c# - how to sign bytes using my own rsa private key using rs256 algorithm?

Question

I have my own private key string, i.e.

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

MIICXAIBAAKBgQCSAYYgzvGTww....
....
....
.....
3yUMYj9oYzqdrRHP0XgD0cEEvyqPBwLaNsRdFwy5qTiHjj0f+ZWHQWmqcoLmmpzyZEbIvQm/VhbjRF6iKG4WZ9Hfa7ntYRNGdWgD/KMIeZI=

-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Now, I need to sign my claim set using this private key in C# to generate JWT payload.

I have written the following code:

var utc0 = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);
var issueTime = DateTime.Now;

var iat = (int)issueTime.Subtract(utc0).TotalSeconds;
var exp = (int)issueTime.AddMinutes(55).Subtract(utc0).TotalSeconds;

var payload = new
{
    iss = email,
    prn = prn,
    scope = "scope",
    aud = "https://example.com",
    exp = exp,
    iat = iat
};

var segments = new List<string>();
var header = new { typ = "JWT", alg = "RS256" };

byte[] headerBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(jsonSerializer.Serialize(header));
byte[] payloadBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(jsonSerializer.Serialize(payload));

segments.Add(Base64UrlEncode(headerBytes));
segments.Add(Base64UrlEncode(payloadBytes));

var stringToSign = string.Join(".", segments.ToArray());

var bytesToSign = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign);

Now I need these bytesToSign to be signed by my private key as I mentioned above using the rs256 alogorithm. Can anyone help?

I've updated my code as per the following:

var pemprivatekey = OpenSSLKey.DecodeOpenSSLPrivateKey(privateKey);
RSACryptoServiceProvider rsaProvider = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();

if (pemprivatekey != null)
{
    rsaProvider = OpenSSLKey.DecodeRSAPrivateKey(pemprivatekey);
}

byte[] signature = rsaProvider.SignData(bytesToSign, "SHA256");

segments.Add(Base64UrlEncode(signature));

return string.Join(".", segments.ToArray());

and generated JWT token. Please let me know where I made a mistake as its not correct one: when I pass it to the API, it doesn't work and throws an error.

Answer 1

The key to this question is using JWT and Bouncy castle libraries for encoding the token and signing it respectively.

1. JWT for encoding and decoding JWT tokens
2. Bouncy Castle supports encryption and decryption, especially RS256 get it here

First, you need to transform the private key to the form of RSA parameters. Then you need to pass the RSA parameters to the RSA algorithm as the private key. Lastly, you use the JWT library to encode and sign the token.

    public string GenerateJWTToken(string rsaPrivateKey)
    {
        var rsaParams = GetRsaParameters(rsaPrivateKey);
        var encoder = GetRS256JWTEncoder(rsaParams);

        // create the payload according to your need
        var payload = new Dictionary<string, object>
        {
            { "iss", ""},
            { "sub", "" },
            // and other key-values 
        };

        var token = encoder.Encode(payload, new byte[0]);

        return token;
    }

    private static IJwtEncoder GetRS256JWTEncoder(RSAParameters rsaParams)
    {
        var csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();
        csp.ImportParameters(rsaParams);

        var algorithm = new RS256Algorithm(csp, csp);
        var serializer = new JsonNetSerializer();
        var urlEncoder = new JwtBase64UrlEncoder();
        var encoder = new JwtEncoder(algorithm, serializer, urlEncoder);

        return encoder;
    }

    private static RSAParameters GetRsaParameters(string rsaPrivateKey)
    {
        var byteArray = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(rsaPrivateKey);
        using (var ms = new MemoryStream(byteArray))
        {
            using (var sr = new StreamReader(ms))
            {
                // use Bouncy Castle to convert the private key to RSA parameters
                var pemReader = new PemReader(sr);
                var keyPair = pemReader.ReadObject() as AsymmetricCipherKeyPair;
                return DotNetUtilities.ToRSAParameters(keyPair.Private as RsaPrivateCrtKeyParameters);
            }
        }
    }

ps: the RSA private key should have the following format:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

{base64 formatted value}

-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----