I currently doing a proof of concept to encrypt data using a certificate. It works well but now, I want to try a scenario when the certificate is expired. I created an expired certificate and I was surprise to notice that everthing works property even with the expired certificate. I was expecting an error.
Do you know if it's because it's a self signed certificate ?
Here's the code I using to test my case
[TestMethod]
public void Encrypt_decrypt_with_expired_certificate()
{
//Arrange
var baseString = "This is an encryption test";
X509Certificate2 newX509Certificate2 = new X509Certificate2("d:\\testx509certExpired.pfx", "apassword");
Console.WriteLine(newX509Certificate2.NotAfter); //Show the expiration date which is in the past
var encryptor = new CertificateEncryptor(newX509Certificate2); //This class is a simple wrapper around RSACryptoServiceProvider
//Act
string encryptedResult = encryptor.Encrypt(baseString); //Exception expected because of the expired certificate but not thrown
//Assert
Console.WriteLine("Base string : {0}", baseString);
Console.WriteLine("Encrypted string : {0}", encryptedResult);
Assert.IsNotNull(encryptedResult);
//revert back
string decryptedString = encryptor.Decrypt(encryptedResult);
Console.WriteLine("Decrypted string : {0}", decryptedString);
Assert.AreEqual(baseString, decryptedString);
}
Thanks
As GregS said, RSACryptoServiceProvider class (not X509Certificate2) provides an ability to perform cryptographic operations. RSACryptoServiceProvider knows nothing about certificate, it knows only keys and their parameters. This is why you don't see any errors.
This means that certificate validation -- is your app responsibility. You should check certificate when encrypting data and skip all certificate checks to decrypt data.
When attempting to access the X509Certificate2.PublicKey.Key attribute of the certificate, a CryptographicException should be thrown if the certificate is not within its validity period.
Here is how I load the public & private keys from a certificate to perform cryptographic operations:
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
class Example
{
private RSACryptoServiceProvider publicKey,
privateKey;
private bool getRSAKeys(X509Certificate2 cert, StoreLocation location)
{
try
{
//This will throw a CryptographicException if the certificate is expired
publicKey = (RSACryptoServiceProvider)cert.PublicKey.Key;
privateKey = (RSACryptoServiceProvider)cert.PrivateKey;
return true;
}
catch (CryptographicException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("The certificate is expired or otherwise unusable\r\n" + e.ToString());
return false;
}
}
Related
I am fetching my certificate from Azure Key Vault using GetSecretAsync() method and then I am expecting to get the byte[] of the private key and the certificate eventually.
I have my application in .netcore3.1
This is how my code looks like :
var certWithPrivateKey = Client.GetSecretAsync(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["AKVEndpoint"], ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["CertName"]).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
var privateKeyBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(certWithPrivateKey.Value);
X509Certificate2 x509Certificate = new X509Certificate2(privateKeyBytes);
var privateKey = x509Certificate.GetRSAPrivateKey() as RSA;
I get a valid privateKey of type RSACng, but any operation (tried ExportRSAPrivateKey()) on that throws an error of "'privateKey.ExportRSAPrivateKey()' threw an exception of type 'Internal.Cryptography.CryptoThrowHelper.WindowsCryptographicException'" and "The requested operation is not supported."
I am not sure how to proceed next here to get the byte[] of the private key and certificate.
Since you do actually seem to need to export: Your current code doesn't load the private key as exportable, so it can't be exported. The fix is to assert exportability:
X509Certificate2 x509Certificate =
new X509Certificate2(privateKeyBytes, "", X509KeyStorageFlags.Exportable);
If that's not enough, then you're encountering the difference between CAPI exportability and CNG exportability (Windows older, and newer, crypto libraries). If the private key from a PFX/PKCS#12 gets loaded into CNG it's only "encrypted exportable", but ExportParameters is plaintext-export.
There's a workaround, though... export it encrypted, then import that somewhere else with a more flexible export policy, then export again.
