C# RSA encryption/decryption with transmission

I've seen plenty of encryption/decryption tutorials and examples on the net in C# that use the System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider, but what I'm hoping to be able to do is:

• Create an RSA public/private keypair
• Transmit the public key (or for proof of concept, just move it in a string variable)
• Create a new RSA crypto provider and encrypt a string with the public key
• Transmit the encrypted string (or data) back to the original crypto provider and decrypt the string

Could anyone point me to a useful resource for this?

well there are really enough examples for this, but anyway, here you go

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace RsaCryptoExample
{
  static class Program
  {
    static void Main()
    {
      //lets take a new CSP with a new 2048 bit rsa key pair
      var csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(2048);

      //how to get the private key
      var privKey = csp.ExportParameters(true);

      //and the public key ...
      var pubKey = csp.ExportParameters(false);

      //converting the public key into a string representation
      string pubKeyString;
      {
        //we need some buffer
        var sw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
        //we need a serializer
        var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
        //serialize the key into the stream
        xs.Serialize(sw, pubKey);
        //get the string from the stream
        pubKeyString = sw.ToString();
      }

      //converting it back
      {
        //get a stream from the string
        var sr = new System.IO.StringReader(pubKeyString);
        //we need a deserializer
        var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
        //get the object back from the stream
        pubKey = (RSAParameters)xs.Deserialize(sr);
      }

      //conversion for the private key is no black magic either ... omitted

      //we have a public key ... let's get a new csp and load that key
      csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();
      csp.ImportParameters(pubKey);

      //we need some data to encrypt
      var plainTextData = "foobar";

      //for encryption, always handle bytes...
      var bytesPlainTextData = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(plainTextData);

      //apply pkcs#1.5 padding and encrypt our data 
      var bytesCypherText = csp.Encrypt(bytesPlainTextData, false);

      //we might want a string representation of our cypher text... base64 will do
      var cypherText = Convert.ToBase64String(bytesCypherText);


      /*
       * some transmission / storage / retrieval
       * 
       * and we want to decrypt our cypherText
       */

      //first, get our bytes back from the base64 string ...
      bytesCypherText = Convert.FromBase64String(cypherText);

      //we want to decrypt, therefore we need a csp and load our private key
      csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();
      csp.ImportParameters(privKey);

      //decrypt and strip pkcs#1.5 padding
      bytesPlainTextData = csp.Decrypt(bytesCypherText, false);

      //get our original plainText back...
      plainTextData = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bytesPlainTextData);
    }
  }
}

as a side note: the calls to Encrypt() and Decrypt() have a bool parameter that switches between OAEP and PKCS#1.5 padding ... you might want to choose OAEP if it's available in your situation

public static string Encryption(string strText)
        {
            var publicKey = "<RSAKeyValue><Modulus>21wEnTU+mcD2w0Lfo1Gv4rtcSWsQJQTNa6gio05AOkV/Er9w3Y13Ddo5wGtjJ19402S71HUeN0vbKILLJdRSES5MHSdJPSVrOqdrll/vLXxDxWs/U0UT1c8u6k/Ogx9hTtZxYwoeYqdhDblof3E75d9n2F0Zvf6iTb4cI7j6fMs=</Modulus><Exponent>AQAB</Exponent></RSAKeyValue>";

            var testData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strText);

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(1024))
            {
                try
                {
                    // client encrypting data with public key issued by server                    
                    rsa.FromXmlString(publicKey.ToString());

                    var encryptedData = rsa.Encrypt(testData, true);

                    var base64Encrypted = Convert.ToBase64String(encryptedData);

                    return base64Encrypted;
                }
                finally
                {
                    rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
                }
            }
        }

        public static string Decryption(string strText)
        {
            var privateKey = "<RSAKeyValue><Modulus>21wEnTU+mcD2w0Lfo1Gv4rtcSWsQJQTNa6gio05AOkV/Er9w3Y13Ddo5wGtjJ19402S71HUeN0vbKILLJdRSES5MHSdJPSVrOqdrll/vLXxDxWs/U0UT1c8u6k/Ogx9hTtZxYwoeYqdhDblof3E75d9n2F0Zvf6iTb4cI7j6fMs=</Modulus><Exponent>AQAB</Exponent><P>/aULPE6jd5IkwtWXmReyMUhmI/nfwfkQSyl7tsg2PKdpcxk4mpPZUdEQhHQLvE84w2DhTyYkPHCtq/mMKE3MHw==</P><Q>3WV46X9Arg2l9cxb67KVlNVXyCqc/w+LWt/tbhLJvV2xCF/0rWKPsBJ9MC6cquaqNPxWWEav8RAVbmmGrJt51Q==</Q><DP>8TuZFgBMpBoQcGUoS2goB4st6aVq1FcG0hVgHhUI0GMAfYFNPmbDV3cY2IBt8Oj/uYJYhyhlaj5YTqmGTYbATQ==</DP><DQ>FIoVbZQgrAUYIHWVEYi/187zFd7eMct/Yi7kGBImJStMATrluDAspGkStCWe4zwDDmdam1XzfKnBUzz3AYxrAQ==</DQ><InverseQ>QPU3Tmt8nznSgYZ+5jUo9E0SfjiTu435ihANiHqqjasaUNvOHKumqzuBZ8NRtkUhS6dsOEb8A2ODvy7KswUxyA==</InverseQ><D>cgoRoAUpSVfHMdYXW9nA3dfX75dIamZnwPtFHq80ttagbIe4ToYYCcyUz5NElhiNQSESgS5uCgNWqWXt5PnPu4XmCXx6utco1UVH8HGLahzbAnSy6Cj3iUIQ7Gj+9gQ7PkC434HTtHazmxVgIR5l56ZjoQ8yGNCPZnsdYEmhJWk=</D></RSAKeyValue>";

            var testData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strText);

