MSDN Library

CertificateSourceFlags Enumeration

Defines the sources from which to retrieve an X.509 certificate.

Remarks

The CertificateSourceFlags enumeration is used with the X509Chain.Build(X509Certificate2) method to specify how to search for a certificate.

When you build an X.509 chain, the system needs to locate trusted root certificates and intermediate certificates. The certificate stores on a computer contain these certificates. The CertificateSourceFlags enumeration allows you to control which of these stores are searched.

Syntax

public enum CertificateSourceFlags

Members

Member	Description	Value
None	No certificates are retrieved.	0
MachineStore	Certificates are retrieved from the machine's certificate store.	1
UserStore	Certificates are retrieved from the current user's certificate store.	2
ExportStore	Certificates are retrieved from an export store (e.g., a PFX file).	4
AllStores	All available certificate stores are searched. This is equivalent to MachineStore | UserStore | ExportStore.	7

Example

The following C# code example demonstrates how to build an X.509 certificate chain using certificates from both the machine store and the user store.

using System;
using System.Net.Security;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;

public class CertificateExample
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        X509Certificate2 clientCertificate = null; // Assume this is obtained elsewhere

        X509Chain chain = new X509Chain();

        // Specify that the chain should be built using certificates from the machine
        // store and the user store.
        chain.ChainPolicy.ExtraStoreFlags =
            CertificateSourceFlags.MachineStore | CertificateSourceFlags.UserStore;

        // You would typically have a certificate to build the chain from,
        // for example, a server certificate.
        // For demonstration purposes, let's assume we have a placeholder.
        try
        {
            // Replace with an actual certificate if testing.
            // This is just a conceptual example of building the chain.
            bool success = chain.Build(clientCertificate);

            if (success)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Certificate chain built successfully.");
                // Further processing of the chain
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Certificate chain build failed.");
                foreach (X509ChainStatus status in chain.ChainStatus)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine($"Status: {status.StatusInformation}");
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"An error occurred: {ex.Message}");
        }
    }
}