Azure, App-service, create X509Certificate2 object from string - c#

Having an App-service in Azure, and working on the AzureServiceManagementAPI, I was downloading the file that contains the managememnt certificate for each subscription.
Any how using the certificate string from the file I'm trying to create a X509Certificate2 object.
string cerStr = subscription.Attribute("ManagementCertificate").Value;
X509Certificate2 x509 = new X509Certificate2(Convert.FromBase64String(cerStr), string.Empty, X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet)
The constructor of X509Certificate2 throw an exception
Access denied.
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException.ThrowCryptographicException(Int32
hr) at
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Utils._LoadCertFromBlob(Byte[]
rawData, IntPtr password, UInt32 dwFlags, Boolean persistKeySet,
SafeCertContextHandle& pCertCtx) at
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate.LoadCertificateFromBlob(Byte[]
rawData, Object password, X509KeyStorageFlags keyStorageFlags)

Since no one has answered this questions, I will try and have go at it. Please correct me if I am wrong, but the problem I think is the following line of code:
new X509Certificate2(Convert.FromBase64String(cerStr), string.Empty, X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet)
This line of code will try to add a new certificate to the certificate store of the virtual machine. All certificates used by the runtime, needs to be hosted in a store somewhere. This is not a good idea because the certificate store of the virtual machine hosting the app service is nothing that you should be storing anything in, it's part of the infrastructure which is not of your concern when you are working with app services.
What you need to do is to upload the certificate through the azure portal instead (if they are not already there). I ended up reusing a SSL certificate already in place for this purpose. When this is done, you can retreive that certificate in code. You will need to add a new App Setting under "Application Settings" key in the Azure portal for your app service, named WEBSITE_LOAD_CERTIFICATES. The value should be the thumbprint of the certificate.
To retrieve the cert, you should do something like this:
public async Task<X509Certificate2> GetCertificate(string certificateThumbprint)
{
var store = new X509Store(StoreName.Root, StoreLocation.LocalMachine);
store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
var cert = store.Certificates.OfType<X509Certificate2>()
.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Thumbprint == certificateThumbprint);
store.Close();
return cert;
}
You might be able to get thumbprint of the cert by navigating your subscription using the azure resource explorer https://resources.azure.com/

As Fredrik mentioned the issue is due to the code
X509Certificate2 x509 = new X509Certificate2(Convert.FromBase64String(cerStr), string.Empty, X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet)
In the Azure WebApp, if we try to use the certificate, we need to upload the certificate from the Azure portal. Add the WEBSITE_LOAD_CERTIFICATES with thumbprint value in the Azure WebApp application. More detail info please refer to blog.
Web application to access the certificate, snippet code from the blog
static void Main(string[] args)
{
X509Store certStore = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
certStore.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
X509Certificate2Collection certCollection = certStore.Certificates.Find(
X509FindType.FindByThumbprint,
// Replace below with your cert's thumbprint
“E661583E8FABEF4C0BEF694CBC41C28FB81CD870”,
false);
// Get the first cert with the thumbprint
if (certCollection.Count > 0)
{
X509Certificate2 cert = certCollection[0];
// Use certificate
Console.WriteLine(cert.FriendlyName);
}
certStore.Close();
}

Related

Cant access certificates in X509Store from asp.net core 2.1 with thumbprints

I have strange problem when accessing X509Store from IIS. I can't look them up.
If I access both the rp cert and ca cert from powershell both are there,
dir cert: -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Thumbprint -like "thumprintstring" }
I have checked that the thumbprints don't have a hidden char in the beginning of thumbprint
I have set that the certificates are exportable when I install them
I have for the moment set it accessable for everyone(its a certificate to a test server) in certficate
store
This is code I use
StoreLocation location = certificateConfig.UseCurrentUserStoreLocation ? StoreLocation.CurrentUser : StoreLocation.LocalMachine;
using (var clientCertStore = new X509Store(StoreName.My, location))
{
clientCertStore.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
//Search for the client cert
X509Certificate2 rpCert = GetCertByThumbprint(clientCertStore, certificateConfig.RpCertThumbprint);
if (rpCert == null)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("No rp cert found for specified thumbprint #" + certificateConfig.RpCertThumbprint +"# "+location);
}
ClientCertificates.Add(rpCert);
}
<snip>
private X509Certificate2 GetCertByThumbprint(X509Store certStore, string thumbprint)
{
var certs = certStore.Certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindByThumbprint, thumbprint, false);
return certs.Count > 0 ? certs[0] : null;
}
The rpcert is always null whatever i try.
Do I need another way to open up the store from IIS?
Any ideas or suggestions? What am I missing?
The problem was not what I expected. The config read from enviromentvariables that had been deleted so they didnt show in enviromentvariables and the server had not been restarted. And the deleted ones had most likely the bad character infront of the thumbprint.
Restarting iis doesn't solve this since the network service account doesnt reread these when already loggedon.
Follow up question: Is possible to relogin in network service account without restarting the server?

