As the title says, I have some code that generates a pair of RSA keys. I want to split them apart and use them individually to encrypt/decrypt, rather than use the variable "keypair" to encrypt, and decrypt.
I am working to transfer data across a network, and want to encrypt it using simple RSA encryption. Therefore i want to send the public key over to a different user, so he can use it to encrypt some data, and then send it back to me.
Here is the code that generates the keys:
//Generate key pair
RSA *keypair = RSA_generate_key(KEY_LENGTH, PUB_EXP, NULL, NULL);
I now want to separate the public from the private key, so i can use them independently to encrypt and decrypt data. How can i do that?
I've got some code that takes the "keypair" and extracts some information into some "BIO" variables, although i am not sure how that would help me:
// To get the C-string PEM form:
BIO *pri = BIO_new(BIO_s_mem());
BIO *pub = BIO_new(BIO_s_mem());
PEM_write_bio_RSAPrivateKey(pri, keypair, NULL, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL);
PEM_write_bio_RSAPublicKey(pub, keypair);
pri_len = BIO_pending(pri);
pub_len = BIO_pending(pub);
pri_key = (char*)malloc(pri_len + 1);
pub_key = (char*)malloc(pub_len + 1);
BIO_read(pri, pri_key, pri_len);
BIO_read(pub, pub_key, pub_len);
pri_key[pri_len] = '\0';
pub_key[pub_len] = '\0';
#ifdef PRINT_KEYS
printf("\n%s\n%s\n", pri_key, pub_key);
#endif
printf("done.\n");
This code works, since i've tested it in visual studio 2012. Any ideas on how to separate the keys, then maybe put them back together in a "keypair" or maybe how to use them separately to encrypt/decrypt some string variables?
Thank you
(FULL CODE)
#include <openssl/rsa.h>
#include <openssl/pem.h>
#include <openssl/err.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define KEY_LENGTH 2048
#define PUB_EXP 3
#define PRINT_KEYS
#define WRITE_TO_FILE
int main() {
size_t pri_len; // Length of private key
size_t pub_len; // Length of public key
char *pri_key; // Private key
char *pub_key; // Public key
char msg[KEY_LENGTH/8]; // Message to encrypt
char *encrypt = NULL; // Encrypted message
char *decrypt = NULL; // Decrypted message
char *err; // Buffer for any error messages
//Generate key pair
RSA *keypair = RSA_generate_key(KEY_LENGTH, PUB_EXP, NULL, NULL);
// To get the C-string PEM form:
BIO *pri = BIO_new(BIO_s_mem());
BIO *pub = BIO_new(BIO_s_mem());
PEM_write_bio_RSAPrivateKey(pri, keypair, NULL, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL);
PEM_write_bio_RSAPublicKey(pub, keypair);
pri_len = BIO_pending(pri);
pub_len = BIO_pending(pub);
pri_key = (char*)malloc(pri_len + 1);
pub_key = (char*)malloc(pub_len + 1);
BIO_read(pri, pri_key, pri_len);
BIO_read(pub, pub_key, pub_len);
pri_key[pri_len] = '\0';
pub_key[pub_len] = '\0';
#ifdef PRINT_KEYS
printf("\n%s\n%s\n", pri_key, pub_key);
#endif
printf("done.\n");
// Get the message to encrypt
printf("Message to encrypt: ");
fgets(msg, KEY_LENGTH-1, stdin);
msg[strlen(msg)-1] = '\0';
// Encrypt the message
encrypt = (char*)malloc(RSA_size(keypair));
int encrypt_len;
err = (char*)malloc(130);
if((encrypt_len = RSA_public_encrypt(strlen(msg)+1, (unsigned char*)msg, (unsigned char*)encrypt, keypair, RSA_PKCS1_OAEP_PADDING)) == -1) {
ERR_load_crypto_strings();
ERR_error_string(ERR_get_error(), err);
fprintf(stderr, "Error encrypting message: %s\n", err);
goto free_stuff;
}
// Decrypt it
decrypt = (char*)malloc(encrypt_len);
if(RSA_private_decrypt(encrypt_len, (unsigned char*)encrypt, (unsigned char*)decrypt, keypair, RSA_PKCS1_OAEP_PADDING) == -1) {
ERR_load_crypto_strings();
ERR_error_string(ERR_get_error(), err);
fprintf(stderr, "Error decrypting message: %s\n", err);
goto free_stuff;
}
printf("Decrypted message: %s\n", decrypt);
getchar();
//printf("%s", pub_key);
free_stuff:
RSA_free(keypair);
BIO_free_all(pub);
BIO_free_all(pri);
free(pri_key);
free(pub_key);
free(encrypt);
free(decrypt);
free(err);
}
Found this code here : https://shanetully.com/2012/04/simple-public-key-encryption-with-rsa-and-openssl/
You can use
RSAPublicKey_dup
andRSAPrivateKey_dup
, without the need to round trip them by ASN.1/DER or PEM encoding them. Here, round tripping consist of using a functions likePEM_write_bio_RSAPublicKey
andPEM_read_bio_RSAPublicKey
.Below is a sample program that uses them. Its written in C++ (thanks for adding that tag).
While you can separate them, they both use the
RSA
structure. The public key has some members set toNULL
, like the private exponent.You can also print the keys with
RSA_print
,RSA_print_fp
and friends. SeeRSA_print (3)
or its use below.Here is the output:
Related, you never ask how to encrypt or decrypt with a RSA key, yet you claim the answer to the encryption and decryption problems is shown in the code in your answer.
You seem to have made the question a moving target :) You should probably avoid that on Stack Overflow (I think its OK to do in those user thread forums). On Stack Overflow, you should ask a separate question.
You can extract the RSA public key from RSA keypair using
d2i_RSAPublicKey
andi2d_RSAPublicKey
(link). Usei2d_RSAPublicKey
to encode your keypair to PKCS#1 RSAPublicKey stucture, store it in a bytestring, then used2i_RSAPublicKey
to decode it back to RSA key struct.I've found a solution to my question among other Stack-Overflow posts and namely Reading Public/Private Key from Memory with OpenSSL
The answer i was looking for is answered by @SquareRootOfTwentyThree is his last line of code,
After extracting the Public key into a BIO variable called pub:
i can send the variable pub across the network, and after it reaches the other side create a RSA variable and put pub inside it:
SOLUTION:
After i've done this i can successfully encrypt the message as usual, using keypair2:
ENCRYPTION:
I can then send this encrypt variable back to the first machine, and decrypt it as usual, using my original
keypair
, without having to send it over the network.DECRYPTION:
Thank you everyone for contributing to this post!!!
Reviewing your code, it appears that you successfully separated the
public
andprivate
keys into the strings pub_key and pri_key, but then usedprintf
to output them which pasted them back together. To just print thepublic
key change the printf statement to: