.NET nanoFramework RAK11200 – Azure IoT Hub HTTP SAS Tokens – Revisited

Several times my client apps inspired by Azure IoT Hub HTTP Basic have not worked because I have failed to correctly trim the Azure IoT Hub Shared Access Signature(SAS) generated with tools like Azure Command Line az iot hub generate-sas-token, Azure IoT Tools for Visual Studio Code or Azure IoT Explorer.

The tokens are quite long but “the only “important” parts are the resource(sr), signature(sig) and expiry(se) values. If the connection string is generated

HostName=01234567890123456789.azure-devices.net;DeviceId=RAK11200-RAK19001;SharedAccessSignature=SharedAccessSignature sr=01234567890123456789.azure-devices.net%2Fdevices%2FRAK11200-RAK19001&sig=ABCDEFGHIJLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrs&se=1663810576

The final version of the application constructs the Azure IoT Hub Shared Access Signature(SAS) with the AzureIoTHubHostName, DeviceID, signature(sig) & expiry(se) values in the config.cs file.

public class Config
{
   public const string DeviceID = "RAK11200-RAK19001";
   public const string SasSignature = "..."; // sig
   public const string SasExpiryTime = "..."; // se

   public const string AzureIoTHubHostName = "..";
   public const string Ssid = "...";
   public const string Password = "..";
   ...
}
 _httpClient = new HttpClient
{
   SslProtocols = System.Net.Security.SslProtocols.Tls12,
   HttpsAuthentCert = new X509Certificate(Config.DigiCertBaltimoreCyberTrustRoot),
   BaseAddress = new Uri($"https://{Config.AzureIoTHubHostName}.azure-devices.net/devices/{Config.DeviceID}/messages/events?api-version=2020-03-13"),
};

string sasKey = $"SharedAccessSignature sr={Config.AzureIoTHubHostName}.azure-devices.net%2Fdevices%2F{Config.DeviceID}&sig={Config.SasSignature}&se={Config.SasExpiryTime}";

_httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", sasKey);

.NET nanoFramework RAK11200 – Azure IoT Hub HTTP SAS Tokens

This is the simplest .NET nanoFramework Azure IoT Hub client I could come up with (inspired by this nanoFramework sample).

My test setup was a RAKwireless RAK11200 WisBlock WiFi Module, RAK5005 WisBlock Base Board or RAK19001 WisBlock Dual IO Base Board and RAK1901 WisBlock Temperature and Humidity Sensor

RAK112000+RAK5005-O+RAK1901 Test rig
RAK112000+RAK19001+RAK1901 Test rig

I used a RAK1901 WisBlock Temperature and Humidity Sensor because it has nanoFramework.IoTDevice library support

public class Program
{
    private static TimeSpan SensorUpdatePeriod = new TimeSpan(0, 30, 0);

    private static HttpClient _httpClient;

    public static void Main()
    {
        Debug.WriteLine("devMobile.IoT.RAK.Wisblock.AzureIoHub.RAK1901 starting");

        Configuration.SetPinFunction(Gpio.IO04, DeviceFunction.I2C1_DATA);
        Configuration.SetPinFunction(Gpio.IO05, DeviceFunction.I2C1_CLOCK);

        if (!WifiNetworkHelper.ConnectDhcp(Config.Ssid, Config.Password, requiresDateTime: true))
        {
            if (NetworkHelper.HelperException != null)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine($"WifiNetworkHelper.ConnectDhcp failed {NetworkHelper.HelperException}");
            }

            Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite);
        }

        _httpClient = new HttpClient
        {
            SslProtocols = System.Net.Security.SslProtocols.Tls12,
            HttpsAuthentCert = new X509Certificate(Config.DigiCertBaltimoreCyberTrustRoot),
            BaseAddress = new Uri($"https://{Config.AzureIoTHubHostName}.azure-devices.net/devices/{Config.DeviceID}/messages/events?api-version=2020-03-13"),
        };
        _httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", Config.SasKey);

