C# – How to use WebRequest to access an SSL encrypted site using HTTPS

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I'm writing a program that reads content from a user provided URL. My problem is in the code that goes something like this:

Uri uri = new Uri(url);
WebRequest webRequest = WebRequest.Create(uri);
WebResponse webResponse = webRequest.GetResponse();
ReadFrom(webResponse.GetResponseStream());

And this is breaking if the provided url is an https:// URL. Can anyone help me with changing this code so that it will work with SSL encrypted content. Thanks.

Best Answer

You're doing it the correct way but users may be providing urls to sites that have invalid SSL certs installed. You can ignore those cert problems if you put this line in before you make the actual web request:

ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = new System.Net.Security.RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(AcceptAllCertifications);

where AcceptAllCertifications is defined as

public bool AcceptAllCertifications(object sender, System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate certification, System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Chain chain, System.Net.Security.SslPolicyErrors sslPolicyErrors)
{
    return true;
}

Related Solutions

Are HTTPS headers encrypted

The whole lot is encrypted^† - all the headers. That's why SSL on vhosts doesn't work too well - you need a dedicated IP address because the Host header is encrypted.

^†The Server Name Identification (SNI) standard means that the hostname may not be encrypted if you're using TLS. Also, whether you're using SNI or not, the TCP and IP headers are never encrypted. (If they were, your packets would not be routable.)

C# – How to use reflection to call a generic method

You need to use reflection to get the method to start with, then "construct" it by supplying type arguments with MakeGenericMethod:

MethodInfo method = typeof(Sample).GetMethod(nameof(Sample.GenericMethod));
MethodInfo generic = method.MakeGenericMethod(myType);
generic.Invoke(this, null);

For a static method, pass null as the first argument to Invoke. That's nothing to do with generic methods - it's just normal reflection.

As noted, a lot of this is simpler as of C# 4 using dynamic - if you can use type inference, of course. It doesn't help in cases where type inference isn't available, such as the exact example in the question.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Are HTTPS headers encrypted

C# – How to use reflection to call a generic method

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