AFNetworking setAuthenticationChallengeBlock

Question

My server requires a client certifiacte, after some time searching and reading examples in AFNetworking docs I tried to set setAuthenticationChallengeBlock and provide a client certificate.

In browser provided certifacete works fine.

[requestOperation setAuthenticationChallengeBlock:^(NSURLConnection *connection, NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *challenge)
    {
        NSLog(@"AuthenticationChallenge");

        NSString *thePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"client" ofType:@"pfx"];
        NSData *PKCS12Data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:thePath];
        CFDataRef inPKCS12Data = (__bridge CFDataRef)PKCS12Data;
        SecIdentityRef identity;

        [self extractIdentity:inPKCS12Data :&identity];

        SecCertificateRef certificate = NULL;
        SecIdentityCopyCertificate (identity, &certificate);

        const void *certs[] = {certificate};
        CFArrayRef certArray = CFArrayCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, certs, 1, NULL);

        NSURLCredential *credential = [NSURLCredential credentialWithIdentity:identity certificates:(__bridge NSArray*)certArray persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistencePermanent];
        [challenge.sender useCredential:credential forAuthenticationChallenge:challenge];
    }];
    [requestOperation start];

but the code inside block is never being called and server returns 403 error as expected.

The code in other blocks such as setUploadBlock etc. works fine.

Any idea where is my mistake?

Answer 1

I ran into a similar issue tonight. After further investigation of the AFNetworking header files I found my issue. I was forgetting to set the setAuthenticationAgainstProtectionSpaceBlock block on my operation.

    [requestOperation  setAuthenticationAgainstProtectionSpaceBlock:^BOOL(NSURLConnection *connection, NSURLProtectionSpace *protectionSpace) {

        NSLog(@"Auth against protected space [%@]", protectionSpace);

        return YES;

    }];

I believe AFNetworking uses this block to handle the NSURLConnectionDelegate Protocol method: - (BOOL)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection canAuthenticateAgainstProtectionSpace:(NSURLProtectionSpace *)protectionSpace.