Example C Program: Signing a Message and Verifying a Message Signature
The following example implements the procedure described in Procedure for Signing Data. For general information, see Simplified Messages. Details about the functions and structures can be found in Base Cryptography Functions, Simplified Message Functions, and CryptoAPI Structures.
This example also includes code to verify the message signature created. This code would usually be in a separate program but is included here for completeness and clarity.
This example illustrates the following CryptoAPI functions:
- CertOpenStore
- CryptSignMessage
- CryptVerifyMessageSignature
- CertFreeCertificateContext
- CertCloseStore
Signing the message can only be done with access to a certificate that has an available private key. Verification of the message can only be done with access to the public key related to the private key used to sign the certificate. The user can change the #define statement to the subject name from one of the user's personal certificates.
This example also demonstrates the initialization of the CRYPT_SIGN_MESSAGE_PARA and CRYPT_VERIFY_MESSAGE_PARA structures needed for calls to CryptSignMessage and CryptVerifyMessageSignature.
This example also uses the function MyHandleError. Code for this function is included with the example program and also can be seen in General Purpose Functions.
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// Copyright (C) Microsoft. All rights reserved.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <wincrypt.h>
// Link with the Crypt32.lib file.
#pragma comment (lib, "Crypt32")
#define MY_ENCODING_TYPE (PKCS_7_ASN_ENCODING | X509_ASN_ENCODING)
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// Define the name of a certificate subject.
// To use this program, the definition of SIGNER_NAME
// must be changed to the name of the subject of
// a certificate that has access to a private key. That certificate
// must have either the CERT_KEY_PROV_INFO_PROP_ID or
// CERT_KEY_CONTEXT_PROP_ID property set for the context to
// provide access to the private signature key.
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// You can use a command similar to the following to create a
// certificate that can be used with this example:
//
// makecert -n "cn=Test" -sk Test -ss my
//#define SIGNER_NAME L"test"
#define SIGNER_NAME L"Insert_signer_name_here"
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// Define the name of the store where the needed certificate
// can be found.
#define CERT_STORE_NAME L"MY"
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// Local function prototypes.
void MyHandleError(LPTSTR psz);
bool SignMessage(CRYPT_DATA_BLOB *pSignedMessageBlob);
bool VerifySignedMessage(
CRYPT_DATA_BLOB *pSignedMessageBlob,
CRYPT_DATA_BLOB *pDecodedMessageBlob);
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(argc);
UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(argv);
CRYPT_DATA_BLOB SignedMessage;
if(SignMessage(&SignedMessage))
{
CRYPT_DATA_BLOB DecodedMessage;
if(VerifySignedMessage(&SignedMessage, &DecodedMessage))
{
free(DecodedMessage.pbData);
}
free(SignedMessage.pbData);
}
_tprintf(TEXT("Press any key to exit."));
_getch();
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// MyHandleError
void MyHandleError(LPTSTR psz)
{
_ftprintf(stderr, TEXT("An error occurred in the program. \n"));
_ftprintf(stderr, TEXT("%s\n"), psz);
_ftprintf(stderr, TEXT("Error number %x.\n"), GetLastError());
_ftprintf(stderr, TEXT("Program terminating. \n"));
} // End of MyHandleError
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// SignMessage
bool SignMessage(CRYPT_DATA_BLOB *pSignedMessageBlob)
{
bool fReturn = false;
BYTE* pbMessage;
DWORD cbMessage;
HCERTSTORE hCertStore = NULL;
PCCERT_CONTEXT pSignerCert;
CRYPT_SIGN_MESSAGE_PARA SigParams;
DWORD cbSignedMessageBlob;
BYTE *pbSignedMessageBlob = NULL;
// Initialize the output pointer.
pSignedMessageBlob->cbData = 0;
pSignedMessageBlob->pbData = NULL;
// The message to be signed.
// Usually, the message exists somewhere and a pointer is
// passed to the application.
pbMessage =
(BYTE*)TEXT("CryptoAPI is a good way to handle security");
// Calculate the size of message. To include the
// terminating null character, the length is one more byte
// than the length returned by the strlen function.
cbMessage = (lstrlen((TCHAR*) pbMessage) + 1) * sizeof(TCHAR);
// Create the MessageArray and the MessageSizeArray.
const BYTE* MessageArray[] = {pbMessage};
DWORD_PTR MessageSizeArray[1];
MessageSizeArray[0] = cbMessage;
// Begin processing.
_tprintf(TEXT("The message to be signed is \"%s\".\n"),
pbMessage);
// Open the certificate store.
if ( !( hCertStore = CertOpenStore(
CERT_STORE_PROV_SYSTEM,
0,
NULL,
CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER,
CERT_STORE_NAME)))
{
MyHandleError(TEXT("The MY store could not be opened."));
goto exit_SignMessage;
}
// Get a pointer to the signer's certificate.
// This certificate must have access to the signer's private key.
if(pSignerCert = CertFindCertificateInStore(
hCertStore,
MY_ENCODING_TYPE,
0,
CERT_FIND_SUBJECT_STR,
SIGNER_NAME,
NULL))
{
_tprintf(TEXT("The signer's certificate was found.\n"));
}
else
{
MyHandleError( TEXT("Signer certificate not found."));
goto exit_SignMessage;
}
// Initialize the signature structure.
