount with crypto, and it was on the java end, can
anyone reccomend:

a) the .net equivalent of the java keytool utility

and

b) a good tutorial/sample on using keystores/keys/certs/etc/

Thanks in advance!

Derrick

[Mitch Gallant]

.NET doesn't really have an equivalent "tool" to java's keytool.exe
Java keytool creates a crypto-random RSA keypair with an associated
self-signed certificate in a java JKS (default) keystore.
The closest "tool" to that from Microsoft is "makecert.exe" which can do
roughly the equivalent, but with added capability to add some certificate
extensions. Find more info on makecert in MSDN docs.

.NET crypto leverages the underlying CryptoAPI keystorage capability. Most
of the key-handling (signing, encryption etc) in .NET 1.1 or 2 are wrappers
around underlying native CryptoAPI implementations.

Here is some info. on some aspects (specifically signing) of Java keystores
versus .NET "keycontainers" and certificate stores:
http://www.jensign.com/JavaScience/Thawte

Note the recently added paragraph at bottom of that page:
"Java SE 6 support for Windows CryptoAPI Stores/Keys"

- Mitch Gallant
MVP Security

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