Accessing Azure blob storage using bash, curl

Question

I am attempting to use the Azure blob storage service from a bash script using the REST API. I know it is possible to accomplish this using various other tools or languages, however I'd like to do it as a bash script.

The script below is an attempt to list the blobs in an Azure storage container.

This script results in an authentication error. The signing string and headers look correct based on the REST API (reference) documentation. I suspect the problem may be in juggling the various parts of the signing process.

Has anyone successfully used bash and curl to access cloud storage resources like Azure or other providers?

#!/bin/bash

# List the blobs in an Azure storage container.

echo "usage: ${0##*/} <storage-account-name> <container-name> <access-key>"

storage_account="$1"
container_name="$2"
access_key="$3"

blob_store_url="blob.core.windows.net"
authorization="SharedKey"

request_method="GET"
request_date=$(TZ=GMT date "+%a, %d %h %Y %H:%M:%S %Z")
storage_service_version="2011-08-18"

# HTTP Request headers
x_ms_date_h="x-ms-date:$request_date"
x_ms_version_h="x-ms-version:$storage_service_version"

# Build the signature string
canonicalized_headers="${x_ms_date_h}\n${x_ms_version_h}"
canonicalized_resource="/${storage_account}/${container_name}"

string_to_sign="${request_method}\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n${canonicalized_headers}\n${canonicalized_resource}\ncomp:list\nrestype:container"

# Decode the Base64 encoded access key, convert to Hex.
decoded_hex_key="$(echo -n $access_key | base64 -d -w0 | xxd -p -c256)"

# Create the HMAC signature for the Authorization header
signature=$(echo -n "$string_to_sign" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt "hexkey:$decoded_hex_key" | sed 's/^.*= //' | base64 -w0)

authorization_header="Authorization: $authorization $storage_account:$signature"

curl \
  -H "$x_ms_date_h" \
  -H "$x_ms_version_h" \
  -H "$authorization_header" \
  "https://${storage_account}.${blob_store_url}/${container_name}?restype=container&comp=list"

Update - The storage service error and the corresponding signing string that the script generated.

Following is what the storage service returns for the AuthenticationFailed error.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Error>
  <Code>AuthenticationFailed</Code>
  <Message>Server failed to authenticate the request. Make sure the value of Authorization header is formed correctly including the signature.
RequestId:27e6337e-52f3-4e85-98c7-2fabaacd9ebc
Time:2013-11-21T22:10:11.7029042Z</Message>
  <AuthenticationErrorDetail>The MAC signature found in the HTTP request
'OGYxYjk1MTFkYmNkMCgzN2YzODQwNzcyNiIyYTQxZDg0OWFjNGJiZDlmNWY5YzM1ZWQzMWViMGFjYTAyZDY4NAo='
is not the same as any computed signature. Server used following string to sign:
'GET

x-ms-date:Thu, 21 Nov 2013 22:10:11 GMT
x-ms-version:2011-08-18
/storage_account_name/storage_container
comp:list
restype:container'
  </AuthenticationErrorDetail>
</Error>

Next is the string_to_sign that the script generates.

GET\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nx-ms-date:Thu, 21 Nov 2013 22:10:11 GMT\nx-ms-version:2011-08-18\n/storage_account_name/storage_container\ncomp:list\nrestype:container

Answer 1

I was able to get it working. There were two things wrong with this code, the first, as Patrick Park noted, was replacing the echo -n with printf. The second was replacing the sed magic with the -binary option on openssl.

Compare the original:

signature=$(echo -n "$string_to_sign" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt "hexkey:$decoded_hex_key" -binary | sed 's/^.*= //' | base64 -w0)

with the fixed:

signature=$(printf "$string_to_sign" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt "hexkey:$decoded_hex_key" -binary |  base64 -w0)

The echo change is needed because echo -n will not convert the \n into actual newlines.

The -binary change is needed because even though you are stripping off the bad part, openssl was still outputting the signature in ascii-encoded-hex, not in binary. So after it was passed to base64, the result was the b64 encoded version of the hex representation, instead of the raw value.