The private key does not need to be there unless you are going to use it to sign a certificate containing another public key. When you are sending over your public key, instead send over an entire certificate (except for the private key), signed using the associated CA private key. A missing private key could mean: The certificate is not being installed on the same server that generated the CSR. The pending request was deleted from IIS. The certificate was installed through the Certificate Import Wizard rather than through IIS. I have the original Private Key used to create the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for LetsEncrypt. Now we need to programmatically combine these two files into a PFX bundle for IIS using.NET Since we are trying to to do this programmatically pvk2pfx is not practical, and we would like to avoid openssl if. To improve security, create your own private key and a certificate instead of using the self-signed ones that are available in License Metric Tool by default. You can use openSSL to create a private key and a certificate signing request (CSR) that can be transformed into a certificate after it is signed by a certificate authority (CA).

How Do I Generate A Private Key From A Certificate
Advantages Of Private Key Encryption
Generate Private Key For Cert
Creating A Private Key From A Certificate

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APPLIES TO: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure Synapse Analytics (SQL DW) Parallel Data Warehouse

Adds a certificate to a database in SQL Server.

This feature is incompatible with database export using Data Tier Application Framework (DACFx). You must drop all certificates before exporting.

Syntax

Arguments

certificate_name
Is the name for the certificate in the database.

AUTHORIZATION user_name
Is the name of the user that owns this certificate.

ASSEMBLY assembly_name
Specifies a signed assembly that has already been loaded into the database.

[ EXECUTABLE ] FILE = 'path_to_file'
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to a DER-encoded file that contains the certificate. If the EXECUTABLE option is used, the file is a DLL that has been signed by the certificate. path_to_file can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the required file-system permissions.

Important

Azure SQL Database does not support creating a certificate from a file or using private key files.

BINARY = asn_encoded_certificate
ASN encoded certificate bytes specified as a binary constant.
Applies to: SQL Server 2012 (11.x) and later.

WITH PRIVATE KEY
Specifies that the private key of the certificate is loaded into SQL Server. This clause is invalid when the certificate is being created from an assembly. To load the private key of a certificate created from an assembly, use ALTER CERTIFICATE.

FILE ='path_to_private_key'
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to the private key. path_to_private_key can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the necessary file-system permissions.

Important

This option is not available in a contained database or in Azure SQL Database.

BINARY = private_key_bits
Applies to: SQL Server (Starting with SQL Server 2012 (11.x)) and Azure SQL Database.

Private key bits specified as binary constant. These bits can be in encrypted form. If encrypted, the user must provide a decryption password. Password policy checks are not performed on this password. The private key bits should be in a PVK file format.

DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'key_password'
Specifies the password required to decrypt a private key that is retrieved from a file. This clause is optional if the private key is protected by a null password. Saving a private key to a file without password protection is not recommended. If a password is required but no password is specified, the statement fails.

ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password'
Specifies the password used to encrypt the private key. Use this option only if you want to encrypt the certificate with a password. If this clause is omitted, the private key is encrypted using the database master key. password must meet the Windows password policy requirements of the computer that is running the instance of SQL Server. For more information, see Password Policy.

SUBJECT = 'certificate_subject_name'
The term subject refers to a field in the metadata of the certificate as defined in the X.509 standard. The subject should be no more than 64 characters long, and this limit is enforced for SQL Server on Linux. For SQL Server on Windows, the subject can be up to 128 characters long. Subjects that exceed 128 characters are truncated when they are stored in the catalog, but the binary large object (BLOB) that contains the certificate retains the full subject name.

START_DATE = 'datetime'
Is the date on which the certificate becomes valid. If not specified, START_DATE is set equal to the current date. START_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time.

EXPIRY_DATE = 'datetime'
Is the date on which the certificate expires. If not specified, EXPIRY_DATE is set to a date one year after START_DATE. EXPIRY_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time. SQL Server Service Broker checks the expiration date. Backup with Encryption using certificates also checks the expiration date and will not allow a new backup to be created with an expired certificate, but will allow restores with an expired certificate. However, expiration is not enforced when the certificate is used for database encryption or Always Encrypted.

ACTIVE FOR BEGIN_DIALOG = { ON | OFF }
Makes the certificate available to the initiator of a Service Broker dialog conversation. The default value is ON.

Remarks

How Do I Generate A Private Key From A Certificate

A certificate is a database-level securable that follows the X.509 standard and supports X.509 V1 fields. CREATE CERTIFICATE can load a certificate from a file, a binary constant, or an assembly. This statement can also generate a key pair and create a self-signed certificate.

The Private Key must be <= 2500 bytes in encrypted format. Private keys generated by SQL Server are 1024 bits long through SQL Server 2014 (12.x) and are 2048 bits long beginning with SQL Server 2016 (13.x). Private keys imported from an external source have a minimum length of 384 bits and a maximum length of 4,096 bits. The length of an imported private key must be an integer multiple of 64 bits. Certificates used for TDE are limited to a private key size of 3456 bits.

The entire Serial Number of the certificate is stored but only the first 16 bytes appear in the sys.certificates catalog view.

The entire Issuer field of the certificate is stored but only the first 884 bytes in the sys.certificates catalog view.

The private key must correspond to the public key specified by certificate_name.

When you create a certificate from a container, loading the private key is optional. But when SQL Server generates a self-signed certificate, the private key is always created. By default, the private key is encrypted using the database master key. If the database master key does not exist and no password is specified, the statement fails.

The ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD option is not required when the private key is encrypted with the database master key. Use this option only when the private key is encrypted with a password. If no password is specified, the private key of the certificate will be encrypted using the database master key. If the master key of the database cannot be opened, omitting this clause causes an error.

You do not have to specify a decryption password when the private key is encrypted with the database master key.

Note

Built-in functions for encryption and signing do not check the expiration dates of certificat

Can I Generate A Private Key From A Certificate