        I2cConnectionSettings settings = new(1, Shtc3.DefaultI2cAddress);
        I2cDevice device = I2cDevice.Create(settings);
        Shtc3 shtc3 = new(device);

        while (true)
        {
            if (shtc3.TryGetTemperatureAndHumidity(out var temperature, out var relativeHumidity))
            {
                Debug.WriteLine($"Temperature {temperature.DegreesCelsius:F1}°C  Humidity {relativeHumidity.Value:F0}%");

                string payload = $"{{\"RelativeHumidity\":{relativeHumidity.Value:F0},\"Temperature\":{temperature.DegreesCelsius.ToString("F1")}}}";

                try
                {
                    using (HttpContent content = new StringContent(payload))
                    using (HttpResponseMessage response = _httpClient.Post("", content))
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine($"{DateTime.UtcNow:HH:mm:ss} Response code:{response.StatusCode}");

                        response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
                    }
                }
                catch(Exception ex)
                {
                    Debug.WriteLine($"Azure IoT Hub POST failed:{ex.Message}");
                }
            }

            Thread.Sleep(SensorUpdatePeriod);
        }
    }
}

I generated the Azure IoT Hub Shared Access Signature(SAS) Tokens (10800 minutes is 1 week) with Azure IoT Explorer (Trim the SAS key so it starts with SharedAccessSignature sr=….)

Azure IoT Explorer SAS Token Generation

I was using Azure IoT Explorer to monitor the telemetry and found that the initial versions of the application would fail after 6 or 7 hours. After reviewing the code I added a couple of “using” statements which appear to have fixed the problem as the soak test has been running for 12hrs, 24hrs, 36hrs, 48hrs, 96hrs

Azure IoT Hub SAS Tokens revisited yet again

Based my previous post on SAS Token Expiry I wrote a test harness to better understand DateTimeOffset

using System;

namespace UnixEpochTester
{
   class Program
   {
      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         Console.WriteLine($"DIY                {new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc)}");
         Console.WriteLine($"DateTime.UnixEpoch {DateTime.UnixEpoch} {DateTime.UnixEpoch.Kind}");
         Console.WriteLine();

         TimeSpan fromUnixEpochNow = DateTime.UtcNow - DateTime.UnixEpoch;
         Console.WriteLine($"Epoc now {fromUnixEpochNow} {fromUnixEpochNow.TotalSeconds.ToString("f0")} sec");
         Console.WriteLine();

         TimeSpan fromUnixEpochFixed = new DateTime(2019, 11, 30, 2, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc) - DateTime.UnixEpoch;
         Console.WriteLine($"Epoc  {fromUnixEpochFixed} {fromUnixEpochFixed.TotalSeconds.ToString("f0")} sec");
         Console.WriteLine();

         DateTimeOffset dateTimeOffset = new DateTimeOffset( new DateTime( 2019,11,30,2,0,0, DateTimeKind.Utc));
         Console.WriteLine($"Epoc DateTimeOffset {fromUnixEpochFixed} {dateTimeOffset.ToUnixTimeSeconds()}");
         Console.WriteLine();

         TimeSpan fromEpochStart = new DateTime(2019, 11, 30, 2, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc) - DateTime.UnixEpoch;
         Console.WriteLine($"Epoc DateTimeOffset {fromEpochStart} {fromEpochStart.TotalSeconds.ToString("F0")}");
         Console.WriteLine();


         // https://www.epochconverter.com/ matches
         // https://www.unixtimestamp.com/index.php matches

         Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to exit");
         Console.ReadLine();
      }
   }
}

I validated my numbers against a couple of online calculators and they matched which was a good start.

DateTimeOffset test harness

As I was testing my Azure MQTT Test Client I had noticed some oddness with MQTT connection timeouts.

string token = generateSasToken($"{server}/devices/{clientId}", password, "", new TimeSpan(0,5,0));
1/12/2019 1:29:52 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.391","OfficeHumidity":"93"}]
1/12/2019 1:30:22 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.29","OfficeHumidity":"64"}]
...
1/12/2019 1:43:56 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.591","OfficeHumidity":"98"}]
1/12/2019 1:44:26 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.754","OfficeHumidity":"68"}]


string token = generateSasToken($"{server}/devices/{clientId}", password, "", new TimeSpan(0,5,0));
1/12/2019 1:29:52 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.391","OfficeHumidity":"93"}]
1/12/2019 1:30:22 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.29","OfficeHumidity":"64"}]
...
1/12/2019 2:01:37 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.334","OfficeHumidity":"79"}]
1/12/2019 2:02:07 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.503","OfficeHumidity":"49"}]


