CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
och
och

Reputation: 83

Passing variable with absolute path to command

I am trying to import certificates and CA to store using certutil.exe in PowerShell. This is my script:

$appDir="C:\Program Files\My App"
$certFilespec = $appDir + "\mycert.pfx"
certutil -p '""' -importPFX $certFilespec
$certFilespec = $appDir + "\myca.crt"
certutil -f -addStore Root $certFilespec

Everything but third line executes successfully. The error is:

PS C:\> certutil -p '""' -importPFX $certFilespec
CertUtil: -importPFX command FAILED: 0x80070002 (WIN32: 2)
CertUtil: The system cannot find the file specified.
PS C:\>

When I use string instead of $certFilespec

certutil -p '""' -importPFX "C:\Program Files\My App\mycert.pfx"
certutil -f -addStore Root "C:\Program Files\My App\myca.crt"

everything executes successfully. What I also found out is that when I use relative paths it works fine

PS C:\> cd '.\Program Files\My App'
$certFilespec=".\mycert.pfx"
certutil -p '""' -importPFX $certFilespec
CertUtil: -importPFX command completed successfully
PS C:\Program Files\My App>

everything works fine. So I guess there is some problem with quoting when absolute path is used. What I don't understand is how come that it works differently for the same command just different options (-addStore/-importPFX).

The files I am importing are PKCS12 certificate + private key (the .pfx file). And certificate of CA (the .crt file). But that shouldn't play any role.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1690

Answers (2)

James Evans
James Evans

Reputation: 11

Try modifying this line:

certutil -p '""' -importPFX $certFilespec

to

certutil -p '""' -importPFX "$certFilespec"

Since you have a space in your path, it's breaking the single path parameter into multiple parameters.

Upvotes: 1

Ian
Ian

Reputation: 16

Best guess. When it is producing the $certFilespec it is generating the string without comments, so the command will see C:\Program and kick out an error.

$appDir="C:\Program Files\My App"
$certFilespec = $appDir + "\mycert.pfx"
$certFilespec

C:\Program Files\My App\mycert.pfx

You could try 

$appDir='"C:\Program Files\My App\'
$certFilespec = $appDir + 'mycert.pfx"'

when run produces

$certFilespec

"C:\Program Files\My App\mycert.pfx"

Upvotes: 0

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