I am connecting to Gemalto HSM which supports secp256r1. I have the following code to create an ECDSA key pair using Pkcs11interop. I am getting the paramsBytes using BouncyCastle NistNamedCurves and X962Parameters.
The HSM keeps comming back with CKR_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE_INVALID. I am new to ECDSA so I may have missed something. Any ideas?
X9ECParameters x9Ec = NistNamedCurves.GetByName("P-256");
X962Parameters x962 = new X962Parameters(x9Ec);
byte[] paramsBytes = x962.GetDerEncoded();
// The CKA_ID attribute is intended as a means of distinguishing multiple key pairs held by the same subject
byte[] ckaId = session.GenerateRandom(20);
// Prepare attribute template of new public key
List<ObjectAttribute> publicKeyAttributes = new List<ObjectAttribute>();
publicKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_PRIVATE, false));
publicKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_LABEL, keyName));
publicKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_ID, ckaId));
publicKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_VERIFY, true));
publicKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_ECDSA_PARAMS, paramsBytes));
// Prepare attribute template of new private key
List<ObjectAttribute> privateKeyAttributes = new List<ObjectAttribute>();
privateKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_PRIVATE, true));
privateKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_LABEL, keyName));
privateKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_ID, ckaId));
privateKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_SENSITIVE, true));
privateKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_SIGN, true));
privateKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_ECDSA_PARAMS, paramsBytes));
// Generate key pair
Mechanism mechanism = new Mechanism(CKM.CKM_ECDSA_KEY_PAIR_GEN);
ObjectHandle publicKeyHandle = null;
ObjectHandle privateKeyHandle = null;
session.GenerateKeyPair(mechanism, publicKeyAttributes, privateKeyAttributes, out publicKeyHandle,
out privateKeyHandle);
Found out what was going on. The HSM did not like the
privateKeyAttributes.Add(new ObjectAttribute(CKA.CKA_ECDSA_PARAMS, paramsBytes));
on the private key. PKCS states that the ECDSA params need to be on the public key and can't be on the private key and this implementation enforced that.