string token = generateSasToken($"{server}/devices/{clientId}", password, "", new TimeSpan(0,5,0));
2/12/2019 9:27:21 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.196","OfficeHumidity":"61"}]
2/12/2019 9:27:51 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.788","OfficeHumidity":"91"}]
...
2/12/2019 9:36:24 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.670","OfficeHumidity":"64"}]
2/12/2019 9:36:54 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.836","OfficeHumidity":"94"}]


string token = generateSasToken($"{server}/devices/{clientId}", password, "", new TimeSpan(0,5,0));
2/12/2019 9:40:52 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.46","OfficeHumidity":"92"}]
2/12/2019 9:41:22 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.443","OfficeHumidity":"62"}]
...
2/12/2019 9:50:55 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.742","OfficeHumidity":"95"}]


string token = generateSasToken($"{server}/devices/{clientId}", password, "", new TimeSpan(0,10,0));
approx 15min as only 30 sec resolution
1/12/2019 12:50:23 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.630","OfficeHumidity":"65"}]
1/12/2019 12:50:53 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.798","OfficeHumidity":"95"}]
...
1/12/2019 1:03:59 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.677","OfficeHumidity":"41"}]
1/12/2019 1:04:30 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.26","OfficeHumidity":"72"}]


string token = generateSasToken($"{server}/devices/{clientId}", password, "", new TimeSpan(0,10,0));
approx 15min as only 30 sec resolution
1/12/2019 1:09:30 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.106","OfficeHumidity":"72"}]
1/12/2019 1:10:00 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.463","OfficeHumidity":"42"}]
...
1/12/2019 1:23:35 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.366","OfficeHumidity":"77"}]
1/12/2019 1:24:05 PM> Device: [MQTTLoRa915MHz], Data:[{"OfficeTemperature":"22.537","OfficeHumidity":"47"}]

The dataset with the 5 minute expiry which remained connected for approximately 30 mins was hopefully a configuration issue.

The updated SAS Token code not uses ToUnixTimeSeconds to eliminate the scope for local vs. UTC issues.

      public static string generateSasToken(string resourceUri, string key, string policyName, TimeSpan timeToLive)
      {
         DateTimeOffset expiryDateTimeOffset = new DateTimeOffset(DateTime.UtcNow.Add(timeToLive));

         string expiryEpoch = expiryDateTimeOffset.ToUnixTimeSeconds().ToString();
         string stringToSign = WebUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri) + "\n" + expiryEpoch;

         HMACSHA256 hmac = new HMACSHA256(Convert.FromBase64String(key));
         string signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign)));

         string token = $"SharedAccessSignature sr={WebUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri)}&sig={WebUtility.UrlEncode(signature)}&se={expiryEpoch}";

         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(policyName))
         {
            token += "&skn=" + policyName;
         }

         return token;
      }

I need to test the expiry of my SAS Tokens some more especially with the client running on my development machine (NZT which is currently UTC+13) and in Azure (UTC timezone)

Azure IoT Hub SAS Tokens revisited again

This post has been edited (2019-11-24) my original assumption about how DateTime.Kind unspecified was handled were incorrect.

As I was testing my Azure MQTT Test Client I noticed some oddness with MQTT connection timeouts and this got me wondering about token expiry times. So, I went searching again and found this Azure IoT Hub specific sample code

public static string generateSasToken(string resourceUri, string key, string policyName, int expiryInSeconds = 3600)
{
    TimeSpan fromEpochStart = DateTime.UtcNow - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1);
    string expiry = Convert.ToString((int)fromEpochStart.TotalSeconds + expiryInSeconds);

    string stringToSign = WebUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri) + "\n" + expiry;

    HMACSHA256 hmac = new HMACSHA256(Convert.FromBase64String(key));
    string signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign)));

    string token = String.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "SharedAccessSignature sr={0}&sig={1}&se={2}", WebUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri), WebUtility.UrlEncode(signature), expiry);

    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(policyName))
    {
        token += "&skn=" + policyName;
    }

    return token;
}

This code worked first time and was more flexible than mine which was a bonus. Though while running my MQTTNet based client I noticed the connection would drop after approximately 10mins (EDIT this was probably an unrelated networking issue).

A long time ago (25 years) I had issues sharing a Unix time value between an applications written with Borland C and Microsoft Visual C which made me wonder about Unix epoch base offsets.

