C# RSA encryption/decryption with transmission

I've seen plenty of encryption/decryption tutorials and examples on the net in C# that use the System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider, but what I'm hoping to be able to do is:

  • Create an RSA public/private keypair
  • Transmit the public key (or for proof of concept, just move it in a string variable)
  • Create a new RSA crypto provider and encrypt a string with the public key
  • Transmit the encrypted string (or data) back to the original crypto provider and decrypt the string

Could anyone point me to a useful resource for this?


Solution 1:

well there are really enough examples for this, but anyway, here you go

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace RsaCryptoExample
{
  static class Program
  {
    static void Main()
    {
      //lets take a new CSP with a new 2048 bit rsa key pair
      var csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(2048);

      //how to get the private key
      var privKey = csp.ExportParameters(true);

      //and the public key ...
      var pubKey = csp.ExportParameters(false);

      //converting the public key into a string representation
      string pubKeyString;
      {
        //we need some buffer
        var sw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
        //we need a serializer
        var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
        //serialize the key into the stream
        xs.Serialize(sw, pubKey);
        //get the string from the stream
        pubKeyString = sw.ToString();
      }

      //converting it back
      {
        //get a stream from the string
        var sr = new System.IO.StringReader(pubKeyString);
        //we need a deserializer
        var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
        //get the object back from the stream
        pubKey = (RSAParameters)xs.Deserialize(sr);
      }

      //conversion for the private key is no black magic either ... omitted

      //we have a public key ... let's get a new csp and load that key
      csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();
      csp.ImportParameters(pubKey);

      //we need some data to encrypt
      var plainTextData = "foobar";

      //for encryption, always handle bytes...
      var bytesPlainTextData = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(plainTextData);

      //apply pkcs#1.5 padding and encrypt our data 
      var bytesCypherText = csp.Encrypt(bytesPlainTextData, false);

      //we might want a string representation of our cypher text... base64 will do
      var cypherText = Convert.ToBase64String(bytesCypherText);


      /*
       * some transmission / storage / retrieval
       * 
       * and we want to decrypt our cypherText
       */

      //first, get our bytes back from the base64 string ...
      bytesCypherText = Convert.FromBase64String(cypherText);

      //we want to decrypt, therefore we need a csp and load our private key
      csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();
      csp.ImportParameters(privKey);

      //decrypt and strip pkcs#1.5 padding
      bytesPlainTextData = csp.Decrypt(bytesCypherText, false);

      //get our original plainText back...
      plainTextData = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bytesPlainTextData);
    }
  }
}

as a side note: the calls to Encrypt() and Decrypt() have a bool parameter that switches between OAEP and PKCS#1.5 padding ... you might want to choose OAEP if it's available in your situation

Solution 2:

public static string Encryption(string strText)
        {
            var publicKey = "<RSAKeyValue><Modulus>21wEnTU+mcD2w0Lfo1Gv4rtcSWsQJQTNa6gio05AOkV/Er9w3Y13Ddo5wGtjJ19402S71HUeN0vbKILLJdRSES5MHSdJPSVrOqdrll/vLXxDxWs/U0UT1c8u6k/Ogx9hTtZxYwoeYqdhDblof3E75d9n2F0Zvf6iTb4cI7j6fMs=</Modulus><Exponent>AQAB</Exponent></RSAKeyValue>";

            var testData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strText);

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(1024))
            {
                try
                {
                    // client encrypting data with public key issued by server                    
                    rsa.FromXmlString(publicKey.ToString());

                    var encryptedData = rsa.Encrypt(testData, true);

                    var base64Encrypted = Convert.ToBase64String(encryptedData);

                    return base64Encrypted;
                }
                finally
                {
                    rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
                }
            }
        }

        public static string Decryption(string strText)
        {
            var privateKey = "<RSAKeyValue><Modulus>21wEnTU+mcD2w0Lfo1Gv4rtcSWsQJQTNa6gio05AOkV/Er9w3Y13Ddo5wGtjJ19402S71HUeN0vbKILLJdRSES5MHSdJPSVrOqdrll/vLXxDxWs/U0UT1c8u6k/Ogx9hTtZxYwoeYqdhDblof3E75d9n2F0Zvf6iTb4cI7j6fMs=</Modulus><Exponent>AQAB</Exponent><P>/aULPE6jd5IkwtWXmReyMUhmI/nfwfkQSyl7tsg2PKdpcxk4mpPZUdEQhHQLvE84w2DhTyYkPHCtq/mMKE3MHw==</P><Q>3WV46X9Arg2l9cxb67KVlNVXyCqc/w+LWt/tbhLJvV2xCF/0rWKPsBJ9MC6cquaqNPxWWEav8RAVbmmGrJt51Q==</Q><DP>8TuZFgBMpBoQcGUoS2goB4st6aVq1FcG0hVgHhUI0GMAfYFNPmbDV3cY2IBt8Oj/uYJYhyhlaj5YTqmGTYbATQ==</DP><DQ>FIoVbZQgrAUYIHWVEYi/187zFd7eMct/Yi7kGBImJStMATrluDAspGkStCWe4zwDDmdam1XzfKnBUzz3AYxrAQ==</DQ><InverseQ>QPU3Tmt8nznSgYZ+5jUo9E0SfjiTu435ihANiHqqjasaUNvOHKumqzuBZ8NRtkUhS6dsOEb8A2ODvy7KswUxyA==</InverseQ><D>cgoRoAUpSVfHMdYXW9nA3dfX75dIamZnwPtFHq80ttagbIe4ToYYCcyUz5NElhiNQSESgS5uCgNWqWXt5PnPu4XmCXx6utco1UVH8HGLahzbAnSy6Cj3iUIQ7Gj+9gQ7PkC434HTtHazmxVgIR5l56ZjoQ8yGNCPZnsdYEmhJWk=</D></RSAKeyValue>";

