Verifying JWT (RS256) using OpenSSL

Question

My requirement is verifying a JWT using public key (RS256). The check should be based on native OpenSSL only.

I use JWT.IO initial content for testing. This token was generated:

eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiYWRtaW4iOnRydWUsImlhdCI6MTUxNjIzOTAyMn0.POstGetfAytaZS82wHcjoTyoqhMyxXiWdR7Nn7A29DNSl0EiXLdwJ6xC6AfgZWF1bOsS_TuYI3OG85AmiExREkrS6tDfTQ2B3WXlrr-wp5AokiRbz3_oB4OxG-W9KcEEbDRcZc0nH3L7LzYptiy1PtAylQGxHTWZXtGz4ht0bAecBgmpdgXMguEIcoqPJ1n3pIWk_dUZegpqx0Lka21H6XxUTxiy8OcaarA8zdnPUnV6AmNP3ecFawIFYdvJB_cm-GvpCSbr8G8y_Mllj8f4x9nBH8pQux89_6gUY618iYv7tuPWBFfEbLxtF2pZS6YC1aSfLQxeNe8djT9YjpvRZA

When I enter Header + Payload + Signature (items 1 and 2 in the picture below) with points between them. Next, I enter a Public key (item 3 in the picture). As result I see message ‘Signature verified’ (item 4 in the picture).

Now I want to get same result using OpenSSL.

I have performed steps:

1. Create text file /tmp/pub.pem and past below content into it (copied from JWT.IO test case):

-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAnzyis1ZjfNB0bBgKFMSv vkTtwlvBsaJq7S5wA+kzeVOVpVWwkWdVha4s38XM/pa/yr47av7+z3VTmvDRyAHc aT92whREFpLv9cj5lTeJSibyr/Mrm/YtjCZVWgaOYIhwrXwKLqPr/11inWsAkfIy tvHWTxZYEcXLgAXFuUuaS3uF9gEiNQwzGTU1v0FqkqTBr4B8nW3HCN47XUu0t8Y0 e+lf4s4OxQawWD79J9/5d3Ry0vbV3Am1FtGJiJvOwRsIfVChDpYStTcHTCMqtvWb V6L11BWkpzGXSW4Hv43qa+GSYOD2QU68Mb59oSk2OB+BtOLpJofmbGEGgvmwyCI9 MwIDAQAB -----END PUBLIC KEY-----

2. Create text file data /tmp/data.txt and past below content into it. This is Header and Payload separated by point (item 1 from picture) :

eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiYWRtaW4iOnRydWUsImlhdCI6MTUxNjIzOTAyMn0

3. Create text file data /tmp/signature.txt and past below content into it (this is item 2 from picture):

POstGetfAytaZS82wHcjoTyoqhMyxXiWdR7Nn7A29DNSl0EiXLdwJ6xC6AfgZWF1bOsS_TuYI3OG85AmiExREkrS6tDfTQ2B3WXlrr-wp5AokiRbz3_oB4OxG-W9KcEEbDRcZc0nH3L7LzYptiy1PtAylQGxHTWZXtGz4ht0bAecBgmpdgXMguEIcoqPJ1n3pIWk_dUZegpqx0Lka21H6XxUTxiy8OcaarA8zdnPUnV6AmNP3ecFawIFYdvJB_cm-GvpCSbr8G8y_Mllj8f4x9nBH8pQux89_6gUY618iYv7tuPWBFfEbLxtF2pZS6YC1aSfLQxeNe8djT9YjpvRZA

4. I run OpenSSL command:

   openssl dgst -verify /tmp/pub.pem -keyform PEM -sha256 -signature /tmp/signature.txt -binary /tmp/data.txt
   

   But get result:

   Verification Failure.

What exactly am I doing wrong ?

Answer 1

The signature of a JWT is base64url encoded and needs to be decoded first. The suggested duplicate only deals with a base64 encoded signature and openssl seems not to be working with base64url encoding.

If you're working on a Windows system, you can decode the signature file with certutil, which can directly decode bas64url:

certutil -decode signature.txt signature.sha256

Then use the signature.sha256 as input for openssl:

openssl.exe dgst -sha256 -verify pubkey.pem -signature signature.sha256 data.txt

Then you should get the result:

Verified OK