Specifying Arduino WiFiClientSecure Certificates

Question

In what format are you supposed to supply the certificates (and keys) in the WifiClientSecure module? NO examples exist, or documentation of it's usage.

I am following the Arduino (ESP32) WiFiClientSecure example code - and trying to connect while specifying a CA Certificate, such as:

client.connect(server, 443, test_ca_cert, test_client_cert, test_client_key)

(test_client_cert and test_client_key are NULL pointers). If test_ca_cert is a NULL pointer, the SSL connection is fine.

If I try to specify my own test_ca_cert, I always get:

CA cert: mbedtls_x509_crt_parse returned -0x2180 (which is an error code for "invalid format")

I have tried a multitude of things for the test_ca_cert such as a string with the PEM formatted (cleartext) base64 encoded certificate, and a byte array of the DER formatted certificates. Nothing seems to work.

What is the format in which this certificate should be specified?

Answer 1

I figured it out by a combination of brute-force, and combing through some mbedtls code online. The certificate has to be specified in exactly the format as follows - i.e. by embedding your own newlines in the array:

unsigned char test_ca_cert[] = 
"-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n"
"MIIDpDCCAowCCQC7mCk5Iu3YmDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCBkzELMAkGA1UEBhMC\n"
"VVMxFjAUBgNVBAgMDU5ldyBIYW1wc2hpcmUxDzANBgNVBAcMBk5hc2h1YTEYMBYG\n"
"A1UECgwPYnJhZGdvb2RtYW4uY29tMR0wGwYDVQQDDBRCcmFkIEdvb2RtYW4gUm9v\n"
"dCBDQTEiMCAGCSqGSIb3DQEJARYTYnJhZEBicmFkZ29kbWFuLmNvbTAeFw0xNDEy\n"
"MDgwMTM2NDJaFw0yNDEyMDUwMTM2NDJaMIGTMQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEWMBQGA1UE\n"
"CAwNTmV3IEhhbXBzaGlyZTEPMA0GA1UEBwwGTmFzaHVhMRgwFgYDVQQKDA9icmFk\n"
"Z29vZG1hbi5jb20xHTAbBgNVBAMMFEJyYWQgR29vZG1hbiBSb290IENBMSIwIAYJ\n"
"KoZIhvcNAQkBFhNicmFkQGJyYWRnb2RtYW4uY29tMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEF\n"
"AAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAq0TfPz/2eH1vMhs5wKjZQU5KEpJH8n27jW3cSVPJPRHo\n"
"tn1S14zzaxuMYhZ1LQJgqT3/V9eVJdJkgoW54dgHLZVMb0xRilJPXNtR9WIZI+3r\n"
"6+7sm6OOhmxjOKUuTWdK+Rbx/KGU+xjQjlyw7Ir4hRLmfaNAw7gnZWyzVcJbvg8O\n"
"5JsReO4x4CnDveX0EJK6L9kNpTSLJZoFsVPdA3QJrxUYOw9s7gQYSjxx1SlcXqQQ\n"
"eWyJWF0FSkRcgRo4qu3JiV94kLUwYNno89G5kU1TnlK0d740KK/A3LN686HhtT66\n"
"XTtE/GLP9EUdlNgEkSoa00580iZqxYZBjlswa04qPQIDAQABMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEB\n"
"BQUAA4IBAQBqf27PAMC0cs5qgr6z5nUxSUN+o3Ap0YjNqrvBID0jQNPr3pfW8fy2\n"
"7dGa3ZAGwPnAmMvx2M6UF5GRYA7lAiC/jBmp0qrdekst4FBx5whJL6tt6sSSmeNp\n"
"4dF7OpGFFDeuBj1CJlN7dro+nd+wty9f7rpjNmGcNjD/vGOrk9T67uWB5NYDIrcn\n"
"rBOAVb+yBnDphBH7UIXWnSBCyDGD7SjAnWPQdH6uRAhVrbhIPylC50NwhqjlN5su\n"
"ll2eQ0Vfp5u+viLK441MwfF77CjhFMs50Ahu7y5ApRD9nzMdqav63dU4oKrdOJgK\n"
"yiUGy+6qJ0KK7FyaU4YKbcsqmd/kev9m\n"
"-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n";