IIS 7 Error “A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated.” when using https

Question

I am trying to create Client Certificates Authentication for my asp.net Website.

In order to create client certificates, I need to create a Certificate Authority first:<

Answer 1

According to the MSDN blog post, this can happen when the current user account doesn't have permission to access the private key file which is under the folder "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys". Apparently this can be resolved by granting the user account / user group Full Access permission to the above folder.

I've come across the same issue, and was able to resolve it by simply re-importing the .pfx file with the Allow this certificate ti be exported checkbox selected.

However, this method imposes a security risk - as any user who has access to your IIS server will be able to export your certificate with the private key.

In my case, only I have access to my IIS server - therefore it was not a huge risk.