X509Certificate2 constructor remarks on acceptable data formats are incorrect

[atykhyy]

Type of issue

Missing information

Description

[Enter feedback here]
Constructors which take byte arrays or byte spans accept base64-encoded data on Windows, but not on Linux. This is a known issue in dotnet: dotnet/runtime#47005 Documentation ought to reflect this, so people don't waste their time chasing down long closed issues when their code throws an exception.

Page URL

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.security.cryptography.x509certificates.x509certificate2.-ctor?view=net-8.0

Content source URL

https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet-api-docs/blob/main/xml/System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates/X509Certificate2.xml

Document Version Independent Id

b788c84c-ff5b-eb91-fee1-c09098d58696

Article author

@dotnet-bot

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Tagging subscribers to this area: @dotnet/area-system-security, @vcsjones

[bartonjs]

Unless I'm missing something, the documentation doesn't say that base64 will work, which means there's not an obvious place to say that it sometimes won't.

FWIW, these constructors are all [Obsolte] in .NET 9 and beyond, and the replacement methods do not accept base64 on any OS.

[bartonjs]

Ah, I see, some of the overloads mention it, some don't. And when they say base64 they clearly meant PEM.

So, OK, the docs do need a bit of cleanup here.