This snippet uses the .NET Core 3.0+ ExportPkcs8PrivateKey() method, since that's the format you want your data in, and new .NET 5 PemEncoding class to simplify turning the DER encoded output into PEM+DER output. If your exporter is on .NET Framework, this is a more complex problem. For .NET Standard 2.0 there's not really a clean solution (reflect call the methods for .NET Core/.NET 5, otherwise use the Windows-specific version for .NET Framework?).
byte[] pkcs8PrivateKey;
using (RSA privateKey = x509Certificate.GetRSAPrivateKey())
{
pkcs8PrivateKey = ExportPrivateKey(privateKey);
}
File.WriteAllText(
"tls.cer",
new string(PemEncoding.Write("CERTIFICATE", x509Certificate.RawData));
File.WriteAllText(
"tls.key",
new string(PemEncoding.Write("PRIVATE KEY", pkcs8PrivateKey));
...
private static byte[] ExportPrivateKey(RSA privateKey)
{
try
{
// If it's plaintext exportable, just do the easy thing.
return privateKey.ExportPkcs8PrivateKey();
}
catch (CryptographicException)
{
}
using (RSA exportRewriter = RSA.Create())
{
// Only one KDF iteration is being used here since it's immediately being
// imported again. Use more if you're actually exporting encrypted keys.
exportRewriter.ImportEncryptedPkcs8PrivateKey(
"password",
privateKey.ExportEncryptedPkcs8PrivateKey(
"password",
new PbeParameters(
PbeEncryptionAlgorithm.Aes128Cbc,
HashAlgorithmName.SHA256,
1)),
out _);
return exportRewriter.ExportPkcs8PrivateKey();
}
}
I have a X509Certificate2 variable and I'm trying to cast the private key of the variable to a RSACryptoServiceProvider
RSACryptoServiceProvider pkey = (RSACryptoServiceProvider)cert.PrivateKey;
However I get this exception.
System.InvalidCastException: 'Unable to cast object of type 'System.Security.Cryptography.RSACng' to type 'System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider'.'
It's weird that this happens because other answers in SO suggested the same procedure as mine but I get an exception. Any solutions to this?
So after a few tries and discussions in the comments I came up with the following solution.
RSA rsa = (RSA)cert.PrivateKey;
(cert.PrivateKey as RSACng).Key.SetProperty(
new CngProperty(
"Export Policy",
BitConverter.GetBytes((int)CngExportPolicies.AllowPlaintextExport),
CngPropertyOptions.Persist));
RSAParameters RSAParameters = rsa.ExportParameters(true);
AsymmetricCipherKeyPair keypair = DotNetUtilities.GetRsaKeyPair(RSAParameters);
The problem was that the variable rsa wasn't exportable. To change this I set a new CngProperty for the export policy. Works perfectly now
Just wanted to note that there's also an extension method that can be used:
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
...
//certificate is a X509Certificate2
using (var rsa = certificate.GetRSAPrivateKey())
{
//the var rsa is an RSA object
//...
}
In my case the same problem was happening when trying to convert local store certificate to RSACryptoServiceProvider as below:
RSACryptoServiceProvider encryptProvider =
certificate.PrivateKey as RSACryptoServiceProvider;
Issue fixed by using RSA instead of RSACryptoServiceProvider.
Putting instructions here in case if someone will be curious how to do that )).
To store some certificate into your machine open Visual Studio Developer Command and type following:
makecert -n "CN=JohnDoe" -sr currentuser -ss someCertStore
...where you can specify and values instead of "JohnDoe" and "demoCertStore".