So to test my theory I built a Unix epoch test harness console application

using System;

namespace UnixEpocTest
{
   class Program
   {
      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         TimeSpan ttl = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0);

         Console.WriteLine("Current time");
         Console.WriteLine($"Local     {DateTime.Now} {DateTime.Now.Kind}");
         Console.WriteLine($"UTC       {DateTime.UtcNow} {DateTime.UtcNow.Kind}");
         Console.WriteLine($"Unix DIY  {new DateTime(1970, 1, 1)} {new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).Kind}");
         Console.WriteLine($"Unix DIY+ {new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).ToUniversalTime()} {new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).ToUniversalTime().Kind}");
         Console.WriteLine($"Unix DIY  {new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0,0,0, DateTimeKind.Utc)}");
         Console.WriteLine($"Unix      {DateTime.UnixEpoch} {DateTime.UnixEpoch.Kind}");
         Console.WriteLine();

         TimeSpan fromEpochStart = DateTime.UtcNow - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1);
         TimeSpan fromEpochStartUtc = DateTime.UtcNow - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1,0,0,0, DateTimeKind.Utc);
         TimeSpan fromEpochStartUnixEpoch = DateTime.UtcNow - DateTime.UnixEpoch;

         Console.WriteLine("Epoch comparison");
         Console.WriteLine($"Local {fromEpochStart} {fromEpochStart.TotalSeconds.ToString("f0")} sec");
         Console.WriteLine($"UTC   {fromEpochStartUtc} {fromEpochStartUtc.TotalSeconds.ToString("f0")} sec");
         Console.WriteLine($"Epoc  {fromEpochStartUnixEpoch} {fromEpochStartUnixEpoch.TotalSeconds.ToString("f0")} sec");
         Console.WriteLine();

         TimeSpan afterEpoch = DateTime.UtcNow.Add(ttl) - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1);
         TimeSpan afterEpochUtC = DateTime.UtcNow.Add(ttl) - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).ToUniversalTime();
         TimeSpan afterEpochEpoch = DateTime.UtcNow.Add(ttl) - DateTime.UnixEpoch;

         Console.WriteLine("Epoch calculation");
         Console.WriteLine($"Local {afterEpoch}");
         Console.WriteLine($"UTC   {afterEpochUtC}");
         Console.WriteLine($"Epoch {afterEpochEpoch}");
         Console.WriteLine();

         Console.WriteLine("Epoch DateTime");
         Console.WriteLine($"Local :{new DateTime(1970, 1, 1)}");
         Console.WriteLine($"UTC   :{ new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).ToUniversalTime()}");

         Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to exit");
         Console.ReadLine();

         Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
      }
   }
}

EDIT: I now think the UtcNow to “unspecified” kind mathematics was being handled correctly. I have updated the code to use the DateTime.UnixEpoch constant so the code is more readable.

public static string generateSasToken(string resourceUri, string key, string policyName, int expiryInSeconds = 900)
      {
         TimeSpan fromEpochStart = DateTime.UtcNow - DateTime.UnixEpoch;
         string expiry = Convert.ToString((int)fromEpochStart.TotalSeconds + expiryInSeconds);

         string stringToSign = WebUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri) + "\n" + expiry;

         HMACSHA256 hmac = new HMACSHA256(Convert.FromBase64String(key));
         string signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign)));

         string token = String.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "SharedAccessSignature sr={0}&sig={1}&se={2}", WebUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri), WebUtility.UrlEncode(signature), expiry);

         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(policyName))
         {
            token += "&skn=" + policyName;
         }

         return token;
      }

I need to test the expiry of my SAS Tokens some more especially with the client running on my development machine (NZT which is currently UTC+13) and in Azure (UTC timezone)

Azure IoT Hub SAS Tokens revisited

A long time ago I wrote a post about uploading telemetry data to an Azure Event Hub from a Netduino 3 Wifi using HTTPS. To send messages to the EventHub I had to create a valid SAS Token which took a surprising amount of effort because of the reduced text encoding/decoding and cryptographic functionality available in .NET Micro Framework v4.3 (NetMF)

