Forum Discussion
BernardW
Sep 07, 2020Copper Contributor
Difficulties signing the vba project code
I face difficulties when I want to sign an Excel vba project. The error "A problem occured with the digital certificate. The VBA-project can't be provided by a digital signature. The signature is bei...
yasensimeonov
Sep 12, 2022Copper Contributor
We find ourselves in the exact same situation, since May this year (2022) when we renewed our EV Code Signing certificate. Ever since we renewed and started using the new USB token, the problem appeared. Beforehand (previous two renewals) it was working fine - instead of the dreaded "There was a problem with the Digital Certificate. The VBA Project could not be signed. The signature will be discarded." error we would get a popup window from "SafeNet Authentication Client" asking us to input the token password. If the correct password was provided, the VBA Editor would sign and save the project.
After the issue first appeared in May this year (2022), when renewing with the provider we had been successfully using during the previous two years (Sectigo), we have since (this September) purchased a new EV Code Signing certificate from DigiCert. Unfortunately, the behavior is exactly the same. I have a suspicion that the issue may NOT be with the CA (Sectigo/DigiCert), but rather with the manufacturer/supplier they both use for the USB hardware tokens - it used to be "Gemalto" before May this year (when VBA signing worked) and now it is "Thales".
The change in USB hardware token manufacturer/supplier can also be seen in the branding of the "SafeNet Authentication Client" software - it used to be "Gemalto" in earlier versions, while it now reads "Thales". In the next few days, I will log our issues and findings with DigiCert technical support, asking them to investigate further and raise this with Thales, if necessary. I will share any progress and hopefully a successful resolution here.
After the issue first appeared in May this year (2022), when renewing with the provider we had been successfully using during the previous two years (Sectigo), we have since (this September) purchased a new EV Code Signing certificate from DigiCert. Unfortunately, the behavior is exactly the same. I have a suspicion that the issue may NOT be with the CA (Sectigo/DigiCert), but rather with the manufacturer/supplier they both use for the USB hardware tokens - it used to be "Gemalto" before May this year (when VBA signing worked) and now it is "Thales".
The change in USB hardware token manufacturer/supplier can also be seen in the branding of the "SafeNet Authentication Client" software - it used to be "Gemalto" in earlier versions, while it now reads "Thales". In the next few days, I will log our issues and findings with DigiCert technical support, asking them to investigate further and raise this with Thales, if necessary. I will share any progress and hopefully a successful resolution here.
- yasensimeonovSep 12, 2022Copper ContributorP. S. A similar issue has been reported as recently as the beginning of this month on StackOverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73584355/signing-vba-code-in-excel-xlsm-files-there-was-a-problem-with-the-digital-cert
- Anna-LawgicSep 12, 2022Copper Contributor
yasensimeonov Digicert sent us an older version of the SafeNet software - version 10.8.2154.0
This version does work when signing VBA macros. Anyone at our firm with a newer version cannot sign macros.
- yasensimeonovSep 12, 2022Copper Contributor
Anna-Lawgic This (10.8.2154.0) is the default version of the SafeNet Authentication client that DigiCert asked us to install when we received and initiated the token. Yet it still does not work with signing Excel VBA projects/macros for us: