C# signature verification using ECDSA with SHA256 certificate

Question

I'm trying to use C# and the built in Crypto libraries to verify a signature created using an EC key + SHA256. Here's what I'm doing.

I've created a private key and corresponding certificate using openssl:

$ openssl ecparam -genkey -name prime256v1 -out ca.key
$ openssl req -x509 -new -SHA256 -nodes -key ca.key -days 36500 -out ca.crt

Here are the keys I'm using (don't worry, they're not important):

$ cat ca.key 
-----BEGIN EC PARAMETERS-----
BggqhkjOPQMBBw==
-----END EC PARAMETERS-----
-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----
MHcCAQEEIHd3OvRV1nEnoDxGzzemX1x8l2rHasWH3L/LflUGg5vloAoGCCqGSM49
AwEHoUQDQgAE7f1xwQL5m/UcN4zL+zsly6V1g3/wNcL5TdCfWt0XfnUfg0x+RsIf
1uerBnhrmhH0cN9o0xfXg5B3hURFlXVuEQ==
-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----

$ cat ca.crt 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

I then have a simple data file containing the string "Hello". I then sign that file using openssl as follows:

$ openssl dgst -sha256 -sign ca.key data.txt > sig
$ base64 sig 
MEUCIQD5593C/NBhHA1DILT72gjhGj/lKjom9vYP+JbuypBrxQIgNAjYT1LihEpPbUhe1n9ccUHQ
vw676bGqOTEU/25qcRQ=

I can then verify the signature by first extracting the public key from the certificate and then using that to verify:

$ openssl x509 -pubkey -noout -in ca.crt > ca.pub
$ cat ca.pub 
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MFkwEwYHKoZIzj0CAQYIKoZIzj0DAQcDQgAE7f1xwQL5m/UcN4zL+zsly6V1g3/w
NcL5TdCfWt0XfnUfg0x+RsIf1uerBnhrmhH0cN9o0xfXg5B3hURFlXVuEQ==
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
$ openssl dgst -verify ca.pub -sha256 -signature sig data.txt 
Verified OK

I then try and use C# (.NET Core 3.1) to verify the signature. The code is as follows:

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.Text;

namespace security_sandbox
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var certData = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(
                @"-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----");

            var cert = new X509Certificate2(certData);
            var ecdsa = cert.GetECDsaPublicKey();

            var data = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Hello");
            var signature = Convert.FromBase64String("MEUCIQD5593C/NBhHA1DILT72gjhGj/lKjom9vYP+JbuypBrxQIgNAjYT1LihEpPbUhe1n9ccUHQvw676bGqOTEU/25qcRQ=");

            var success = ecdsa.VerifyData(data, signature, HashAlgorithmName.SHA256);

            if (success)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Verified");
            } else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Failed");
            }
        }
    }
}

Unfortunately, it always fails the verification. Where is the mistake?

The signatures have different formats. If the signature in the C# code is passed in the right format, the verification is successful, s. here. — Topaco
– Topaco, Commented May 7, 2020 at 14:56
Yes, presented signature is ASN-encoded. You have to use ASN tools (there are no built-in in .NET) to extract r and s components of signature, normalize (remove leading zeroes, if any) and concatenate. Then you verify signature against concatenated binary string. — Crypt32
– Crypt32, Commented May 7, 2020 at 15:19
If you use a preview build for .NET 5 (or it's the future and .NET 5 has been released), you could call ecdsa.VerifyData(data, signature, HashAlgorithmName.SHA256, DSASignatureFormat.Rfc3279DerSequence). — bartonjs
– bartonjs, Commented May 7, 2020 at 15:57

Amr Bekhit · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-19 12:00:22Z

The lack of PEM/OpenSSL-compatible manipulation tools in .NET proved to be extremely frustrating. I ended up using Bouncy Castle to load the certificate or public key and then use that to verify my ASN signature. Here's a full working code sample demonstrating how to perform the signature verification using both the certificate and the PEM public key and working with an ASN-encoded signature.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto;
using Org.BouncyCastle.OpenSsl;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Security;
using Org.BouncyCastle.X509;

namespace security_sandbox
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            var certificateString =  @"-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----";
            var pemreader = new PemReader(new StringReader(certificateString));
            var cert = (X509Certificate)pemreader.ReadObject();

            // Alternatively, load the public key directly
            var pubkeyString = 
@"-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MFkwEwYHKoZIzj0CAQYIKoZIzj0DAQcDQgAE7f1xwQL5m/UcN4zL+zsly6V1g3/w
NcL5TdCfWt0XfnUfg0x+RsIf1uerBnhrmhH0cN9o0xfXg5B3hURFlXVuEQ==
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----";
            pemreader = new PemReader(new StringReader(pubkeyString));
            var pubkey = (AsymmetricKeyParameter)pemreader.ReadObject();

            var data = "Hello";
            var signature = Convert.FromBase64String("MEUCIQD5593C/NBhHA1DILT72gjhGj/lKjom9vYP+JbuypBrxQIgNAjYT1LihEpPbUhe1n9ccUHQvw676bGqOTEU/25qcRQ=");

            // Verify using the public key
            var signer = SignerUtilities.GetSigner("SHA-256withECDSA");
            signer.Init(false, pubkey);
            signer.BlockUpdate(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(data), 0, data.Length);
            var success = signer.VerifySignature(signature);

            if (success) {
                Console.WriteLine("Signature verified successfully using public key");
            } else {
                Console.WriteLine("Failed to verify signature using public key");
            }

            // Verify using the certificate - the certificate's public key is extracted using the GetPublicKey method.
            signer.Init(false, cert.GetPublicKey());
            signer.BlockUpdate(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(data), 0, data.Length);
            success = signer.VerifySignature(signature);

            if (success) {
                Console.WriteLine("Signature verified successfully using certificate");
            } else {
                Console.WriteLine("Failed to verify signature using certificate");
            }
        }
    }
}

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