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(1024))
            {
                try
                {                    
                    var base64Encrypted = strText;
                                       
                    // server decrypting data with private key                    
                    rsa.FromXmlString(privateKey);

                    var resultBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(base64Encrypted);
                    var decryptedBytes = rsa.Decrypt(resultBytes, true);
                    var decryptedData = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decryptedBytes);
                    return decryptedData.ToString();
                }
                finally
                {
                    rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
                }
            }
        }

Honestly, I have difficulty implementing it because there's barely any tutorials I've searched that displays writing the keys into the files. The accepted answer was "fine". But for me I had to improve it so that both keys gets saved into two separate files. I've written a helper class so y'all just gotta copy and paste it. Hope this helps lol.

using Microsoft.Win32;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace RsaCryptoExample
{
	class RSAFileHelper
	{
		readonly string pubKeyPath = "public.key";//change as needed
        readonly string priKeyPath = "private.key";//change as needed
        public void MakeKey()
        {
            //lets take a new CSP with a new 2048 bit rsa key pair
            RSACryptoServiceProvider csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(2048);

            //how to get the private key
            RSAParameters privKey = csp.ExportParameters(true);

            //and the public key ...
            RSAParameters pubKey = csp.ExportParameters(false);
            //converting the public key into a string representation
            string pubKeyString;
            {
                //we need some buffer
                var sw = new StringWriter();
                //we need a serializer
                var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
                //serialize the key into the stream
                xs.Serialize(sw, pubKey);
                //get the string from the stream
                pubKeyString = sw.ToString();
                File.WriteAllText(pubKeyPath, pubKeyString);
            }
            string privKeyString;
            {
                //we need some buffer
                var sw = new StringWriter();
                //we need a serializer
                var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
                //serialize the key into the stream
                xs.Serialize(sw, privKey);
                //get the string from the stream
                privKeyString = sw.ToString();
                File.WriteAllText(priKeyPath, privKeyString);
            }
        }
        public void EncryptFile(string filePath)
        {
            //converting the public key into a string representation
            string pubKeyString;
            {
                using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(pubKeyPath)){pubKeyString = reader.ReadToEnd();}
            }
            //get a stream from the string
            var sr = new StringReader(pubKeyString);

            //we need a deserializer
            var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));

            //get the object back from the stream
            RSACryptoServiceProvider csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();
            csp.ImportParameters((RSAParameters)xs.Deserialize(sr));
            byte[] bytesPlainTextData = File.ReadAllBytes(filePath);

            //apply pkcs#1.5 padding and encrypt our data 
            var bytesCipherText = csp.Encrypt(bytesPlainTextData, false);
            //we might want a string representation of our cypher text... base64 will do
            string encryptedText = Convert.ToBase64String(bytesCipherText);
            File.WriteAllText(filePath,encryptedText);
        }
        public void DecryptFile(string filePath)
        {
            //we want to decrypt, therefore we need a csp and load our private key
            RSACryptoServiceProvider csp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();

            string privKeyString;
            {
                privKeyString = File.ReadAllText(priKeyPath);
                //get a stream from the string
                var sr = new StringReader(privKeyString);
                //we need a deserializer
                var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(RSAParameters));
                //get the object back from the stream
                RSAParameters privKey = (RSAParameters)xs.Deserialize(sr);
                csp.ImportParameters(privKey);
            }
            string encryptedText;
            using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filePath)) { encryptedText = reader.ReadToEnd(); }
            byte[] bytesCipherText = Convert.FromBase64String(encryptedText);

            //decrypt and strip pkcs#1.5 padding
            byte[] bytesPlainTextData = csp.Decrypt(bytesCipherText, false);

            //get our original plainText back...
            File.WriteAllBytes(filePath, bytesPlainTextData);
        }
	}
}

I'll share my very simple code for sample purpose. Hope it will help someone like me searching for quick code reference. My goal was to receive rsa signature from backend, then validate against input string using public key and store locally for future periodic verifications. Here is main part used for signature verification:

        ...
        var signature = Get(url); // base64_encoded signature received from server
        var inputtext= "inputtext"; // this is main text signature was created for
        bool result = VerifySignature(inputtext, signature);
        ...

    private bool VerifySignature(string input, string signature)
    {
        var result = false;
        using (var cps=new RSACryptoServiceProvider())
        {
            // converting input and signature to Bytes Arrays to pass to VerifyData rsa method to verify inputtext was signed using privatekey corresponding to public key we have below
            byte[] inputtextBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input);
            byte[] signatureBytes  = Convert.FromBase64String(signature);
            
            cps.FromXmlString("<RSAKeyValue><Modulus>....</Modulus><Exponent>....</Exponent></RSAKeyValue>"); // xml formatted publickey
            result = cps.VerifyData(inputtextBytes , new SHA1CryptoServiceProvider(), signatureBytes  );
        }

        return result;
    }