FtpWebRequest with X.509 Authentication

24 Apr 2007 5:06 AM

Digineer

I have been very confused about the purpose of ClientCertificates on
FtpWebRequest. What I need to do is authenticate to an FTP server using ONLY
an X.509 certificate, no username or password. Is there any way to do this
with .NET 2/3? Internet Explorer does it just fine...

24 Apr 2007 10:19 AM

Steven Cheng[MSFT]

Hi Digineer,

For the FtpWebRequest, it will need to add client certificate if you're
communicating with a FTP server that use SSL channel and require client
certificate. To add client certificate, it is the same as using
HttpWebRequest, in .net framework 2.0, the
"System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates" namespace has much enhanced
the functionality of processing X509 certificates(from windows certificate
store or certificate file). Here is a very simple code snippet that query
a certificate (through its thumbprint ) and add it into the FtpwebRequest:

==============================
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        FtpWebRequest request = WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.mysite.com")
as FtpWebRequest;

        request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectory;

        request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");

        //query certificate from store
        string tp = "2b6f8ac51a85cbaf429474a55304313968667611";
        X509Store store = new X509Store(StoreName.My,
StoreLocation.CurrentUser);

        store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);

        X509Certificate2 cert2 =
store.Certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindByThumbprint, tp, true)[0];

        store.Close();

        //add certificate into webrequest component
        request.ClientCertificates.Add(cert2);

        FtpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse() as FtpWebResponse;

        Response.Write("<br/>response code: " + response.StatusCode);

        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream(),
Encoding.UTF8);

        //Response.Write("<br/>response: " + sr.ReadToEnd());
        TextBox1.Text = sr.ReadToEnd();
        sr.Close();

        response.Close();
    }
===============================

In addition, here are some other articles introducing working with
FtpWebRequest class or the .NET framework 2.0 certificate components:

#adarsh's blog : FtpWebRequest
http://blogs.msdn.com/adarshk/rss.aspx?CategoryID=7225

#Support Certificates In Your Applications With The .NET Framework 2.0
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/03/NETSecurity/#S4

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead

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27 Apr 2007 4:09 AM

Steven Cheng[MSFT]

Hi Digineer,

How are you doing on this, does the information in my last reply helps you
some? If there is still anything we can help, please feel free to post here.

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.