Unable to Add certificate to X509Store

Im trying to add a certificate to a certificate store programatically
I'm using the following code to fetch a pfx file from a directory and add the certificate to the CurrentUser under My store.
The code runs without any exception but I'm not able to see the certificate added in the store.
I've tried changing CurrentUser to LocalMachine and have also tried adding under TrustedPeople but with no success.
X509Certificate2 cer = new X509Certificate2(Server.MapPath("<filepath>"), "<pswd>", X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet );
StorePermission sp =
new StorePermission(PermissionState.Unrestricted);
sp.Flags = StorePermissionFlags.AllFlags;
sp.Assert();
X509Store store = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
store.Open(OpenFlags.MaxAllowed);
store.Certificates.Add(cer);
store.Close();
Try
store.Add(cer);
instead of
store.Certificates.Add(cer);

'Cannot find the requested object' exception while creating X509Certificate2 from string

I am trying to create X509Certificate2 from string. Let me show an example:
string keyBase64String = Convert.ToBase64String(file.PKCS7);
var cert = new X509Certificate2(Convert.FromBase64String(keyBase64String));
and keyBase64String has a such content: "MIIF0QYJKoZI ........hvcNAQcCoIIFwjCCBb4CA0="
and file.PKCS7 is byte array which I downloaded from database.
I've got the following exception when creating X509Certificate2:
Cannot find the requested object
And the stack trace:
"Cannot find requested object" X509Certificate2 Exception "Cannot find
requested object"} at
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException.ThrowCryptographicException(Int32
hr) at
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Utils._QueryCertBlobType(Byte[]
rawData) at
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate.LoadCertificateFromBlob(Byte[]
rawData, Object password, X509KeyStorageFlags keyStorageFlags) at
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2..ctor(Byte[]
rawData) at
WebApp.SoupController.d__7.MoveNext()
in
D:\Projects\WebApp\Controllers\SoupController.cs:line
118
Please, say me what I am doing wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
If file.PKCS7 represents a PKCS#7 SignedData blob (what gets produced from X509Certificate2.Export(X509ContentType.Pkcs7) or X509Certificate2Collection.Export(X509ContentType.Pkcs7)) then there are two different ways of opening it:
new X509Certificate2(byte[])/new X509Certificate2(string)
The single certificate constructor will extract the signing certificate of the SignedData blob. If this was just being exported as a collection of certs, but not signing anything, there is no such certificate, and so it fails with Cannot find the original signer. (Win 2012r2, other versions could map it to a different string)
X509Certificate2Collection::Import(byte[])/X509Certificate2Collection::Import(string)
The collection import will consume all of the "extra" certificates, ignoring the signing certificate.
So if it's really PKCS#7 you likely want the collection Import (instance) method. If it isn't, you have some odd variable/field/property names.
The constructor of of X509Certificate2 expects to get a the certificate file name, but you are giving it a key (X509Certificate2 Constructor (String))
I assume that keyBase64String is the certificate key, and that the certificate is installed on the machine that executes the code. Try this:
var store = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.LocalMachine);
store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
var certCollection = store.Certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindByThumbprint, keyBase64String , false);
var cert = certCollection[0];
You can also try FindByKeyUsage, FindBySubjectKeyIdentifier, or other types of X509FindType Enumeration

X509Store Certificates.Find() intermittently failing to find certificate

I have a problem with an MVC web app which calls to another service using a private certificate.
The certificate is in my Personal keystore against the current machine- I have used winhttpcertcfg to give permissions to the certificate to the app pool identity of my web application. The key is loaded in the following method;
internal bool SetCertificateFromCertStore(string subjectName)
{
X509Store store = null;
try
{
store = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.LocalMachine);
store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
X509Certificate2Collection certs = store.Certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindBySubjectName, subjectName, true);
if (certs.Count != 1)
{
store.Close();
store = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
certs = store.Certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindBySubjectName, subjectName, true);
if (certs.Count != 1)
{
throw new Exception("Unable to find Certificate");
}
}
_certificate = certs[0];
return true;
}
finally
{
if (store != null)
{
store.Close();
}
}
}
This code worked everytime until a couple weeks ago (the 12th of April) when at 17:05 I noticed the first instance in ELMAH of the "Unable to find Certificate" exception being thrown. Checking the applications log, the system is still working on almost all the request with this error cropping up just a few times an hour on some requests.
I've read around similar questions which suggest implementing code similar to the code I'm already using (querying multiple stores). Is there some kind of known issue with the Windows certificate store? Perhaps a locking issue? Is there another way to tackle this or something obvious I'm doing wrong here?
Any help you can offer would be appreciated as I've run out of things to try!

how to load password protected certificates from the X509Store?

I am building an ACS protected Azure WCF service that will require clients to authenticate via a certificate.
I would like the client (and the server) to load their respective password certs from the X509Store instead of from the file system.
I am using this code:
private static X509Certificate2 GetCertificate(string thumbprint)
{
var certStore = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.LocalMachine);
certStore.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
X509Certificate2Collection certCollection = certStore.Certificates.Find(
X509FindType.FindByThumbprint,
thumbprint, false);
certStore.Close();
if (certCollection.Count == 0)
{
throw new System.Security.SecurityException(string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "No certificate was found for thumbprint {0}", thumbprint));
}
return certCollection[0];
}
Problem is, it's not loading the private key which it needs for authentication. I have tried to modify the return statement to this:
return new X509Certificate2(certCollection[0].Export(X509ContentType.Pfx, "password"));
However, this fails with a CryptographicException "The spcecified network password is incorrect".
Edit:
The .Export() method works properly if you don't pass the password argument in.
Any help on this?
When you export, the password you provide is the password you want to use for the exported file, it's not the password for the source certificate.
I'm not sure what you can do with X509Store and password-protected certs because the password should be supplied to the X509Certificate constructor and you get already-instantiated objects out of the store.
I think you can just get the raw data from the cert you want and construct a new one with the password you want. For example:
X509Certificate2 cert = new X509Certificate2(certCollection[0].GetRawCertData, password);
I would also suggest you try to use SecureString when dealing with passwords (but that's a different bag of worms...)
I used the Export without the 'password' parameter and it worked without issue.
When the cert was imported into the certificate store, I think the key has to be marked as "exportable" otherwise I don't think you can export the private key..

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