microsoft/cpprestsdk

Support for client certificates

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#810 opened on Jul 16, 2018

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enhancementhelp wanted

Description

Years ago(!) there already was a discussion on Casablanca supporting client certificates for mutual SSL connections. See here: client side certificates

Unfortunately this seems not to have changed meanwhile, Apparently Casablanca still doesn't support client certificates! :-/ AT least I can see no code inside that acts upon ERROR_WINHTTP_CLIENT_AUTH_CERT_NEEDED and sets some certificate context via WINHTTP_OPTION_CLIENT_CERT_CONTEXT in the Windows flavour (dunno how to do that on POSIX but never mind).

Is there any plan to implement that any time soon or will we never see it? For my current application this is a real showstopper, as the customer demands client side certificates and mutual SSL. I could of course try to patch in something but I would feel much more comfortable if things are build in!

Contributor guide

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
backendapisecurity
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
5
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
C++SSL/TLS conceptsWindows WinHTTP knowledgePOSIX OpenSSL knowledge
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
15
Research direction
Examine the existing HTTP client implementation in the cpprestsdk library. On Windows, the code likely uses WinHTTP; investigate how SSL is currently handled and where a client certificate callback could be integrated by handling ERROR WINHTTP CLIENT AUTH CERT NEEDED and setting WINHTTP OPTION CLIENT CERT CONTEXT. On POSIX, explore the Asio based implementation and determine how to provide a client certificate using OpenSSL. Review the issue comments for any proposed approaches or partial solutions. The main files to look at are in the 'Release/src/http/client' directory, particularly the platform specific implementations.