Question

Specifically, I need to validate the incoming X.509 security certificate against a database to allow access to my web service. In order to do this, I need to get a copy of the certificate sent from the client. I think I know how to do that, if I can figure out how to get access to the http Request object — an intrinsic ASP.NET object.

I found the following code that describes how to create a component that will do this, and how to load it in the code-behind for the Page Load event on an aspx page. That’s great, I learned a lot from the article, but it still doesn’t address my problem — there is no web page, so no page load event.

HOW TO: Access ASP.NET Intrinsic Objects from .NET Components by Using Visual C# .NET
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810928

I am using C# and .NET 3.5, but I am not using the advanced coding features of C# (lambdas, extension methods, etc). I just haven’t put in the time to learn how to use them yet…

Any tips, pointers, sample code would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave

Answer 1

If it’s an asmx web service (that is, the “page”/entry point is somefile.asmx, it should be as simple as accessing the request object from there.

Example:
In Visual Studio, create a web service application, and paste the following code into service1.asmx.cs: (the example below returns names of all of the headers that were in the web request)

(below is the complete content of service1.asmx.cs)

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Services;

namespace WebServiceIntrinsicObjects
{
    /// 
    /// Summary description for Service1
    /// 
    [WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]
    [WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
    [System.ComponentModel.ToolboxItem(false)]
    // To allow this Web Service to be called from script, using ASP.NET AJAX, uncomment the following line. 
    // [System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService]
    public class Service1 : System.Web.Services.WebService
    {

        [WebMethod]
        public string HelloWorld()
        {
            // HERE'S THE LINE:  just get the request object from HTTPContext.Current (a static that returns the current HTTP context)
            string test = string.Join(",", HttpContext.Current.Request.Headers.AllKeys);
            return test;
        }
    }
}