SQL Server

Export a PKCS #8 Private Key as Encoded Text

Demonstrates the Chilkat PrivateKey.GetPkcs8ENC method, which exports the key as unencrypted PKCS #8 DER and encodes the DER bytes as text. The only argument names the binary encoding, such as base64 or hex.

Note: The file paths are relative to the application's current working directory. Absolute paths may also be used. Supply the paths appropriate to your own environment.

Background: DER is the compact binary form of a key; this method hands it back as encoded text so it can travel through channels that expect a string — a JSON field, a database column, a config value. It is the string-returning alternative to writing raw DER bytes, and choosing base64 versus hex is just a matter of what the consumer expects. The DER itself is unencrypted, so the encoded text is still sensitive.

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-- Important: See this note about string length limitations for strings returned by sp_OAMethod calls.
--
CREATE PROCEDURE ChilkatSample
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @hr int
    DECLARE @iTmp0 int
    DECLARE @sTmp0 nvarchar(4000)
    DECLARE @success int
    SELECT @success = 0

    --  Load a private key to export.
    DECLARE @privKey int
    EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.PrivateKey', @privKey OUT
    IF @hr <> 0
    BEGIN
        PRINT 'Failed to create ActiveX component'
        RETURN
    END

    EXEC sp_OAMethod @privKey, 'LoadPemFile', @success OUT, 'qa_data/private.pem'
    IF @success = 0
      BEGIN
        EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @privKey, 'LastErrorText', @sTmp0 OUT
        PRINT @sTmp0
        EXEC @hr = sp_OADestroy @privKey
        RETURN
      END

    --  Export as unencrypted PKCS #8 DER, then encode the DER bytes as text.  The only argument names
    --  the binary encoding, such as "base64" or "hex".
    DECLARE @encoded nvarchar(4000)
    EXEC sp_OAMethod @privKey, 'GetPkcs8ENC', @encoded OUT, 'base64'
    EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @privKey, 'LastMethodSuccess', @iTmp0 OUT
    IF @iTmp0 = 0
      BEGIN
        EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @privKey, 'LastErrorText', @sTmp0 OUT
        PRINT @sTmp0
        EXEC @hr = sp_OADestroy @privKey
        RETURN
      END

    PRINT @encoded

    EXEC @hr = sp_OADestroy @privKey


END
GO