Andrew Perry wrote: > Thanks for the help ... It was my mother who originally had this issue > and posted (go mom) ... I was the one who rebuilt her PC, so I had a > backup of her old drive ... Just copied the key.db and cert.db files > over .... worked like a charm :)
I might suggest backing up the keys now that you have them. Go to Preferences->Privacy Security->Certificates->Managege Certificates. (Communicator 4.x Security (padlock on toolbar) ->Certificates-Yours Select your cert(s) and click backup (export in Comm). Follow the dialogs (you will be prompted for a password to encrypt the keys and certs). Store the resulting file in a 'safe' place. > > Andrew > > Julien Pierre wrote: > >> Michael, >> >> Michael Str�der wrote: >> >>> Ben Bucksch wrote: >>> >>>> Julien Pierre wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>> the private key could have been sent to the CA if it required key >>>>> escrow during enrollment, >>>>> >>>> >>>> Eh, but the software (i.e. Mozilla) will clearly and obviously tell me >>>> about it in any and all cases, won't it? >>> >>> >>> This would have been also my next question. CMP/CRMF is very >>> powerful and I wonder how client software will keep the user >>> informed what *really* happens... >> >> >> >> I tested this once with Mozilla and an internal test CA setup for key >> escrow, and saw the dialog warning about the key escrow and prompting to >> proceed or not. >> Typically, if you have dual-key certs (separate signing and encrypting >> keys), only the encrypting private key will be backed up. It's never a >> big deal if you lose the signing key, since you will be able to generate >> a new signing keypair and cert. However, if you lose your private >> encrypting key, as the original poster did, you will also lose access to >> all the data you have encrypted with it, such as any S/MIME encrypted >> e-mails you saved locally. This is a moot point for the at poster who >> lost the entire profile anyway, but not necessarily for everybody, if >> only the key got lost, and not the rest. Note that I'm not necessarily >> advocating key escrow here - I think it somewhat defeats the purpose of >> encryption - I'm only advocating key backups. It can be a pain for >> individual users to backup their keys safely, but it is necessary. If >> smartcards are use, a backup of the keys is usually not possible however >> if the keys were generated within the smartcard. >> >
