Problems with SSLstream.Read

[digitaldrew]

I'm connecting to an EPP server via TCPclient and it's protected by SSL certificate authentication. The company that provides the EPP server said I needed to get a certificate (not self-signed), upload the CRT file into my user account, and then combine the CRT and KEY files into one (I choose PFX) that will I need to pass with each message in order to invoke an authorization / certificate combination. I've upload the CRT and created the PFX files fine.

I've tested this several ways (SSLstream, NetworkStream, StreamWriter/StreamReader) and none of them have been able to produce me with a readable response. At the same time, neither method produces any exceptions. From my testing it appears that I connect to the server okay, convert my string and write okay, but then either get a blank response or a jibberish response that looks like it might be encrypted? Below are two ways I've tried to do this (SSLstream & NetworkStream). You can see my code, plus a screenshot of the response.

SSLstream

        'Create a collection and add the certificate
        Dim collection = New X509Certificate2Collection()
        collection.Import("C:\\Users\\Drew\\Desktop\\testcert\\FIcert.pfx", "password", X509KeyStorageFlags.DefaultKeySet)
        Dim store = New X509Store(StoreName.My)
        store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadWrite)

        Try
            For Each certificate As X509Certificate2 In collection
                store.Add(certificate)
            Next
        Finally
            store.Close()
        End Try


        'Create the Hello EPP request and put it into a String
        Dim hello As XElement = <epp xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0">
                                    <hello/>
                                </epp>


        'Create client, convert XML element to string and pass it with certificate collection
        Try
            Dim client As New TcpClient(DRShost, 700)
            Dim data As [Byte]() = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(hello.ToString)
            Dim callback As New RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(AddressOf CertificateValidationCallback)
            Dim sslStream As New Security.SslStream(client.GetStream(), False, callback)
            sslStream.AuthenticateAsClient(DRShost, collection, SslProtocols.[Default], False)

            If sslStream.IsAuthenticated Then
                'All of these return TRUE except the last one
                MsgBox("IsAuthenticated: " & sslStream.IsAuthenticated)
                MsgBox("IsMutuallyAuthenticated: " & sslStream.IsMutuallyAuthenticated)
                MsgBox("IsEncrypted: " & sslStream.IsEncrypted)
                MsgBox("IsSigned: " & sslStream.IsSigned)
                MsgBox("IsServer: " & sslStream.IsServer)
            End If
            sslStream.Write(data, 0, data.Length)
            MsgBox("Sent: " & hello.ToString)
            data = New [Byte](256) {}
            Dim bytes As Integer = sslStream.Read(data, 0, data.Length)
            Dim responseData As String = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data, 0, bytes)
            MsgBox("Received: " & responseData)
        Catch ex As AuthenticationException
            MsgBox(ex.Message)
        Catch ex As SocketException
            MsgBox(ex.Message)
        Catch ex As IOException
            MsgBox(ex.Message)
        Finally
            If sslStream IsNot Nothing Then
                sslStream.Close()
            End If
        End Try

Response:



NetworkStream

        'Create a collection and add the certificate
        Dim collection = New X509Certificate2Collection()
        collection.Import("C:\\Users\\Drew\\Desktop\\testcert\\FIcert.pfx", "password", X509KeyStorageFlags.DefaultKeySet)
        Dim store = New X509Store(StoreName.My)
        store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadWrite)

        Try
            For Each certificate As X509Certificate2 In collection
                store.Add(certificate)
            Next
        Finally
            store.Close()
        End Try


        'Create the Hello EPP request and put it into a String
        Dim hello As XElement = <epp xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0">
                                    <hello/>
                                </epp>


        'Create client and networkstream, convert XML and write it
        Dim client As TcpClient = New TcpClient(DRShost, 700)
        Dim tcpNetStream As NetworkStream = client.GetStream()
        Dim sslStream As New Security.SslStream(tcpNetStream, False, New RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(AddressOf CertificateValidationCallback), Nothing)
        sslStream.AuthenticateAsClient(DRShost, collection, SslProtocols.[Default], False)
        Dim encodedBytes As Byte() = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(hello.ToString)

        tcpNetStream.Write(encodedBytes, 0, encodedBytes.Length)

        Dim bytesToReceive As Byte() = New Byte(client.ReceiveBufferSize - 1) {}
        Dim bytesRead As Integer = tcpNetStream.Read(bytesToReceive, 0, client.ReceiveBufferSize)
        MsgBox("Received : " & Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytesToReceive, 0, bytesRead))
        client.Close()

Response:



I thought maybe the response from the second set of code was coming back encrypted, so I changed this line:

Dim bytesRead As Integer = tcpNetStream.Read(bytesToReceive, 0, client.ReceiveBufferSize)

To read from the sslStream instead. However, this just leads to once again receiving a blank response:

Dim bytesRead As Integer = sslStream.Read(bytesToReceive, 0, client.ReceiveBufferSize)

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I've scoured the web and tried everything I could think of, but to no avail. I do notice that when I view the string I'm sending it does not contain "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>". However, I believe that is added automatically by XElement?

[Arjay]

Have you contacted the company for assistance?