How to: Create a Service that Employs a Custom Certificate Validator

Article
09/15/2021

This topic shows how to implement a custom certificate validator and how to configure client or service credentials to replace the default certificate validation logic with the custom certificate validator.

If the X.509 certificate is used to authenticate a client or service, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) by default uses the Windows certificate store and Crypto API to validate the certificate and to ensure that it is trusted. Sometimes the built-in certificate validation functionality is not enough and must be changed. WCF provides an easy way to change the validation logic by allowing users to add a custom certificate validator. If a custom certificate validator is specified, WCF does not use the built-in certificate validation logic but relies on the custom validator instead.

Procedures

To create a custom certificate validator

Define a new class derived from X509CertificateValidator.
Implement the abstract Validate method. The certificate that must be validated is passed as an argument to the method. If the passed certificate is not valid according to the validation logic, this method throws a SecurityTokenValidationException. If the certificate is valid, the method returns to the caller.

Note

To return authentication errors back to the client, throw a FaultException in the Validate method.

public class MyX509CertificateValidator : X509CertificateValidator
{
    string allowedIssuerName;

    public MyX509CertificateValidator(string allowedIssuerName)
    {
        if (allowedIssuerName == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("allowedIssuerName");
        }

        this.allowedIssuerName = allowedIssuerName;
    }

    public override void Validate(X509Certificate2 certificate)
    {
        // Check that there is a certificate.
        if (certificate == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("certificate");
        }

        // Check that the certificate issuer matches the configured issuer.
        if (allowedIssuerName != certificate.IssuerName.Name)
        {
            throw new SecurityTokenValidationException
              ("Certificate was not issued by a trusted issuer");
        }
    }
}

Public Class MyX509CertificateValidator
    Inherits X509CertificateValidator
    Private allowedIssuerName As String

    Public Sub New(ByVal allowedIssuerName As String)
        If allowedIssuerName Is Nothing Then
            Throw New ArgumentNullException("allowedIssuerName")
        End If

        Me.allowedIssuerName = allowedIssuerName

    End Sub

    Public Overrides Sub Validate(ByVal certificate As X509Certificate2)
        ' Check that there is a certificate.
        If certificate Is Nothing Then
            Throw New ArgumentNullException("certificate")
        End If

        ' Check that the certificate issuer matches the configured issuer.
        If allowedIssuerName <> certificate.IssuerName.Name Then
            Throw New SecurityTokenValidationException _
              ("Certificate was not issued by a trusted issuer")
        End If

    End Sub
End Class

To specify a custom certificate validator in service configuration

Add a <behaviors> element and a <serviceBehaviors> to the <system.serviceModel> element.
Add a <behavior> and set the name attribute to an appropriate value.
Add a <serviceCredentials> to the <behavior> element.
Add a <clientCertificate> element to the <serviceCredentials> element.
Add an <authentication> to the <clientCertificate> element.
Set the customCertificateValidatorType attribute to the validator type. The following example sets the attribute to the namespace and name of the type.

Set the certificateValidationMode attribute to Custom.

<configuration>  
 <system.serviceModel>  
  <behaviors>  
   <serviceBehaviors>  
    <behavior name="ServiceBehavior">  
     <serviceCredentials>  
      <clientCertificate>  
      <authentication certificateValidationMode="Custom" customCertificateValidatorType="Samples.MyValidator, service" />  
      </clientCertificate>  
     </serviceCredentials>  
    </behavior>  
   </serviceBehaviors>  
  </behaviors>  
</system.serviceModel>  
</configuration>

To specify a custom certificate validator using configuration on the client

Add a <behaviors> element and a <serviceBehaviors> to the <system.serviceModel> element.
Add an <endpointBehaviors> element.
Add a <behavior> element and set the name attribute to an appropriate value.
Add a <clientCredentials> element.
Add a <serviceCertificate>.
Add an <authentication> as shown on the following example.
Set the customCertificateValidatorType attribute to the validator type.

Set the certificateValidationMode attribute to Custom. The following example sets the attribute to the namespace and name of the type.

