No longer able to digitally sign VBA code in Excel 2016

Anonymous

Hello all!

I have a DigiCert issued code signing certificate that I have been able to use from January 2017 up until two weeks ago (about the time of the Creator's Update for Windows 10 Pro). The Cert is valid through 2020. Unfortunately, I when I try to sign VBA code with it now, I get the error message "There was a problem with the digital certificate. The VBA project could not be signed. The signature will be discarded.

Is anyone else getting this message when signing VBA code with a Cert that previously worked?

I was able to test on a co-worker’s computer running

OS: Windows 7 Pro SP1

Office: Office 365 ProPlus Ver 1701 (build 7766.2076).

I was able to successfully sign a macro file on this machine.

My computer is running

OS: Windows 10 Pro version 1703 (build 15063.250)

Office: Office 365 Ver 1701 (Build 7967.2139)

I am not able to successfully sign a macro file on my machine. I am able to successfully import the certificate though.

DigiCert of course blames the issue on Microsoft, and given that I can successfully sign on my co-worker's Windows 7 machine with a slightly older build of Office 365, I wonder if something in the newer version of Office 365 broke the ability to sign VBA macros.

Thanks - Nate

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Anonymous

Hi StephenGibb,

My re-installation must have missed the August updates you mention by a whisker. I forced an update just now, 1707 Build 8326.2062 is now my version. And, thankfully, it works!

Some extra info about when the problem was occurring for anyone else who might come across this thread:

As well as the failure to sign a project, Office was silently disabling all signed macros, not just those in the locations I mentioned above.

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Anonymous

2017-07-21T12:09:24+00:00

Hi Stephen

On all of the affected machines I have identified, O365 was installed from the Office Portal. Please can you confirm whether this is the case for you?

The issue relates to a component that is common to all the VBA enabled desktop programs, which is why you are experiencing it with Outlook.

From the registry exports that have been supplied Bryan Reich has identified that there are some missing or misplaced registry entries. He and his colleagues are now trying to find out why the Click to Run installer is failing to add these correctly.
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Anonymous

2017-07-21T11:24:28+00:00

I seem to be having the exact same issue with a self cert on Outlook (Office365 latest version). I've always found Outlook to be a tricky customer, disabling macro's for no obvious reason but I get it resolved eventually. This seems to be new/different and I cannot get it to save the certificate to the project.

This is on an old Windows 7 PC that we are re-purposing for a new temporary user. The machine never had issues before.

Interestingly when adding Macros and selfcert to Word in the past I've never had a single issue. I'm seeing the exact same error message there too. It certainly is looking like a bug across all Office desktop programs? That's a real problem if that's the case. :-/

I assume nobody has found a solution to this? I even ran a full online repair in the hope that would resolve it.

Thanks!

Stephen.
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Anonymous

2017-07-10T20:25:11+00:00

Weird, I'm still seeing it when I load the response. Anyway, it's "breich" at "gustr" dot "com".
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