Private key signature different on iOS and MacOSX - ios

Question

I implemented a category method on the NSData class which returns a signature of the data using an SHA-1 hash and subsequent encryption with a private key as follows:
- (NSData *)signatureWithKey:(SecKeyRef)keyRef {
if (keyRef == NULL) {
return nil;
}
NSData *sha1Digest = [self dataWithSHA1Digest];
size_t maxLength = SecKeyGetBlockSize(keyRef) - 11;
if ([sha1Digest length] > maxLength) {
NSString *reason = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"Digest is too long to sign with this key, max length is %ld and actual length is %ld", maxLength, (unsigned long)[self length]];
NSException *ex = [NSException exceptionWithName:#"BMInvalidArgumentException" reason:reason userInfo:nil];
#throw ex;
}
#if TARGET_OS_IPHONE
OSStatus status = noErr;
uint8_t *plainBuffer = (uint8_t *)[sha1Digest bytes];
size_t plainBufferSize = [sha1Digest length];
size_t cipherBufferSize = SecKeyGetBlockSize(keyRef);
uint8_t *cipherBuffer = malloc(cipherBufferSize * sizeof(uint8_t));
status = SecKeyRawSign(keyRef,
kSecPaddingPKCS1SHA1,
plainBuffer,
plainBufferSize,
&cipherBuffer[0],
&cipherBufferSize
);
if (status == noErr) {
return [NSData dataWithBytesNoCopy:cipherBuffer length:cipherBufferSize freeWhenDone:YES];
}
free(cipherBuffer);
return nil;
#else
CFErrorRef error = NULL;
SecTransformRef signer = NULL;
CFTypeRef signature = NULL;
if ((signer = SecSignTransformCreate(keyRef, &error))) {
if (SecTransformSetAttribute(
signer,
kSecTransformInputAttributeName,
(CFDataRef)sha1Digest,
&error)) {
signature = SecTransformExecute(signer, &error);
}
}
if (error) {
LogWarn(#"Could not sign: %#", error);
CFRelease(error);
}
if (signer) {
CFRelease(signer);
}
if (signature) {
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithData:(NSData *)signature];
CFRelease(signature);
return data;
} else {
return nil;
}
#endif
}
Now the strange thing is that with the same private key (loaded from a p12 file) I get two different results for iOS and MacOSX when signing the same data. I am completely puzzled by this. You may notice the method above uses a different implementation for MacOSX using security transforms, but even if I use the iOS implementation on MacOSX (which gives a compile warning but works fine) I get the same result.
The method used for loading the private key from file is below:
+ (SecKeyRef)newPrivateKeyRefWithPassword:(NSString *)password fromData:(NSData *)data {
NSMutableDictionary * options = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
SecKeyRef privateKeyRef = NULL;
// Set the public key query dictionary
//change to your .pfx password here
[options setObject:password forKey:(id)kSecImportExportPassphrase];
CFArrayRef items = CFArrayCreate(NULL, 0, 0, NULL);
OSStatus securityError = SecPKCS12Import((CFDataRef)data,
(CFDictionaryRef)options, &items);
if (securityError == noErr && CFArrayGetCount(items) > 0) {
CFDictionaryRef identityDict = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(items, 0);
SecIdentityRef identityApp =
(SecIdentityRef)CFDictionaryGetValue(identityDict,
kSecImportItemIdentity);
securityError = SecIdentityCopyPrivateKey(identityApp, &privateKeyRef);
if (securityError != noErr) {
privateKeyRef = NULL;
}
}
[options release];
if (items) CFRelease(items);
return privateKeyRef;
}
And this is the test case I use. Notice that two different strings are printed on iOS and MacOSX:
NSString *test = #"bla";
NSData *testData = [test dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSString *p12Path= [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"private_key" ofType:#"p12"];
NSData *p12Data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:p12Path];
SecKeyRef keyRef = [BMSecurityHelper newPrivateKeyRefWithPassword:#"xxxxxxxx" fromData:p12Data];
NSData *signatureData = [testData signatureWithKey:keyRef];
NSString *signatureString = [BMEncodingHelper base64EncodedStringForData:signatureData withLineLength:0];
if (keyRef) CFRelease(keyRef);
NSLog(#"signatureString: %#", signatureString);

Answer 1

It's always nice if you can answer your own question. I missed the following: under MacOSX the security transform also calculates the SHA-1 hash automatically, in contrast with the iOS implementation.
I fixed the problem by adding the following in the MacOSX implementation:
SecTransformSetAttribute(signer, kSecInputIsAttributeName, kSecInputIsDigest, &error)