<configuration>  
 <system.serviceModel>  
  <behaviors>  
   <endpointBehaviors>  
    <behavior name="clientBehavior">  
     <clientCredentials>  
      <serviceCertificate>  
       <authentication certificateValidationMode="Custom"
              customCertificateValidatorType=  
         "Samples.CustomX509CertificateValidator, client"/>  
      </serviceCertificate>  
     </clientCredentials>  
    </behavior>  
   </endpointBehaviors>  
  </behaviors>  
 </system.serviceModel>  
</configuration>

To specify a custom certificate validator using code on the service

Specify the custom certificate validator on the ClientCertificate property. You can access the service credentials using the Credentials property.
Set the CertificateValidationMode property to Custom.

serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication.CertificateValidationMode =
    X509CertificateValidationMode.Custom;
serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication.CustomCertificateValidator =
    new MyX509CertificateValidator("CN=Contoso.com");

serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication. _
    CertificateValidationMode = X509CertificateValidationMode.Custom
serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication. _
   CustomCertificateValidator = New MyX509CertificateValidator("CN=Contoso.com")

To specify a custom certificate validator using code on the client

Specify the custom certificate validator using the CustomCertificateValidator property. You can access the client credentials using the Credentials property. (The client class generated by ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) always derives from the ClientBase<TChannel> class.)
Set the CertificateValidationMode property to Custom.

Example

Description

The following sample shows an implementation of a custom certificate validator and its usage on the service.

Code

using System;
using System.IdentityModel.Selectors;
using System.IdentityModel.Tokens;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Security;

namespace Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples
{
    [ServiceContract(Namespace="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples")]
    public interface ICalculator
    {
        [OperationContract]
        double Add(double n1, double n2);
    }

    public class CalculatorService : ICalculator
    {
        public double Add(double n1, double n2)
        {
            double result = n1 + n2;
            return result;
        }
    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            using (ServiceHost serviceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(CalculatorService)))
            {
                serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication.CertificateValidationMode =
                    X509CertificateValidationMode.Custom;
                serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication.CustomCertificateValidator =
                    new MyX509CertificateValidator("CN=Contoso.com");

                serviceHost.Open();
                Console.WriteLine("Service started, press ENTER to stop ...");
                Console.ReadLine();

                serviceHost.Close();
            }
        }
    }

    public class MyX509CertificateValidator : X509CertificateValidator
    {
        string allowedIssuerName;

        public MyX509CertificateValidator(string allowedIssuerName)
        {
            if (allowedIssuerName == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("allowedIssuerName");
            }

            this.allowedIssuerName = allowedIssuerName;
        }

        public override void Validate(X509Certificate2 certificate)
        {
            // Check that there is a certificate.
            if (certificate == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("certificate");
            }

            // Check that the certificate issuer matches the configured issuer.
            if (allowedIssuerName != certificate.IssuerName.Name)
            {
                throw new SecurityTokenValidationException
                  ("Certificate was not issued by a trusted issuer");
            }
        }
    }
}

Imports System.IdentityModel.Selectors
Imports System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates
Imports System.ServiceModel
Imports System.ServiceModel.Security
Imports System.IdentityModel.Tokens
Imports System.Security.Permissions

<ServiceContract([Namespace]:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples")> _
Public Interface ICalculator
    <OperationContract()> _
    Function Add(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double
End Interface


Public Class CalculatorService
    Implements ICalculator

    Public Function Add(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double _
       Implements ICalculator.Add
        Dim result As Double = n1 + n2
        Return result
    End Function
End Class


Class Program

    Shared Sub Main()
        Dim serviceHost As New ServiceHost(GetType(CalculatorService))
        Try
            serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication. _
                CertificateValidationMode = X509CertificateValidationMode.Custom
            serviceHost.Credentials.ClientCertificate.Authentication. _
               CustomCertificateValidator = New MyX509CertificateValidator("CN=Contoso.com")
            serviceHost.Open()
            Console.WriteLine("Service started, press ENTER to stop ...")
            Console.ReadLine()

            serviceHost.Close()
        Finally
            serviceHost.Close()
        End Try

    End Sub
End Class

Public Class MyX509CertificateValidator
    Inherits X509CertificateValidator
    Private allowedIssuerName As String

    Public Sub New(ByVal allowedIssuerName As String)
        If allowedIssuerName Is Nothing Then
            Throw New ArgumentNullException("allowedIssuerName")
        End If

        Me.allowedIssuerName = allowedIssuerName

    End Sub

    Public Overrides Sub Validate(ByVal certificate As X509Certificate2)
        ' Check that there is a certificate.
        If certificate Is Nothing Then
            Throw New ArgumentNullException("certificate")
        End If

        ' Check that the certificate issuer matches the configured issuer.
        If allowedIssuerName <> certificate.IssuerName.Name Then
            Throw New SecurityTokenValidationException _
              ("Certificate was not issued by a trusted issuer")
        End If

    End Sub
End Class