// Create a SAS token for a specified scope. SAS tokens are described in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn170477.aspx.
private static string CreateSasToken(string uri, string keyName, string key)
{
   // Set token lifetime to 20 minutes. When supplying a device with a token, you might want to use a longer expiration time.
   uint tokenExpirationTime = GetExpiry(20 * 60);
 
   string stringToSign = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(uri) + "\n" + tokenExpirationTime;
 
   var hmac = SHA.computeHMAC_SHA256(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(key), Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign));
   string signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac);
 
   signature = Base64NetMf42ToRfc4648(signature);
 
   string token = "SharedAccessSignature sr=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(uri) + "&sig=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(signature) + "&se=" + tokenExpirationTime.ToString() + "&skn=" + keyName;
 
   return token;
}
 
private static string Base64NetMf42ToRfc4648(string base64netMf)
{
   var base64Rfc = string.Empty;
 
   for (var i = 0; i < base64netMf.Length; i++)
   {
      if (base64netMf[i] == '!')
      {
         base64Rfc += '+';
      }
      else if (base64netMf[i] == '*')
      {
         base64Rfc += '/';
      }
      else
      {
         base64Rfc += base64netMf[i];
      }
   }
   return base64Rfc;
}
 
static uint GetExpiry(uint tokenLifetimeInSeconds)
{
   const long ticksPerSecond = 1000000000 / 100; // 1 tick = 100 nano seconds
 
   DateTime origin = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);
   TimeSpan diff = DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime() - origin;
 
   return ((uint)(diff.Ticks / ticksPerSecond)) + tokenLifetimeInSeconds;
}

Initially for testing my Azure MQTT Test Client I manually generated the SAS tokens using Azure Device Explorer but figured it would be better if the application generated them.

An initial search lead to this article about how to generate a SAS token for an Azure Event Hub in multiple languages. For my first attempt I “copied and paste” the code sample for C# (I also wasn’t certain what to put in the KeyName parameter) and it didn’t work.

private static string createToken(string resourceUri, string keyName, string key)
{
    TimeSpan sinceEpoch = DateTime.UtcNow - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1);
    var week = 60 * 60 * 24 * 7;
    var expiry = Convert.ToString((int)sinceEpoch.TotalSeconds + week);
    string stringToSign = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri) + "\n" + expiry;
    HMACSHA256 hmac = new HMACSHA256(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(key));
    var signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign)));
    var sasToken = String.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "SharedAccessSignature sr={0}&sig={1}&se={2}&skn={3}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(signature), expiry, keyName);
    return sasToken;
}

By comparing the Device Explorer and C# generated SAS keys I worked out the keyName parameter was unnecessary so I removed.

private static string createToken(string resourceUri, string key)
{
    TimeSpan sinceEpoch = DateTime.UtcNow - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1);
    var week = 60 * 60 * 24 * 7;
    var expiry = Convert.ToString((int)sinceEpoch.TotalSeconds + week);
    string stringToSign = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri) + "\n" + expiry;
    HMACSHA256 hmac = new HMACSHA256(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(key));
    var signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign)));
    var sasToken = String.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "SharedAccessSignature sr={0}&sig={1}&se={2}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(signature), expiry);
    return sasToken;
}

The shared SAS token now looked closer to what I was expecting but the MQTTNet ConnectAsync was failing with an authentication exception. After looking at the Device Explorer SAS Key code, my .NetMF implementation and the code for the IoT Hub SDK I noticed the encoding for the HMAC Key was different. Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes vs. Convert.FromBase64String.

 private static string createToken(string resourceUri,string key, TimeSpan ttl)
      {
         TimeSpan afterEpoch = DateTime.UtcNow.Add( ttl ) - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1);

         string expiry = afterEpoch.TotalSeconds.ToString("F0");
         string stringToSign = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri) + "\n" + expiry;
         HMACSHA256 hmac = new HMACSHA256(Convert.FromBase64String(key));
         string signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(stringToSign)));
         return  String.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "SharedAccessSignature sr={0}&sig={1}&se={2}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(resourceUri), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(signature), expiry);
      }

This approach appears to work reliably in my test harness.

MQTTnet client with new SAS Key Generator

User beware DIY Crypto often ends badly

Windows 10 IoT Core TPM SAS Token Expiry

This is for people who were searching for why the SAS token issued by the TPM on their Windows 10 IoT Core device is expiring much quicker than expected or might have noticed that something isn’t quite right with the “validity” period. (as at early May 2019). If you want to “follow along at home” the code I used is available on GitHub.

I found the SAS key was expiring in roughly 5 minutes and the validity period in the configuration didn’t appear to have any effect on how long the SAS token was valid.