Now you can use the below code to access certificates from the local certificate store:
public class Program
{
static void DumpBytes(string title, byte[] bytes)
{
Console.Write(title);
foreach (byte b in bytes)
{
Console.Write("{0:X} ", b);
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// This will convert our input string into bytes and back
var converter = new ASCIIEncoding();
// Get a crypto provider out of the certificate store
// should be wrapped in using for production code
var store = new X509Store("someCertStore", StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
// should be wrapped in using for production code
X509Certificate2 certificate = store.Certificates[0];
RSA rsa = (RSA)certificate.PrivateKey;
(certificate.PrivateKey as RSACng)?.Key.SetProperty(
new CngProperty(
"Export Policy",
BitConverter.GetBytes((int)CngExportPolicies.AllowPlaintextExport),
CngPropertyOptions.Persist));
string messageToSign = "This is the message I want to sign";
Console.WriteLine("Message: {0}", messageToSign);
byte[] messageToSignBytes = converter.GetBytes(messageToSign);
// need to calculate a hash for this message - this will go into the
// signature and be used to verify the message
// Create an implementation of the hashing algorithm we are going to us
// should be wrapped in using for production code
DumpBytes("Message to sign in bytes: ", messageToSignBytes);
HashAlgorithm hasher = new SHA1Managed();
// Use the hasher to hash the message
byte[] hash = hasher.ComputeHash(messageToSignBytes);
DumpBytes("Hash for message: ", hash);
// Now sign the hash to create a signature
byte[] signature = rsa.SignHash(hash, HashAlgorithmName.SHA1, RSASignaturePadding.Pss);
DumpBytes("Signature: ", messageToSignBytes);
// Now use the signature to perform a successful validation of the mess
bool validSignature = rsa.VerifyHash(hash: hash,
signature: signature,
hashAlgorithm: HashAlgorithmName.SHA1,
padding: RSASignaturePadding.Pss);
Console.WriteLine("Correct signature validated OK: {0}", validSignature);
// Change one byte of the signature
signature[0] = 99;
// Now try the using the incorrect signature to validate the message
bool invalidSignature = rsa.VerifyHash(hash: hash,
signature: signature,
hashAlgorithm: HashAlgorithmName.SHA1,
padding: RSASignaturePadding.Pss);
Console.WriteLine("Incorrect signature validated OK: {0}", invalidSignature);
Console.ReadKey();
}
You can avoid the code that is setting the export policy altogether by simply creating the certificate with the export policy already being correct. I used the New-SelfSignedCertificate PowerShell utility to create a certificate that was exportable from inception.
PS C:>New-SelfSignedCertificate -CertStoreLocation "Cert:\CurrentUser\" -Subject "CN=JUSTIN" -KeyExportPolicy Exportable
This negates the need for:
(certificate.PrivateKey as RSACng)?.Key.SetProperty(new CngProperty("Export Policy", BitConverter.GetBytes((int)CngExportPolicies.AllowPlaintextExport),CngPropertyOptions.Persist));
I have X509 certificates that are stored on the network. I can read the chain from remote windows certificate store. I need to sign some data and include chain to the signature to make it possible to validate it later.
The problem is that I can't find a way to put certificate chain to the CsmSigner. I have read that it takes certificate from constructor parameter and tries to build a chain with X509Chain.Build. It ignores Certificates list values and fails (obviously) because no certificate can be found in the local Windows cert store.
Please find below my test code (that works only if certificates were saved locally to the windows cert store)
protected byte[] SignWithSystem(byte[] data, X509Certificate2 cert, X509Certificate[] chain)
{
ContentInfo contentInfo = new ContentInfo(data);
SignedCms signedCms = new SignedCms(contentInfo, true);
CmsSigner cmsSigner = new CmsSigner(cert);
cmsSigner.DigestAlgorithm = new Oid("2.16.840.1.101.3.4.2.1"); //sha256
cmsSigner.IncludeOption = X509IncludeOption.WholeChain;
if (chain != null)
{
//adding cert chain to signer
cmsSigner.Certificates.AddRange(chain);
signedCms.Certificates.AddRange(chain);
}
signedCms.ComputeSignature(cmsSigner); //fails here with System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException : A certificate chain could not be built to a trusted root authority.
byte[] signedPkcs = signedCms.Encode();
return signedPkcs;
}
Is there any way to make it work without uploading certificates to the local store? Should I use any alternative signer?
