WCF self-hosted service with transport security (Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream.)

Question

Hi,

I have a self-hosted service that I want to add transport security to. I've set WSHttpBinding.SecurityMode to Transport and the ClientCredentialType to HttpClientCredentialType.None. I've created a certificate and set it to my host with ServiceHost.Credentials.ServiceCertificate.SetCertificate() I've also registered it using netsh http add sslcert ipport=127.0.0.1:80 certhash=[MyCertHash] certstorename=MY appid=[TheGuidOfTheAppTahtRunsTheService] verifyclientcertrevocation=disable

I'm getting the following error message whenever I try to call the service: "Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream."

Does this mean the the client and server try to authenticate each other? How can I disable it? To make things clear, I do not want to install a certificate at the client, I'm not looking for any authentication atm, just securing the messages content, if that's even possible.

Answer 1

This MSDN post may help solve your problem. The initial request in the post is to configure a different security mode than yours but they switch to Transport mode for troubleshooting and that info should apply to your situation.

If what you describe is all you've done to install the certificate then you're missing a few steps. The post outlines the process to get a valid certificate installed. Good luck!!

Answer 2

Certificates can be a pain in the ass some times to get working. First thing you should always do with WCF is turn on tracing:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733025.aspx

Then, you can use SVCTraceViewer to view the exceptions that your service is generating behind the scenes and get a little insight into what is happening, which is a must with many WCF problems. 9 out of 10 times, the trace will tell you everything you need to know.

Also, make sure that both the client and the server have the certificate configured, since the certificate needs to be installed on both machines.