Creating a Self-Signed Certificate in SQL Server 2005/2008

In simple worlds, Certificates can be used to secure data in SQL Server. There are a number of ways to create a certificate - from a file, from a signed executable file or from an assembly. You can also create a Self-Signed Certificate which is the easiest of all as shown here. They are called self-signed as they are not generated by an authority but by SQL Server itself.

To secure an object, you can first create a certificate, map it to a database user and then sign the object with that certificate.

Here’s how to create a self-signed certificate.

USE Social;
CREATE CERTIFICATE SocialCert
   ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'q35RED6gg577gghy53FF'
   WITH SUBJECT = 'ID CERTIFICATE',
   EXPIRY_DATE = '12/31/2009';
GO

You can read more about symmetric keys, asymmetric keys and other kind of certificates over here

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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