I can try to upload certificates to the store but the problems are that
I have to add and remove certificates (permissions have to be granted)
There are several processes that applies signature so cross-process synchronization have to be added.
This is not that I'd like to do.
Example CMS Signing with BouncyCastle for .NET
You could use the BouncyCastle crypto library for .NET, which contains its own X509 certificate and CMS signing machinery. A lot of the examples and documentation on the web are for Java, as BouncyCastle was a Java library first. I've used the answer to this Stackoverflow question as a starting point for the certificate and key loading, and added the CMS signing. You may have to tweak parameters to produce the results you want for your use case.
I've made the signing function look approximately like yours, but note the private key is a separate parameter now.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Cms;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Pkcs;
using Org.BouncyCastle.X509;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto;
using Org.BouncyCastle.X509.Store;
class Program
{
protected static byte[] SignWithSystem(byte[] data, AsymmetricKeyParameter key, X509Certificate cert, X509Certificate[] chain)
{
var generator = new CmsSignedDataGenerator();
// Add signing key
generator.AddSigner(
key,
cert,
"2.16.840.1.101.3.4.2.1"); // SHA256 digest ID
var storeCerts = new List<X509Certificate>();
storeCerts.Add(cert); // NOTE: Adding end certificate too
storeCerts.AddRange(chain); // I'm assuming the chain collection doesn't contain the end certificate already
// Construct a store from the collection of certificates and add to generator
var storeParams = new X509CollectionStoreParameters(storeCerts);
var certStore = X509StoreFactory.Create("CERTIFICATE/COLLECTION", storeParams);
generator.AddCertificates(certStore);
// Generate the signature
var signedData = generator.Generate(
new CmsProcessableByteArray(data),
false); // encapsulate = false for detached signature
return signedData.GetEncoded();
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
// Load end certificate and signing key
AsymmetricKeyParameter key;
var signerCert = ReadCertFromFile(#"C:\Temp\David.p12", "pin", out key);
// Read CA cert
var caCert = ReadCertFromFile(#"C:\Temp\CA.cer");
var certChain = new X509Certificate[] { caCert };
var result = SignWithSystem(
Guid.NewGuid().ToByteArray(), // Any old data for sake of example
key,
signerCert,
certChain);
File.WriteAllBytes(#"C:\Temp\Signature.data", result);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Failed : " + ex.ToString());
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
public static X509Certificate ReadCertFromFile(string strCertificatePath)
{
// Create file stream object to read certificate
using (var keyStream = new FileStream(strCertificatePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
var parser = new X509CertificateParser();
return parser.ReadCertificate(keyStream);
}
}
// This reads a certificate from a file.
// Thanks to: http://blog.softwarecodehelp.com/2009/06/23/CodeForRetrievePublicKeyFromCertificateAndEncryptUsingCertificatePublicKeyForBothJavaC.aspx
public static X509Certificate ReadCertFromFile(string strCertificatePath, string strCertificatePassword, out AsymmetricKeyParameter key)
{
key = null;
// Create file stream object to read certificate
using (var keyStream = new FileStream(strCertificatePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
// Read certificate using BouncyCastle component
var inputKeyStore = new Pkcs12Store();
inputKeyStore.Load(keyStream, strCertificatePassword.ToCharArray());
var keyAlias = inputKeyStore.Aliases.Cast<string>().FirstOrDefault(n => inputKeyStore.IsKeyEntry(n));
// Read Key from Aliases
if (keyAlias == null)
throw new NotImplementedException("Alias");
key = inputKeyStore.GetKey(keyAlias).Key;
//Read certificate into 509 format
return (X509Certificate)inputKeyStore.GetCertificate(keyAlias).Certificate;
}
}
}
.NET CMS (Quick-fix with rest of chain omitted from signature)
I can reproduce your problem with a certificate whose root is not in the trusted certificate store, and confirm that adding the certificate chain to the cmsSigner/signedCms Certificates collection does not avoid the A certificate chain could not be built to a trusted root authority error.
