Digitally Signing a Custom MSI for Web Portal

  • Thread starter Thread starter cwerfel
  • Start date Start date
C

cwerfel

In an effort to try to get as close to a "clientless" experience for the Web Portal I went ahead and installed our custom MSI file in the 2XWebPortal\Clients folder as documented in the readme file contained therein. Now, when a user tries to download and install the client IE throws an error complaining about the file having an invalid signature.

I have two questions:

1. Does anyone know all of what needs to be done with SignTool.exe or comparable to properly sign the MSI? (I ask as I am trying to use the same cert I obtained for the remote website for SSL and I suspect I need a "signing" cert and not an "server authentication" cert for this); and

2. Is there a property in the MSI that can be set with ORCA to force the installation to proceed as silent? I know we can do that from the command line but since the download of the MSI from the web is under IE control this would need to somehow be embedded in the MSI itself I think.

And (my third of two questions) 3. Any ETA on a java or other limited user intervention launch from the Web portal? Unfortunately we have some vocal users that want kiosk-like remote access and have seen it demonstrated elsewhere.

Thanks,
Chris
 
FYI to do this you'll need a) a signing certificate from a certificate authority with trusted root certificates and b) signtool.exe or comparable. Obtaining the signing cert is no small task and will cost you a couple $$. PM me if you need the details.

After signing the MSI the web client download no longer complains about the modified MSI being from an untrusted source. The bad news is the user still has to click through the myriad of "Run", "OK", "Finish" prompts to install the client.
 
Work Around

Hi, If anyone is interested I found a work around on this problem. To avoid error from not signed msi you can zip the msi file and upload to a public webfolder on your server. then hard code the url to this file in logon.aspx and applist.aspx by changing these lines

in logon.aspx:

change this line: ClientSetupUrl = '<%=GetClientSetupUrl()%>';

to the following:

<!-- ClientSetupUrl = '<%=GetClientSetupUrl()%>';-->
ClientSetupUrl = 'https://yoursite/yourmsifile.zip';

and similar in applist.aspx

Best Regards / Richard
 
Re: Work Around

i97ricro said:
Hi, If anyone is interested I found a work around on this problem. To avoid error from not signed msi you can zip the msi file and upload to a public webfolder on your server. then hard code the url to this file in logon.aspx and applist.aspx by changing these lines

in logon.aspx:

change this line: ClientSetupUrl = '<%=GetClientSetupUrl()%>';

to the following:

<!-- ClientSetupUrl = '<%=GetClientSetupUrl()%>';-->
ClientSetupUrl = 'https://yoursite/yourmsifile.zip';

and similar in applist.aspx

Best Regards / Richard
Click to expand...


Hi there,

This will cause issues when trying to install the client silently...

Nixu
 
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