README.md

Diffie-Hellman

This repository demonstrates how to implement Diffie–Hellman Key Exchange using Bouncy castle! It appears that the ECDiffieHellmanCng class is primarily designed for Windows environment, and does not support mono. I hope this documentation will assist anyone who encounters difficulties while working with Diffie-Hellman.

ECDiffieHellmanCng Class

provides a Cryptography Next Generation (CNG) implementation of the Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) algorithm. This class is used to perform cryptographic operations. A basic example could be as follows:

ECDiffieHellmanCng alice = new ECDiffieHellmanCng();

alice.KeyDerivationFunction = ECDiffieHellmanKeyDerivationFunction.Hash;
alice.HashAlgorithm = CngAlgorithm.Sha256;

ECDiffieHellmanCng bob = new ECDiffieHellmanCng();
bob.KeyDerivationFunction = ECDiffieHellmanKeyDerivationFunction.Hash;
bob.HashAlgorithm = CngAlgorithm.Sha256;

byte[] bobSharedKey = bob.DeriveKeyMaterial(alice.PublicKey);
byte[] aliceSharedKey = alice.DeriveKeyMaterial(bob.PublicKey);

It's super easy! but the problem here is that ECDiffieHellmanCng is not available on mono either on linux or macos but worry not! Bouncy Castle is here for the rescue!

Using Bouncy Castle

public static class DiffieHellmanKeyExchange
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Generates a new ECDH public key and returns the raw bytes.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>The public key as a byte array</returns>
    public static (byte[] PublicKeyBytes, AsymmetricKeyParameter PrivateKey) CreatePublicKey()
    {
        // Create EC domain parameters using named curve
        X9ECParameters ecP = ECNamedCurveTable.GetByName("P-256");
        ECDomainParameters ecParams = new ECDomainParameters(ecP.Curve, ecP.G, ecP.N, ecP.H);

        // Generate new EC key pair 
        SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
        ECKeyPairGenerator keyGen = new ECKeyPairGenerator();
        keyGen.Init(new ECKeyGenerationParameters(ecParams, random));
        AsymmetricCipherKeyPair serverKeyPair = keyGen.GenerateKeyPair();

        // Extract public key from pair
        ECPublicKeyParameters serverPubKey = serverKeyPair.Public as ECPublicKeyParameters;

        // Encode public key to raw bytes
        byte[] publicKeyBytes = serverPubKey.Q.GetEncoded();

        // Return the raw public key bytes
        return (publicKeyBytes, serverKeyPair.Private);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Computes ECDH shared secret using the received public key.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="publicKeyBytes">The public key from server</param>
    /// <returns>Shared secret as byte array</returns>
    public static byte[] CreateSharedKey(byte[] publicKeyBytes, AsymmetricKeyParameter privateKey)
    {
        X9ECParameters ecP = ECNamedCurveTable.GetByName("P-256");
        ECDomainParameters ecParams = new ECDomainParameters(ecP.Curve, ecP.G, ecP.N, ecP.H);

        // Convert received public key bytes to an ECPublicKeyParameters
        ECPublicKeyParameters receivedPublicKey = new ECPublicKeyParameters(
            ecParams.Curve.DecodePoint(publicKeyBytes), ecParams);

        // Perform key agreement
        ECDHBasicAgreement agreement = new ECDHBasicAgreement();
        agreement.Init(privateKey);
        BigInteger sharedSecret = agreement.CalculateAgreement(receivedPublicKey);

        // Convert shared secret to byte array
        byte[] sharedSecretBytes = sharedSecret.ToByteArrayUnsigned();

        return sharedSecretBytes;
    }
}

Sample Usage using AES-GCM for encrypt/decrypt :

var clientPublicKey = DiffieHellmanKeyExchange.CreatePublicKey();

var serverPublicKey = DiffieHellmanKeyExchange.CreatePublicKey();

// Client and Server shares public Keys and use private keys  to create sharedKey

var clientShared  = DiffieHellmanKeyExchange.CreateSharedKey(serverPublicKey.PublicKeyBytes, clientPublicKey.PrivateKey);

var serverSharedKey  = DiffieHellmanKeyExchange.CreateSharedKey(clientPublicKey.PublicKeyBytes, serverPublicKey.PrivateKey);


const string TextToEncrypt = "Encrypt ME!!!";

//The client encrypts data using AES-GCM. You can use an encryption technique of your preference.
var encryptedText = CryptoHelper.EncryptWithMetaData(TextToEncrypt,clientShared);

//Decrypt Encrypted data
var decryptedData = CryptoHelper.DecryptWithMetaData<string>(encryptedText.encryptedBytes,encryptedText.Nonce,encryptedText.Mac, serverSharedKey);

Download DiffieHellMan.Console and then run the app to perform a test.