You can sign successfully by setting cmsSigner.IncludeOption = X509IncludeOption.EndCertOnly;
However, if you do this, you will not get the rest of the chain in the signature. This probably isn't what you want.
As an aside, in your example you are using X509Certificate for the array of certificates in the chain, but passing them to an X509Certificate2Collection (note the "2" in there). X509Certificate2 derives from X509Certificate, but if its not actually an X509Certificate2 that you put in one of those collections, you'll get a cast error if something iterates over the collection (you don't get an error when adding a certificate of the wrong type unfortunately, because X509Certificate2Collection also derives from X509CertificateCollection and inherits its add methods).
Adding sample code that creates detached PKCS7 signature using BouncyCastle (thanks to softwariness) without Certificate store.
It uses .net X509Certificate2 instances as input parameter. First certificate in collection have to be linked with private key to sign data.
Also I'd like to note that it is not possible to read private key associated with certificate from remote Windows cert store using .net X509Certificate2.PrivateKey property. By default private key is not loaded with certificate using X509Store(#"\\remotemachine\MY", StoreLocation.LocalMachine) and when X509Certificate2.PrivateKey property is accessed on local machine it fails with error "Keyset does not exist".
public void SignWithBouncyCastle(Collection<X509Certificate2> netCertificates)
{
// first cert have to be linked with private key
var signCert = netCertificates[0];
var Cert = Org.BouncyCastle.Security.DotNetUtilities.FromX509Certificate(signCert);
var data = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(Cert.SubjectDN.ToString());
var bcCertificates = netCertificates.Select(_ => Org.BouncyCastle.Security.DotNetUtilities.FromX509Certificate(_)).ToList();
var x509Certs = X509StoreFactory.Create("Certificate/Collection", new X509CollectionStoreParameters(bcCertificates));
var msg = new CmsProcessableByteArray(data);
var gen = new CmsSignedDataGenerator();
var privateKey = Org.BouncyCastle.Security.DotNetUtilities.GetKeyPair(signCert.PrivateKey).Private;
gen.AddSigner(privateKey, Cert, CmsSignedDataGenerator.DigestSha256);
gen.AddCertificates(x509Certs);
var signature = gen.Generate(msg, false).GetEncoded();
Trace.TraceInformation("signed");
CheckSignature(data, signature);
Trace.TraceInformation("checked");
try
{
CheckSignature(new byte[100], signature);
}
catch (CryptographicException cex)
{
Trace.TraceInformation("signature was checked for modified data '{0}'", cex.Message);
}
}
void CheckSignature(byte[] data, byte[] signature)
{
var ci = new ContentInfo(data);
SignedCms signedCms = new SignedCms(ci, true);
signedCms.Decode(signature);
foreach (X509Certificate cert in signedCms.Certificates)
Trace.TraceInformation("certificate found {0}", cert.Subject);
signedCms.CheckSignature(true);
}
To be clear, I am no security or cryptography expert.. but per my knowledge, for receiver to be able to validate the signature, the root certificate in the certificate chain you used for signing, must already be a trusted root for the receiver.
If the receiver does not have the root certificate already in their store, and marked as a trusted root... then doesn't matter how you sign the data.. it will fail validation on receiver end. And this is by design.
See more at Chain of trust
Hence the only real solution to your problem I see is to ensure that the root certificate is provisioned as trusted root on both ends... Typically done by a Certificate Authority.
Enterprise application scenario - Typically in an enterprise some group in IT department (who have access to all machines in the domain - like domain admins) would enable this scenario by ensuring that every computer in the domain has root certificate owned by this group, present on every machine as trusted root, and an application developer in the enterprise typically requests a new certificate for use with their application, which has the chain of trust going back to the root certificate already distributed to all machines in the domain.
Found out contact person for this group in your company, and have them issue a certificate you can use for signature.
