Sending a byte [] over javacard apdu - digital-signature

Question

I send a byte [] from the host application to the javacard applet. But when I try to retrieve it as byte [] via the command buffer[ISO7816.OFFSET_CDATA], I am told that I cannot convert byte to byte[]. How can I send a byte [] via command APDU from the host application and retrieve it as byte[] on the other end (javacard applet). It appears buffer[ISO7816.OFFSET_CDATA] returns byte. See my comments on where the error occurs.
My idea is as follows:
The host application sends challenge as a byte [] to be signed by the javacard applet. Note that the signature requires the challenge to be a byte []. The javacard signs as follows:
private void sign(APDU apdu) {
if(!pin.isValidated()) ISOException.throwIt(SW_PIN_VERIFICATION_REQUIRED);
else{
byte [] buffer = apdu.getBuffer();
byte numBytes = buffer[ISO7816.OFFSET_LC];
byte byteRead =(byte)(apdu.setIncomingAndReceive());
if ( ( numBytes != 20 ) || (byteRead != 20) )
ISOException.throwIt(ISO7816.SW_WRONG_LENGTH);
byte [] challenge = buffer[ISO7816.OFFSET_CDATA];// error point cannot convert from byte to byte []
byte [] output = new byte [64];
short length = 64;
short x =0;
Signature signature =Signature.getInstance(Signature.ALG_RSA_SHA_PKCS1, false);
signature.init(privKey, Signature.MODE_SIGN);
short sigLength = signature.sign(challenge, offset,length, output, x); // challenge must be a byte []
//This sequence of three methods sends the data contained in
//'serial' with offset '0' and length 'serial.length'
//to the host application.
apdu.setOutgoing();
apdu.setOutgoingLength((short)output.length);
apdu.sendBytesLong(output,(short)0,(short)output.length);
}
}
The challenge is sent by the host application as shown below:
byte [] card_signature=null;
SecureRandom random = SecureRandom . getInstance( "SHA1PRNG" ) ;
byte [] bytes = new byte [ 20 ] ;
random . nextBytes ( bytes) ;
CommandAPDU challenge;
ResponseAPDU resp3;
challenge = new CommandAPDU(IDENTITY_CARD_CLA,SIGN_CHALLENGE, 0x00, 0x20,bytes);
resp3= c.transmit(challenge);
if(resp3.getSW()==0x9000) {
card_signature = resp3.getData();
String s= DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(card_signature);
System.out.println("signature: " + s);
} else System.out.println("Challenge signature error " + resp3.getSW());

Answer 1

Generally, you send bytes over through the APDU interface. A Java or Java Card byte[] is a construct that can hold those bytes. This is where the APDU buffer comes in: it is the byte array that holds the bytes sent over the APDU interface - or at least a portion of them after calling setIncomingAndReceive().
The challenge therefore is within the APDU buffer; instead of calling:
short sigLength = signature.sign(challenge, offset,length, output, x);
you can therefore simply call:
short sigLength = signature.sign(buffer, apdu.getOffsetCdata(), CHALLENGE_SIZE, buffer, START);
where CHALLENGE_SIZE is 20 and START is simply zero.
Then you can use:
apdu.getOutgoingAndSend(START, sigLength);
to send back the signed challenge.
If you require to keep the challenge for a later stage then you should create a byte array in RAM using JCSystem.makeTransientByteArray() during construction of the Applet and then use Util.arrayCopy() to move the byte values into the challenge buffer. However, since the challenge is generated by the offcard system, there doesn't seem to be any need for this. The offcard system should keep the challenge, not the card.
You should not use ISO7816.OFFSET_CDATA anymore; it will not return the correct result if you would use larger key sizes that generate larger signatures and therefore require the use of extended length APDUs.