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I am trying to expand examples in boost asio library. What I have been successful at so far.

1) Running the echo client and server.

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_59_0/doc/html/boost_asio/example/cpp11/echo/blocking_tcp_echo_client.cpp

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_59_0/doc/html/boost_asio/example/cpp11/echo/blocking_tcp_echo_server.cpp

2) Expanding the echo server to read messages until end of file of standard input.

3) Running the ssl client server example.

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_53_0/doc/html/boost_asio/example/ssl/client.cpp

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_53_0/doc/html/boost_asio/example/ssl/server.cpp

What I need help on: I would like to be able to put the messages send/receive in a loop in the client. I do not want to put a loop around

client c(io_service, ctx, iterator);
io_service.run();

because that would verify the certificate for every message. I tried putting a loop around handle_handshake and other functions, but they didn't work. The send would not occur until the end of the function. I would never receive a response.

I am willing to avoid using asynchronous IO, but I still want the encryption.

Robert Jacobs
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  • @TechnikEmpire. I answered my own question. Yes there is a while loop. There are no threads. There were plenty of blocking and unblocking examples, no blocking example from ssl. – Robert Jacobs Nov 11 '15 at 21:22

1 Answers1

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I had to start with the blocking client, and add what I needed from the ssl client and ssl example using https:

This works with the ssl server unmodified.

//
// ssl_blocking_tcp_echo_client.cpp
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//
// Copyright (c) 2003-2015 Christopher M. Kohlhoff (chris at kohlhoff dot com)
//
// Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
// file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
//

#include <cstdlib>
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>
#include <boost/asio/ssl.hpp>

using boost::asio::ip::tcp;

enum { max_length = 1024 };

  bool verify_certificate(bool preverified,
      boost::asio::ssl::verify_context& ctx)
  {
    // The verify callback can be used to check whether the certificate that is
    // being presented is valid for the peer. For example, RFC 2818 describes
    // the steps involved in doing this for HTTPS. Consult the OpenSSL
    // documentation for more details. Note that the callback is called once
    // for each certificate in the certificate chain, starting from the root
    // certificate authority.

    // In this example we will simply print the certificate's subject name.
    char subject_name[256];
    X509* cert = X509_STORE_CTX_get_current_cert(ctx.native_handle());
    X509_NAME_oneline(X509_get_subject_name(cert), subject_name, 256);
    std::cout << "Verifying " << subject_name << "\n";

    return preverified;
  }

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  try
  {
    if (argc != 3)
    {
      std::cerr << "Usage: blocking_tcp_echo_client <host> <port>\n";
      return 1;
    }


    boost::asio::io_service io_service;
    boost::asio::ssl::context ctx(boost::asio::ssl::context::sslv23);
    ctx.load_verify_file("server.crt");
    ctx.set_verify_mode(boost::asio::ssl::verify_peer);
    boost::asio::ssl::stream<boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket> socket(io_service, ctx);

    tcp::resolver resolver(io_service);
    boost::asio::connect(socket.lowest_layer(), resolver.resolve({argv[1], argv[2]}) );
    socket.set_verify_callback(
        boost::bind(&verify_certificate, _1, _2));
    socket.handshake(boost::asio::ssl::stream<boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket>::client);

    while(std::cin)
    {
        std::cout << "Enter message: ";
        char request[max_length];
        std::cin.getline(request, max_length);
        size_t request_length = std::strlen(request);
        boost::asio::write(socket, boost::asio::buffer(request, request_length));

        char reply[max_length];
        size_t reply_length = boost::asio::read(socket,
            boost::asio::buffer(reply, request_length));
        std::cout << "Reply is: ";
        std::cout.write(reply, reply_length);
        std::cout << "\n";
    }

  }
  catch (std::exception& e)
  {
    std::cerr << "Exception: " << e.what() << "\n";
  }

  return 0;
}

Before starting this, I modified server and client based on Shootfast's answer to this question. I had to modify it slightly because something was too short. I changed this command to 2048 instead of the original 512.

openssl dhparam -out dh512.pem 2048

Quoted below.

OK, for anyone finding this in the future, you need to create your certificates and sign them appropriately. Here are the commands for linux:

//Generate a private key

openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024

//Generate Certificate signing request

openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

//Sign certificate with private key

openssl x509 -req -days 3650 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

//Remove password requirement (needed for example)

cp server.key server.key.secure
openssl rsa -in server.key.secure -out server.key

//Generate dhparam file

openssl dhparam -out dh512.pem 2048

Once you've done that, you need to change the filenames in server.cpp and client.cpp.

server.cpp

context_.use_certificate_chain_file("server.crt"); 
context_.use_private_key_file("server.key", boost::asio::ssl::context::pem);
context_.use_tmp_dh_file("dh512.pem");

client.cpp

ctx.load_verify_file("server.crt");

Then it should all work!

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Robert Jacobs
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