The X509Store constructor
overload accepting a store name allows for remote machine names so yes you can use that type to query certs on another machine. However remember that certs can be either user or machine level. You naturally would only be able to access the machine certs
if you used an arbitrary admin account.
But X509Store doesn't support credentials so impersonation as Stefan would be the first option. Not sure if it would work though. For it to work you'd need to impersonate an account that has the necessary admin privileges on the remote machine. To me this
seems like a domain account otherwise impersonation would fail locally.
I think you're going to have to step outside the X509Store to get what you want. There are a few options available based upon this old TechNet
post.
1) Stick with X509Store but switch to the overload accepting the
IntPtr to the unmanaged
HCERTSTORE structure. HCERTSTORE has an option to use a registry key. To get that registry key open the remote registry using the alternative credentials.
2) Forget the convenient cert functions and just access the remote registry directly. Not really a future proof solution but it is simpler.
3) Use the WMI classes to do basically the same thing.
Michael Taylor http://www.michaeltaylorp3.net