Internet application scenario - There are established Certificate Authorities, who own their root certificates, and work with OS vendors to ensure that their root certificates are in trusted store, as the OS vendor ships the OS to it's customers. (One reason why using pirated OS can be harmful. It's not just about viruses / malware..). And that is why when you use a certificate issued by VeriSign to sign the data, the signature can be validated by most other machines in the world.
I am working on a project where I need to use a "public key" to encrypt a message using RSA algorithm. I was provided with a certificate and my first thought was to use Public Key from that certificate and after investigation I learned I need to use RSACryptoServiceProvider for encryption.
I have checked msdn and only method I thought I should use is RSACryptoServiceProvider.ImportCspBlob(byte[] keyBlob).
When I tried to use public key exported from certificate I was getting an error that the header data for certificate is invalid.
I know I can cast X509certificate2.PublicKey.Key to RSACryptoServiceProvider but from what I understood from my client is that going forward I will be given only a public key and not the certificate. This key will have to be saved in .xml configuration file.
So to summarize: Is there a way to generate an RSACryptoServiceProvider given only a certificate's public key?
You can try to look at this example: RSA public key encryption in C#
var publicKey = "<RSAKeyValue><Modulus>21wEnTU+mcD2w0Lfo1Gv4rtcSWsQJQTNa6gio05AOkV/Er9w3Y13Ddo5wGtjJ19402S71HUeN0vbKILLJdRSES5MHSdJPSVrOqdrll/vLXxDxWs/U0UT1c8u6k/Ogx9hTtZxYwoeYqdhDblof3E75d9n2F0Zvf6iTb4cI7j6fMs=</Modulus><Exponent>AQAB</Exponent></RSAKeyValue>";
var testData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("testing");
using ( var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(1024))
{
try
{
// client encrypting data with public key issued by server
//
rsa.FromXmlString(publicKey);
var encryptedData = rsa.Encrypt(testData, true);
var base64Encrypted = Convert.ToBase64String(encryptedData);
}
finally
{
rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
}
}
You are OK and following a good typical pattern. The Sender of the data does not need the private key.
The following may confirm some of the code you already have figured out.
The one line where I set the private key for the receiver/decoder I left out.
I took this from a test case I have in my build deploy stuff.
byte[] certBytAr; // This is the certificate as bianry in a .cer file (no private key in it - public only)
X509Certificate2 cert2 = new X509Certificate2(certBytAr);
string strToEncrypt = "Public To Private Test StackOverFlow PsudeoCode. Surfs Up at Secret Beach.";
byte[] bytArToEncrypt = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strToEncrypt);
RSACryptoServiceProvider rsaEncryptor = (RSACryptoServiceProvider)cert2.PublicKey.Key;
byte[] dataNowEncryptedArray = rsaEncryptor.Encrypt(bytArToEncrypt, true);
// done - you now have encrypted bytes
//
// somewhere elxe ...
// this should decrpyt it - simulate the destination which will decrypt the data with the private key
RSACryptoServiceProvider pk = // how this is set is complicated
// set the private key in the x509 oobject we created way above
cert2.PrivateKey = pk;
RSACryptoServiceProvider rsaDecryptor = (RSACryptoServiceProvider)cert2.PrivateKey;
byte[] dataDecrypted = rsaDecryptor.Decrypt(dataNowEncryptedArray, true);
Console.WriteLine(" encrypt 1 Way Intermediate " + BitConverter.ToString(dataDecrypted));
string strDecodedFinal = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(dataDecrypted);
if (strDecodedFinal == strToEncrypt)
{
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine(" FAILURE OF ENCRYPTION ROUND TRIP IN SIMPLE TEST (Direction: Public to Private). No Surfing For You ");
}
We're trying to do this for our C# (.net 3.5) application on our XP SP2 machines (Win7 later).
In our installer (created by VS2008), we're encrypting our connection string with AES key and iv, and then creating a RSA key-pair and storing them in MachineKeyStore. The installer will use the RSA public key to encrypt the AES key and iv, and store the encrpted key and iv with the encrypted connection string.