            var testData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strText);

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(1024))
            {
                try
                {                    
                    var base64Encrypted = strText;

                    // server decrypting data with private key                    
                    rsa.FromXmlString(privateKey);

                    var resultBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(base64Encrypted);
                    var decryptedBytes = rsa.Decrypt(resultBytes, true);
                    var decryptedData = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decryptedBytes);
                    return decryptedData.ToString();
                }
                finally
                {
                    rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
                }
            }
        }

Solution 3:

Honestly, I have difficulty implementing it because there's barely any tutorials I've searched that displays writing the keys into the files. The accepted answer was "fine". But for me I had to improve it so that both keys gets saved into two separate files. I've written a helper class so y'all just gotta copy and paste it. Hope this helps lol.

using Microsoft.Win32;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace RsaCryptoExample
{
    class RSAFileHelper
    {
        readonly string pubKeyPath = "public.key";//change as needed
        readonly string priKeyPath = "private.key";//change as needed
        public void MakeKey()
        {
            //lets take a new CSP with a new 2048 bit rsa key pair
            RSACryptoServiceProvider csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(2048);

            //how to get the private key
            RSAParameters privKey = csp.ExportParameters(true);

            //and the public key ...
            RSAParameters pubKey = csp.ExportParameters(false);
            //converting the public key into a string representation
            string pubKeyString;
            {
                //we need some buffer
                var sw = new StringWriter();
                //we need a serializer
                var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
                //serialize the key into the stream
                xs.Serialize(sw, pubKey);
                //get the string from the stream
                pubKeyString = sw.ToString();
                File.WriteAllText(pubKeyPath, pubKeyString);
            }
            string privKeyString;
            {
                //we need some buffer
                var sw = new StringWriter();
                //we need a serializer
                var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
                //serialize the key into the stream
                xs.Serialize(sw, privKey);
                //get the string from the stream
                privKeyString = sw.ToString();
                File.WriteAllText(priKeyPath, privKeyString);
            }
        }
        public void EncryptFile(string filePath)
        {
            //converting the public key into a string representation
            string pubKeyString;
            {
                using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(pubKeyPath)){pubKeyString = reader.ReadToEnd();}
            }
            //get a stream from the string
            var sr = new StringReader(pubKeyString);

            //we need a deserializer
            var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));

            //get the object back from the stream
            RSACryptoServiceProvider csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();
            csp.ImportParameters((RSAParameters)xs.Deserialize(sr));
            byte[] bytesPlainTextData = File.ReadAllBytes(filePath);

            //apply pkcs#1.5 padding and encrypt our data 
            var bytesCipherText = csp.Encrypt(bytesPlainTextData, false);
            //we might want a string representation of our cypher text... base64 will do
            string encryptedText = Convert.ToBase64String(bytesCipherText);
            File.WriteAllText(filePath,encryptedText);
        }
        public void DecryptFile(string filePath)
        {
            //we want to decrypt, therefore we need a csp and load our private key
            RSACryptoServiceProvider csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();

            string privKeyString;
            {
                privKeyString = File.ReadAllText(priKeyPath);
                //get a stream from the string
                var sr = new StringReader(privKeyString);
                //we need a deserializer
                var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
                //get the object back from the stream
                RSAParameters privKey = (RSAParameters)xs.Deserialize(sr);
                csp.ImportParameters(privKey);
            }
            string encryptedText;
            using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filePath)) { encryptedText = reader.ReadToEnd(); }
            byte[] bytesCipherText = Convert.FromBase64String(encryptedText);

            //decrypt and strip pkcs#1.5 padding
            byte[] bytesPlainTextData = csp.Decrypt(bytesCipherText, false);

            //get our original plainText back...
            File.WriteAllBytes(filePath, bytesPlainTextData);
        }
    }
}