Unable to sign a file with nodejs crypto

Question

I've created a private Key with nodejs crypto and want to sign a file with this key. My code is following:

var ecdh = crypto.createECDH('brainpoolP512t1');
        ecdh.generateKeys();
        var key = ecdh.getPrivateKey('buffer');

        var data= fs.readFileSync(req.file.path);
        var sign = crypto.createSign('sha512');
        sign.update(data);
        var signature = sign.sign(key, 'hex');

But I get the error:

Error: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line
    at Error (native)
    at Sign.sign (crypto.js:283:26)
    at /....js:32:27
    at Immediate.<anonymous> (/.../node_modules/multer/lib/make-middleware.js:52:37)
    at runCallback (timers.js:578:20)
    at tryOnImmediate (timers.js:554:5)
    at processImmediate [as _immediateCallback] (timers.js:533:5)

I know it has something to do with the key format, but I don't know how to fix this. Can anyone help?

UPDATE: I edited the privateKey to fit the pem format:

var KEY_START = '-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----\n';
var KEY_END = '\n-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----';

const ecdh = crypto.createECDH('brainpoolP512t1');
            ecdh.generateKeys();
            var key =KEY_START + ecdh.getPrivateKey('base64') + KEY_END;        
            var data= fs.readFileSync(req.file.path);
            const sign = crypto.createSign('sha512');
            sign.update(data);
            var signature = sign.sign(key, 'hex');

And now I geht a different error:

Error: error:0D07207B:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_get_object:header too long
    at Error (native)
    at Sign.sign (crypto.js:283:26)
    at /...js:37:27
    at Immediate.<anonymous> (/.../node_modules/multer/lib/make-middleware.js:52:37)
    at runCallback (timers.js:578:20)
    at tryOnImmediate (timers.js:554:5)
    at processImmediate [as _immediateCallback] (timers.js:533:5)

Answer 1

The key you sign the data with needs to be a valid PEM-encoded private key. The DH getPrivateKey() function does not return a key in this format, it returns the bare private key data.

Your options include:

• Generating a private key via the OpenSSL key generator utility or similar

• Using third-party node modules to properly encode the private key as outlined in RFC 5915. Full example using the asn1.js and bn.js modules:

  var crypto = require('crypto');
  
  var asn1 = require('asn1.js');
  var BN = require('bn.js');
  
  function toOIDArray(oid) {
    return oid.split('.').map(function(s) {
      return parseInt(s, 10)
    });
  }
  
  // Define ECPrivateKey from RFC 5915
  var ECPrivateKey = asn1.define('ECPrivateKey', function() {
    this.seq().obj(
      this.key('version').int(),
      this.key('privateKey').octstr(),
      this.key('parameters').explicit(0).objid().optional(),
      this.key('publicKey').explicit(1).bitstr().optional()
    );
  });
  
  // Generate the DH keys
  var ecdh = crypto.createECDH('brainpoolP512t1');
  ecdh.generateKeys();
  
  // Generate the PEM-encoded private key
  var pemKey = ECPrivateKey.encode({
    version: new BN(1),
    privateKey: ecdh.getPrivateKey(),
    // OID for brainpoolP512t1
    parameters: toOIDArray('1.3.36.3.3.2.8.1.1.14')
  }, 'pem', { label: 'EC PRIVATE KEY' });
  
  // Sign data
  var sign = crypto.createSign('sha512');
  sign.update('hello world');
  var signature = sign.sign(pemKey, 'hex');
  
  console.log('signature', signature);