[powershell] Import pfx file into particular certificate store from command line

It's relatively easy to import a certificate into the user's personal store from a pfx file by using CertUtil:

certutil –f –p [certificate_password] –importpfx C:\[certificate_path_and_name].pfx 

But this ends up in the Personal Store of the current user. I need it in TrustedPeople on LocalMachine.

Is there any way I can do this from the command line, either by calling different arguments on certutil importpfx, using another certutil command or a different utility? Powershell is another possibility, although I don't know much about it.

Cheers, Matt

For Windows 10:

Import certificate to Trusted Root Certification Authorities for Current User:

certutil -f -user -p oracle -importpfx root "example.pfx"

Import certificate to Trusted People for Current User:

certutil -f -user -p oracle -importpfx TrustedPeople "example.pfx"

Import certificate to Trusted Root Certification Authorities on Local Machine:

certutil -f -user -p oracle -enterprise -importpfx root "example.pfx"

Import certificate to Trusted People on Local Machine:

certutil -f -user -p oracle -enterprise -importpfx TrustedPeople "example.pfx"

Here is the complete code, import pfx, add iis website, add ssl binding:

$SiteName = "MySite"
$HostName = "localhost"
$CertificatePassword = '1234'
$SiteFolder = Join-Path -Path 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot' -ChildPath $SiteName
$certPath = 'c:\cert.pfx'


Write-Host 'Import pfx certificate' $certPath
$certRootStore = “LocalMachine”
$certStore = "My"
$pfx = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2
$pfx.Import($certPath,$CertificatePassword,"Exportable,PersistKeySet") 
$store = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Store($certStore,$certRootStore) 
$store.Open('ReadWrite')
$store.Add($pfx) 
$store.Close() 
$certThumbprint = $pfx.Thumbprint


Write-Host 'Add website' $SiteName
New-WebSite -Name $SiteName -PhysicalPath $SiteFolder -Force
$IISSite = "IIS:\Sites\$SiteName"
Set-ItemProperty $IISSite -name  Bindings -value @{protocol="https";bindingInformation="*:443:$HostName"}
if($applicationPool) { Set-ItemProperty $IISSite -name  ApplicationPool -value $IISApplicationPool }


Write-Host 'Bind certificate with Thumbprint' $certThumbprint
$obj = get-webconfiguration "//sites/site[@name='$SiteName']"
$binding = $obj.bindings.Collection[0]
$method = $binding.Methods["AddSslCertificate"]
$methodInstance = $method.CreateInstance()
$methodInstance.Input.SetAttributeValue("certificateHash", $certThumbprint)
$methodInstance.Input.SetAttributeValue("certificateStoreName", $certStore)
$methodInstance.Execute()

Check these links: http://www.orcsweb.com/blog/james/powershell-ing-on-windows-server-how-to-import-certificates-using-powershell/

Import-Certificate: http://poshcode.org/1937

You can do something like:

dir -Path C:\Certs -Filter *.cer | Import-Certificate -CertFile $_ -StoreNames AuthRoot, Root -LocalMachine -Verbose

In newer version of windows the Certuil has [CertificateStoreName] where we can give the store name. In earlier version windows this was not possible.

Installing *.pfx certificate: certutil -f -p "" -enterprise -importpfx root ""

Installing *.cer certificate: certutil -addstore -enterprise -f -v root ""

For more details below command can be executed in windows cmd. C:>certutil -importpfx -? Usage: CertUtil [Options] -importPFX [CertificateStoreName] PFXFile [Modifiers]

With Windows 2012 R2 (Win 8.1) and up, you also have the "official" Import-PfxCertificate cmdlet

Here are some essential parts of code (an adaptable example):

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computer -ScriptBlock {
        param(
            [string] $CertFileName,
            [string] $CertRootStore,
            [string] $CertStore,
            [string] $X509Flags,
            $PfxPass)
        $CertPath = "$Env:SystemRoot\$CertFileName"
        $Pfx = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2
        # Flags to send in are documented here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.security.cryptography.x509certificates.x509keystorageflags%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
        $Pfx.Import($CertPath, $PfxPass, $X509Flags) #"Exportable,PersistKeySet")
        $Store = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Store -ArgumentList $CertStore, $CertRootStore
        $Store.Open("MaxAllowed")
        $Store.Add($Pfx)
        if ($?)
        {
            "${Env:ComputerName}: Successfully added certificate."
        }
        else
        {
            "${Env:ComputerName}: Failed to add certificate! $($Error[0].ToString() -replace '[\r\n]+', ' ')"
        }
        $Store.Close()
        Remove-Item -LiteralPath $CertPath
    } -ArgumentList $TempCertFileName, $CertRootStore, $CertStore, $X509Flags, $Password

Based on mao47's code and some research, I wrote up a little article and a simple cmdlet for importing/pushing PFX certificates to remote computers.

Here's my article with more details and complete code that also works with PSv2 (default on Server 2008 R2 / Windows 7), so long as you have SMB enabled and administrative share access.

To anyone else looking for this, I wasn't able to use certutil -importpfx into a specific store, and I didn't want to download the importpfx tool supplied by jaspernygaard's answer in order to avoid the requirement of copying the file to a large number of servers. I ended up finding my answer in a powershell script shown here.

The code uses System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates to import the certificate and then moves it into the desired store:

function Import-PfxCertificate { 

    param([String]$certPath,[String]$certRootStore = “localmachine”,[String]$certStore = “My”,$pfxPass = $null) 
    $pfx = new-object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2 

    if ($pfxPass -eq $null) 
    {
        $pfxPass = read-host "Password" -assecurestring
    } 

    $pfx.import($certPath,$pfxPass,"Exportable,PersistKeySet") 

    $store = new-object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Store($certStore,$certRootStore) 
    $store.open("MaxAllowed") 
    $store.add($pfx) 
    $store.close() 
}