10:04:16 Application started
...
10:04:27 SAS token needs renewing
10:04:30 SAS token renewed 
 10:04:30.984 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
 10:04:36.709 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
The thread 0x1464 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:04:37.808 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
 10:04:37.808 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
The thread 0xb88 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x1208 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x448 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x540 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:04:46.763 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
 10:04:47.051 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
The thread 0x10d8 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x6e0 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0xf7c has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:04:56.808 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
 10:04:57.103 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
The thread 0xb8c has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0xc60 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:05:06.784 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
 10:05:07.057 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
...
The thread 0x4f4 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0xe10 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x3c8 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:09:06.773 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
 10:09:07.044 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
The thread 0xf70 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x1214 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:09:16.819 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
 10:09:17.104 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
The thread 0x1358 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x400 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:09:26.802 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
 10:09:27.064 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finished
The thread 0x920 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x1684 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x4ec has exited with code 0 (0x0).
 10:09:36.759 AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync starting
'backgroundTaskHost.exe' (CoreCLR: CoreCLR_UWP_Domain): Loaded 'C:\Data\Programs\WindowsApps\Microsoft.NET.CoreFramework.Debug.2.2_2.2.27505.2_arm__8wekyb3d8bbwe\System.Net.Requests.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'backgroundTaskHost.exe' (CoreCLR: CoreCLR_UWP_Domain): Loaded 'C:\Data\Programs\WindowsApps\Microsoft.NET.CoreFramework.Debug.2.2_2.2.27505.2_arm__8wekyb3d8bbwe\System.Net.WebSockets.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
Sending payload to AzureIoTHub failed:CONNECT failed: RefusedNotAuthorized

I went and looked at the NuGet package details and it seemed a bit old.

I have the RedGate Reflector plugin installed on my development box so I quickly disassembled the Microsoft.Devices.TPM assembly to see what was going on. The Reflector code is pretty readable and it wouldn’t take much “refactoring” to get it looking like “human” generated code.

public string GetSASToken(uint validity = 0xe10)
{
    string deviceId = this.GetDeviceId();
    string hostName = this.GetHostName();
    long num = (DateTime.get_Now().ToUniversalTime().ToFileTime() / 0x98_9680L) - 0x2_b610_9100L;
    string str3 = "";
    if ((hostName.Length > 0) && (deviceId.Length > 0))
    {
        object[] objArray1 = new object[] { hostName, "/devices/", deviceId, "\n", (long) num };
        byte[] bytes = new UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(string.Concat((object[]) objArray1));
        byte[] buffer2 = this.SignHmac(bytes);
        if (buffer2.Length != 0)
        {
            string str5 = this.AzureUrlEncode(Convert.ToBase64String(buffer2));
            object[] objArray2 = new object[] { "SharedAccessSignature sr=", hostName, "/devices/", deviceId, "&sig=", str5, "&se=", (long) num };
            str3 = string.Concat((object[]) objArray2);
        }
    }
    return str3;
}

The validity parameter appears to not used. Below is the current code from the Azure IoT CSharp SDK on GitHub repository and they are different, the validity is used.

public string GetSASToken(uint validity = 3600)
{
   const long WINDOWS_TICKS_PER_SEC = 10000000;
   const long EPOCH_DIFFERNECE = 11644473600;
   string deviceId = GetDeviceId();
   string hostName = GetHostName();
   long expirationTime = (DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime().ToFileTime() / WINDOWS_TICKS_PER_SEC) - EPOCH_DIFFERNECE;
   expirationTime += validity;
   string sasToken = "";
   if ((hostName.Length > 0) && (deviceId.Length > 0))
   {
      // Encode the message to sign with the TPM
      UTF8Encoding utf8 = new UTF8Encoding();
      string tokenContent = hostName + "/devices/" + deviceId + "\n" + expirationTime;
      Byte[] encodedBytes = utf8.GetBytes(tokenContent);

      // Sign the message
      Byte[] hmac = SignHmac(encodedBytes);

      // if we got a signature foramt it
      if (hmac.Length > 0)
      {
         // Encode the output and assemble the connection string
         string hmacString = AzureUrlEncode(System.Convert.ToBase64String(hmac));
         sasToken = "SharedAccessSignature sr=" + hostName + "/devices/" + deviceId + "&sig=" + hmacString + "&se=" + expirationTime;
         }
   }
   return sasToken;
}

I went back and look at the Github history and it looks like a patch was applied after the NuGet packages were released in May 2016.

If you read from the TPM and get nothing make sure you’re using the right TPM slot number and have “System Management” checked in the capabilities tab of the application manifest.

I’m still not certain the validity is being applied correctly and will dig into in a future post.