How to sign Console App inside Windows Application Packaging Project

Vladyslav Tereschuk 0

I have a Windows Application Packaging Project that contains UWP and Console App. UWP app is set as entry point and in defined condition it starts Console App with FullTrustProcessLauncher. When this happens - Console requests admin rights and user receives default Windows UAC prompt. This prompt has field "Publisher" and I need to sign the Console App itself to pass there our company name.

The problem is that UWP and Packaging project have Package.appxmanifest that works greatly with .pfx certificate, but ConsoleApp has only "Strong naming" property in project properties that fails every time I try to pass there our certificate. Build fails with "MSB3325: Cannot import the following key file" error, i've tried to solve it with help of this article, but it shows that in older .NET projects my certificate should appear in the dropdown, but I have a newer .NET project that doesn't provide any dropdown for this field so I can only pass there path to .pfx file. Any ideas about how can I solve this problem? Thanks Screenshot

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 17,806 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-04-02T06:03:21.9666667+00:00

Hi @Vladyslav Tereschuk ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

I tested according to the documentation MSB3325, it worked for me.

Have you tried entering the absolute path of cert.pfx under Strong name key file?

Thank you.
Vladyslav Tereschuk 0 Reputation points

2024-04-02T07:39:24.62+00:00

Hello
Yes, I have tried, but unfortunately it didn't help me.
Any ideas what may be wrong?
Thanks a lot!
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 17,806 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-04-02T08:19:45.44+00:00

Hi @Vladyslav Tereschuk ,

Could you please share the execution results of sn.exe -i <pfx_file> <key_container_name_from_error_message>?
Vladyslav Tereschuk 0 Reputation points

2024-04-02T08:40:39.7666667+00:00

Sure
I tried one more time to be sure, and I still have this trouble
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 17,806 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-04-02T09:17:10.3166667+00:00

Hi @Vladyslav Tereschuk ,

Try creating a new console app to see if the same error recurs.
Vladyslav Tereschuk 0 Reputation points

2024-04-02T11:49:19.9433333+00:00

In a new one I have the same issue
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 17,806 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-04-03T08:20:09.55+00:00

Hi @Vladyslav Tereschuk ,

This is indeed an unexpected behavior, and it is difficult to troubleshoot errors. I tested it again and still couldn't reproduce the same error. If you have other devices, it is recommended that you test on other computers. By the way, please provide your system and VS versions.
Vladyslav Tereschuk 0 Reputation points

2024-04-03T11:21:26.2+00:00

I've tried to sign the project on different machines with different versions of Visual Studio:
Windows 11 with VS 2022 v17.9.5
Windows 11 with VS 2019 v16.11.34
Another WIndows 11 with VS 2022 v17.8.4
All attempts failed
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 17,806 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-04-04T09:58:09.7266667+00:00

Hi @BEAS Soon ,

For your scenario, I suggest that you might need to open a support ticket for this. Please contact our paid support at MS Support. You will get 1:1 support on that.

Go to Contact us tab, find UWP App Development and choose SUBMIT AN INCIDENT. Select Developer Tools -> Windows UWP Development ->Windows Universal App Dev -> Development Tools in the support page and you could contact the team. Please kindly note that your support ticket will be free if it is Microsoft's issue.

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