Mac users can use Keychain to generate a CSR for a personal authentication certificate. Once the certificate is issued, there are a few methods you can follow to install the certificate in Keychain.

How to Get Certificate

Collect P7B 

After the certificate is issued, Sectigo will email the user a collection link for the certificate. On this page you can download a P7B file, which contains the certificate and the CA intermediate certificates. 

You can also upload the private key on this page and create a PKCS#12 file, which can be installed right away. However, it can be a little difficult to export a private key from Keychain, so we'll focus on the easier way in this guide.

Download CRT

You can download a zip folder containing your certificate file from your storefront order dashboard. In the zip folder, go to the CER - CRT folder and extract the security certificate file with a string of numbers as the file name. This is your personal authentication certificate.

Reformat Certificate

Whether you downloaded the P7B or the CRT file, you'll need to take an extra step and reformat the certificate. The default files are not ready to be installed on a Mac system. Fortunately, you can use CertLogik Certificate Decoder to easily fix the formatting.

Open the certificate in TextEdit. Select all of the text and copy it. Paste the certificate code into the certificate decoder tool and click Decode.

The tool will reformat the certificate code and add the header and footer. You'll end up with something like this:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
(certificate code)
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Finally, copy this new version of the certificate, paste it over the old one in TextEdit, and save the file.

You should now be able to import this file into Keychain by double-clicking it or going through Keychain's File menu and selecting Import Items.

Known Errors

Error: -26276 is a common error and is usually a false alarm. The certificate may be successfully imported despite this error. You can search for it in Keychain by the user email address.

Another error may occur if the certificate is not formatted properly.

"An error has occurred. Unable to import an item. The contents of this item cannot be retrieved."

Please use TextEdit to check the certificate formatting. If this error persists, please open a support ticket with the details of the error and your order number for more assistance.