Consume WCF web service using x509 certificate in .Net Standard 2.0 Library?

Question

First and foremost, thanks for your time and attention!

I have a WCF web service that requires a x509 certificate for authentication. This web service has been added as a connected service and reference classes generated in a .Net Standard 2.0 Library. I would like to consume this WCF web service. However, what I'm running into is this; the BasicHttpsSecurity object I'm trying to assign to the Security property of the BasicHttpsBinding doesn't appear to have any accessible constructors...

How can I set the ClientCredentialType property to Certificate in this scenario?

In a full .Net Framework test project I made on the side, I have the exact same code working as expected. It appears the binding and the x509 certificate are setup as needed. I just can't set the Security property to specify that I want it to actually use the certificate... :/

Here's the code I'm using to setup the client. It appears to work fine in a full .Net Framework test app. The main concern is that "Security = new BasicHttpsSecurity()" tells me there is no constructor that accepts 0 arguments... However, I'm not seeing any constructors at all. Therefore, I can't tell the binding that I want to use HttpClientCredentialType.Certificate as my ClientCredentialType.

private TestServiceClient GetTestServiceClient()
{
    var address = new EndpointAddress("https://known.to.be/working/service/endpoint");
    var binding = new BasicHttpsBinding()
    {
        Name = "basic_SSL_Cert",

        // ... other properties that work fine in full .Net Framework test.

        // I can't instantiate/initialize this...
        Security = new BasicHttpsSecurity()
        {
            Mode = BasicHttpsSecurityMode.Transport,
            Transport = new HttpTransportSecurity()
            {
                // ... so I can't set this :(
                ClientCredentialType = HttpClientCredentialType.Certificate,
                ProxyCredentialType = HttpProxyCredentialType.None
            }
        }
    };

    var client = new TestServiceCLient(binding, address);

    client.ClientCredentials.ClientCertificate.SetCertificate(
        StoreLocation.LocalMachine, 
        StoreName.My, 
        X509FindType.FindBySubjectDistinguishedName, 
        "I can find the cert no problem."
    );

    return client;
}

Any advice on how to consume a WCF web service that requires an x509 certificate from a .Net Standard 2.0 Library is greatly appreciated. If I'm going about this all wrong, please do steer me straight.

Thanks in advance for your time!

enabling the SSL security can be done in configuration file <bindings> <basicHttpBinding> <binding name="defaultBasicHttpBinding"> <security mode="Transport"> <transport clientCredentialType="None"/> </security> </binding> </basicHttpBinding> </bindings> — Suhail
@Suhail Thanks for the comment. I have an appsettings.json configuration file rather than a traditional app/web.config. This WCF web service will be called from within an ASPNet Core Web API. I was planning to pluck app settings out of appsettings.json and populate the binding in code. Is there a better way? — Urk

Urk Urk · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-24T14:39:06

Well... finally figured it out this morning. And, I'm slightly embarrassed about the answer. But, hopefully this helps some other poor soul banging his/her head against the wall over it.

It turns out that I can set the ClientCredentialType on the binding I created without ever explicitly instantiating and initializing the BasicHttpsSecurity object.

This binding setup works perfectly fine...

private TestServiceClient GetTestServiceClient()
{
    var address = new EndpointAddress("https://known.to.be/working/service/endpoint");
    var binding = new BasicHttpsBinding()
    {
        Name = "basic_SSL_Cert",

        // ... other properties that work fine in full .Net Framework 

        //Security = new BasicHttpsSecurity()
        //{
        //    Mode = BasicHttpsSecurityMode.Transport,
        //    Transport = new HttpTransportSecurity()
        //    {
        //        // ... so I can't set this :(
        //        ClientCredentialType = HttpClientCredentialType.Certificate,
        //        ProxyCredentialType = HttpProxyCredentialType.None
        //    }
        //}
    };

    // Just set it... doh!
    binding.Security.Transport.ClientCredentialType = HttpClientCredentialType.Certificate;

    var client = new TestServiceCLient(binding, address);

    client.ClientCredentials.ClientCertificate.SetCertificate(
        StoreLocation.LocalMachine, 
        StoreName.My, 
        X509FindType.FindBySubjectDistinguishedName, 
        "I can find the cert no problem."
    );

    return client;
}

How silly of me... I should have at least tried that before posting the question, but I just didn't click with me that it would be possible. :/

Consume WCF web service using x509 certificate in .Net Standard 2.0 Library?

1 Answers