Certificate Request with a specific Public Key

[Cameo]

I have a Public/Private key pair generated offline and manually move the
public key to a networked machine. From there I am trying to create Digital
Certificate that holds the Public key via a certificate request (PKCS#10)
generated within the CryptoAPI. The problem is that there doesnt seem to be
a way to specify a lone Public Key for submission for a certificate. The
impression i get is that if you want to use a custom Public Key, the Private
key must accompany it into a CSP container which can then be used to generate
a request.

The big question i have is; A) Is there a way to create a certificate
request (eg PKCS#10) with a specific Public key without having access to its
private key pair? (using the CryptoAPI)
but some other questions that may help are;
B) Does the Certificate request have to be signed by the corresponding
private key or by a session key, or even at all?
C) Is there a reference to what are the limits of what a CSP Container can
hold?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on the situation.
Regards
Cameo

[lelteto]

And the reason is simple: you need the PRIVATE KEY to sign the certificate
request. W/o signing the request it's unacceptable.

Laszlo Elteto
SafeNet, Inc.

Post by Cameo
I have a Public/Private key pair generated offline and manually move the
public key to a networked machine. From there I am trying to create Digital
Certificate that holds the Public key via a certificate request (PKCS#10)
generated within the CryptoAPI. The problem is that there doesnt seem to be
a way to specify a lone Public Key for submission for a certificate. The
impression i get is that if you want to use a custom Public Key, the Private
key must accompany it into a CSP container which can then be used to generate
a request.
The big question i have is; A) Is there a way to create a certificate
request (eg PKCS#10) with a specific Public key without having access to its
private key pair? (using the CryptoAPI)
but some other questions that may help are;
B) Does the Certificate request have to be signed by the corresponding
private key or by a session key, or even at all?
C) Is there a reference to what are the limits of what a CSP Container can
hold?
Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on the situation.
Regards
Cameo