SigParams.cbSize = sizeof(CRYPT_SIGN_MESSAGE_PARA);
SigParams.dwMsgEncodingType = MY_ENCODING_TYPE;
SigParams.pSigningCert = pSignerCert;
SigParams.HashAlgorithm.pszObjId = szOID_RSA_SHA1RSA;
SigParams.HashAlgorithm.Parameters.cbData = NULL;
SigParams.cMsgCert = 1;
SigParams.rgpMsgCert = &pSignerCert;
SigParams.cAuthAttr = 0;
SigParams.dwInnerContentType = 0;
SigParams.cMsgCrl = 0;
SigParams.cUnauthAttr = 0;
SigParams.dwFlags = 0;
SigParams.pvHashAuxInfo = NULL;
SigParams.rgAuthAttr = NULL;
// First, get the size of the signed BLOB.
if(CryptSignMessage(
&SigParams,
FALSE,
1,
MessageArray,
MessageSizeArray,
NULL,
&cbSignedMessageBlob))
{
_tprintf(TEXT("%d bytes needed for the encoded BLOB.\n"),
cbSignedMessageBlob);
}
else
{
MyHandleError(TEXT("Getting signed BLOB size failed"));
goto exit_SignMessage;
}
// Allocate memory for the signed BLOB.
if(!(pbSignedMessageBlob =
(BYTE*)malloc(cbSignedMessageBlob)))
{
MyHandleError(
TEXT("Memory allocation error while signing."));
goto exit_SignMessage;
}
// Get the signed message BLOB.
if(CryptSignMessage(
&SigParams,
FALSE,
1,
MessageArray,
MessageSizeArray,
pbSignedMessageBlob,
&cbSignedMessageBlob))
{
_tprintf(TEXT("The message was signed successfully. \n"));
// pbSignedMessageBlob now contains the signed BLOB.
fReturn = true;
}
else
{
MyHandleError(TEXT("Error getting signed BLOB"));
goto exit_SignMessage;
}
exit_SignMessage:
// Clean up and free memory as needed.
if(pSignerCert)
{
CertFreeCertificateContext(pSignerCert);
}
if(hCertStore)
{
CertCloseStore(hCertStore, CERT_CLOSE_STORE_CHECK_FLAG);
hCertStore = NULL;
}
// Only free the signed message if a failure occurred.
if(!fReturn)
{
if(pbSignedMessageBlob)
{
free(pbSignedMessageBlob);
pbSignedMessageBlob = NULL;
}
}
if(pbSignedMessageBlob)
{
pSignedMessageBlob->cbData = cbSignedMessageBlob;
pSignedMessageBlob->pbData = pbSignedMessageBlob;
}
return fReturn;
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// VerifySignedMessage
//
// Verify the message signature. Usually, this would be done in
// a separate program.
bool VerifySignedMessage(
CRYPT_DATA_BLOB *pSignedMessageBlob,
CRYPT_DATA_BLOB *pDecodedMessageBlob)
{
bool fReturn = false;
DWORD cbDecodedMessageBlob;
BYTE *pbDecodedMessageBlob = NULL;
CRYPT_VERIFY_MESSAGE_PARA VerifyParams;
// Initialize the output.
pDecodedMessageBlob->cbData = 0;
pDecodedMessageBlob->pbData = NULL;
// Initialize the VerifyParams data structure.
VerifyParams.cbSize = sizeof(CRYPT_VERIFY_MESSAGE_PARA);
VerifyParams.dwMsgAndCertEncodingType = MY_ENCODING_TYPE;
VerifyParams.hCryptProv = 0;
VerifyParams.pfnGetSignerCertificate = NULL;
VerifyParams.pvGetArg = NULL;
// First, call CryptVerifyMessageSignature to get the length
// of the buffer needed to hold the decoded message.
if(CryptVerifyMessageSignature(
&VerifyParams,
0,
pSignedMessageBlob->pbData,
pSignedMessageBlob->cbData,
NULL,
&cbDecodedMessageBlob,
NULL))
{
_tprintf(TEXT("%d bytes needed for the decoded message.\n"),
cbDecodedMessageBlob);
}
else
{
_tprintf(TEXT("Verification message failed. \n"));
goto exit_VerifySignedMessage;
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------
// Allocate memory for the decoded message.
if(!(pbDecodedMessageBlob =
(BYTE*)malloc(cbDecodedMessageBlob)))
{
MyHandleError(
TEXT("Memory allocation error allocating decode BLOB."));
goto exit_VerifySignedMessage;
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------
// Call CryptVerifyMessageSignature again to verify the signature
// and, if successful, copy the decoded message into the buffer.
// This will validate the signature against the certificate in
// the local store.
if(CryptVerifyMessageSignature(
&VerifyParams,
0,
pSignedMessageBlob->pbData,
pSignedMessageBlob->cbData,
pbDecodedMessageBlob,
&cbDecodedMessageBlob,
NULL))
{
_tprintf(TEXT("The verified message is \"%s\".\n"),
pbDecodedMessageBlob);
fReturn = true;
}
else
{
_tprintf(TEXT("Verification message failed. \n"));
}
exit_VerifySignedMessage:
// If something failed and the decoded message buffer was
// allocated, free it.
if(!fReturn)
{
if(pbDecodedMessageBlob)
{
free(pbDecodedMessageBlob);
pbDecodedMessageBlob = NULL;
}
}
// If the decoded message buffer is still around, it means the
// function was successful. Copy the pointer and size into the
// output parameter.
if(pbDecodedMessageBlob)
{
pDecodedMessageBlob->cbData = cbDecodedMessageBlob;
pDecodedMessageBlob->pbData = pbDecodedMessageBlob;
}
return fReturn;
}