After installation, our application will read the encrypted connection string with the encrypted AES key and iv back, and use the RSA private key (from MachineKeyStore) to decrypt the AES key and iv and then decrypt the connection string with the AES key and iv.
The installer and our application share a constant string for the container name of the MachineKeyStore.
I know where the key-pair is stored, so I can monitor it to see if key-pair is deleted, updated or created.
I did some tests and found some interesting things (unexpected) but don't know why it is like that. My user account is Admin account.
The installer can delete the stored key-pair created by our application and create a new one immediately with the same container name;
The installer can update key-pair created by our application (not delete and create again, it is overwriting, I think - but this should not happen according to the doc)
Our application cannot delete the key-pair created by the installer: CryptographicException: Keyset does not exist. exception will happen when the key-pair actually exists there;
Our application cannot create a new one when the installer-created key-pair is there: CryptographicException: Keyset does not exist.
Our application cannot access the key-pair created by the installer,
CryptographicException: Access is denied. will happen in that case. The encryption in the installer works with AES and RSA public key. When the application tries to use the stored private key to do decryption, an "Access is denied" exception will occur.
Our code follows:
public static void CreateRSAKeyPair(string keyContainerName)
{
DeleteRSAKeyPair(keyContainerName);
CspParameters cspParams = new CspParameters();
cspParams.KeyContainerName = keyContainerName;
cspParams.Flags |= CspProviderFlags.UseMachineKeyStore;
using (RSACryptoServiceProvider rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cspParams))
{
rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
}
}
public static void DeleteRSAKeyPair(string keyContainerName)
{
CspParameters cspParams = new CspParameters();
cspParams.KeyContainerName = keyContainerName;
cspParams.Flags |= CspProviderFlags.UseMachineKeyStore;
using (RSACryptoServiceProvider rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cspParams))
{
rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
try
{
rsa.Clear();
}
catch (CryptographicException ex)
{
Log.logItem(LogType.Exception, "RSA key clear error, can be ignored", "SecurityMgr::DeleteRSAKeyPair()", "CryptographicException msg=" + ex.ToString());
}
}
}
Code to access private key for decryption:
private static byte[] RSADecrypt(byte[] inputData, string keyContainerName)
{
byte[] resultData = null;
try
{
CspParameters cspParams = new CspParameters();
cspParams.Flags |= CspProviderFlags.UseMachineKeyStore;
cspParams.KeyContainerName = keyContainerName;
using (RSACryptoServiceProvider rsaProvider = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cspParams))
{
//rsaProvider.PersistKeyInCsp = true;
//private key
RSAParameters rsaParams = rsaProvider.ExportParameters(true);
rsaProvider.ImportParameters(rsaParams);
resultData = rsaProvider.Decrypt(inputData, false);
}
}
catch (CryptographicException ex)
{
string msg = "CryptographicException: keyContainerName=" + keyContainerName + "\nmsg=" + ex.ToString();
Log.logItem(LogType.Exception, "RSA decryption exception", "SecurityMgr::RSADecrypt()", msg);
}
return resultData;
}
Can RSA asymmetric encryption be used like this?
EDIT:
Doing the same thing (with AES and RSA encryption) for the connection string within our application (without the installer involved) works fine.
The actual question is not very clear. However, I see a few things in your code:
You export the key pair (private and public) from the Provider into the parameters. People get confused about the boolean parameter. IT does not mean it exports ONLY the private key. If you set it to true (export private key) both your PUBLIC and PRIVATE keys will be exported.
The same keys you exported from your RSA Provider instance, you are importing back into the same provider. That does not make any sense.
Remove the ExportParameters and ImportParameters lines, they accomplish nothing. Your key(s) should already be into the RSA Provider if the container name you specified in the constructor is valid and exists.
With asymmetric cryptography you use the PRIVATE key to encrypt because that you do not share. You then use the PUBLIC key to decrypt because the other party (receiver) should only hold your PUBLIC key to be able to decrypt. If they have your PRIVATE key the whole scheme is compromised.