X509Certificate2.Verify() returns false always

Deb picture Deb · Feb 27, 2015 · Viewed 12.8k times · Source

Facing a really strange issue X509Certificate2.Verify() returning false for a valid certificate. Maybe some has already faced this strange scenario before and can shine some light on it.

I am using openssl to generate client certificates for testing purposes. I create a Root CA and generate a client certificate based on that Root CA and add the Root CA to its chain.

I load the Root CA and the Client Cert to the local certificate store and it seems ok there but when I load it from my NUnit code to test X509Certificate2.Verify() always returns false.

enter image description here

Here is the code to load the Cert from the store:

        X509Store store = new X509Store(StoreName.My);
        string thumbprint = "60 d1 38 95 ee 3a 73 1e 7e 0d 70 68 0f 2d d0 69 1e 9a eb 72";
        store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
        var mCert = store.Certificates.Find(
                                X509FindType.FindByThumbprint,
                                thumbprint,
                                true
                              ).OfType<System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate>().FirstOrDefault();
        if(mCert != null)
        {
            var testClientCert = new X509Certificate2(mCert);
        }

Here is the Client Cert that I have just generated: (the CRL url is accessible from my local machine correctly)

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIC7jCCAlegAwIBAgIBATANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADBtMR0wGwYDVQQKExRWaXRh
bEhlYWx0aCBTb2Z0d2FyZTElMCMGA1UECxMcVml0YWxIZWFsdGggU29mdHdhcmUg
Um9vdCBDQTElMCMGA1UEAxMcVml0YWxIZWFsdGggU29mdHdhcmUgUm9vdCBDQTAe
Fw0xNTAyMjcwODQ2MzNaFw0xNjAyMjcwODQ2MzNaMEUxHTAbBgNVBAoTFFZpdGFs
SGVhbHRoIFNvZnR3YXJlMREwDwYDVQQLEwhQbGF0Zm9ybTERMA8GA1UEAxMIVGVz
dFVzZXIwgZ8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQADgY0AMIGJAoGBAOkfyjX0PSnRYrBbCC8u
rw7IiFdAUj6frPKEmt0TLAR/4g+NazKdGjRRqxE9mNwX/2zGhIcucfGDVwPtOtiV
opicQEzGiSQkvAc+473MN5D6j3XtBYblALMeMyEYoh3LnHO4K+6kV6XE4BXV/2lV
mAVgXGkZzaayd40DLvg48vPlAgMBAAGjgcUwgcIwCQYDVR0TBAIwADARBglghkgB
hvhCAQEEBAMCB4AwCwYDVR0PBAQDAgWgMBMGA1UdJQQMMAoGCCsGAQUFBwMCMDEG
CWCGSAGG+EIBDQQkFiJPcGVuU1NMIENlcnRpZmljYXRlIGZvciBTU0wgQ2xpZW50
ME0GA1UdHwRGMEQwQqBAoD6GPGh0dHA6Ly9wbGF0Zm9ybWRhc2hib2FyZC5ubC52
aXRhbGhlYWx0aC5sb2NhbC9wb3J0YWwvY3JsLmNybDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFAAOB
gQBXYSmZaVu6vnyl94SO4qpNOutsUm4p7fQHehljhZ+aRrXE10rivWCt4g0k961E
PDsp4J0DR6uth6et42pBp8v2gFIGSQY/F7NhmOAsOJvM7z0oIBxMLcclIDTygbRp
KjZZpNjvf+YJasbidosiL4VSeRiCZ+HPzvKDb3wNeafoZA==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

And here is the CRL file that gets download when I access it from the browser:

-----BEGIN X509 CRL-----
MIIBMjCBnDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADBtMR0wGwYDVQQKExRWaXRhbEhlYWx0aCBT
b2Z0d2FyZTElMCMGA1UECxMcVml0YWxIZWFsdGggU29mdHdhcmUgUm9vdCBDQTEl
MCMGA1UEAxMcVml0YWxIZWFsdGggU29mdHdhcmUgUm9vdCBDQRcNMTQwODA3MTQz
OTIyWhcNMTQwOTA2MTQzOTIyWjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFAAOBgQA8MSxAorbxpdDm
1IA2Aqjb/OkZydua1Tm5k5KtHknI4zyYPZb3GzO0eRygpKBSAqtYkxDI6eCv6xgf
+anXT56md+cPGZ+2YvSicxqwP2GL2kymc9mVMTiQieioS1/7apjCIjZEgWxqf3Up
zvy/kNQRg3lII8hYu0idGs9byKZJFQ==
-----END X509 CRL-----

Answer

pepo picture pepo · Feb 27, 2015

According to the X509Certificate2.Verify documentation

This method builds a simple chain for the certificate and applies the base policy to that chain. If you need more information about a failure, validate the certificate directly using the X509Chain object.

Therefore I would try to build chain using this code (replace Log method with your own implementation, I was using Console.Writeline)

X509Chain chain = new X509Chain();

try
{
    var chainBuilt = chain.Build(testClientCert );
    Log(string.Format("Chain building status: {0}", chainBuilt));

    if (chainBuilt == false)
        foreach (X509ChainStatus chainStatus in chain.ChainStatus)
            Log(string.Format("Chain error: {0} {1}", chainStatus.Status, chainStatus.StatusInformation));
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Log(ex.ToString());
}

This code will tell you the reason why the certificate could not be verified. If you need to adjust chain policy then set chain.ChainPolicy property i.e.

chain.ChainPolicy = new X509ChainPolicy()
{
    RevocationMode = X509RevocationMode.NoCheck,
    VerificationFlags = X509VerificationFlags.IgnoreNotTimeValid,
    UrlRetrievalTimeout = new TimeSpan(0, 1, 0)
};