How to place the Same Digital signatures to Multiple places in PDF using itextsharp.net

To give all signature fields the same single value wrapping the newly created signature container, they must all reference the same indirect object as value. Unfortunately iText creates the indirect object for the signature value only after the application code had the chance to add its additional fields which in turn require a reference to that signature value object. Thus, the application code has to anticipate the object number that indirect object will have.

This anticipation or prediction of the object number is very delicate, it depends on the exact same use case and can also become incorrect as the result of minor changes in the iTextSharp library

To make this easier, the application code should add those signature fields with their signature value references as late as possible, so there are as few other new indirect objects created as possible until iText creates the value indirect object.

As it turns out, the ModifySigningDictionary method of an IExternalSignatureContainer is a good position for that.

As soon as one adds one’s code there, another issue pops up: There is no means to set the anticipated object number in a PdfIndirectReference instance externally. One way to get around this is to mimic such a reference using a PdfLiteral. (Well, probably one could also use reflection for this.)

Furthermore it turns out that one best creates the appearance streams to use by all one’s additional signature fields before building that PdfLiteral mimicking a PdfIndirectReference as this simplifies the calculation of the object number iText will use for the actual value object.

With this in mind, here a proof-of concept. This proof of concept makes use of an IExternalSignature instance for actually signing. This is not a necessary precondition, one can also use an IExternalSignatureContainer instead with only a few changes, even an ExternalBlankSignatureContainer as in the question to later finalize the signature using MakeSignature.SignDeferred.

So given cipher parameters cp (private key material, e.g. pk.Key for an Org.BouncyCastle.Pkcs.AsymmetricKeyEntry pk) and a certificate chain chain, one would use

PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(SRC);
FileStream os = new FileStream(DEST, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
PdfStamper stamper = PdfStamper.CreateSignature(reader, os, '\0');
PdfSignatureAppearance appearance = stamper.SignatureAppearance;

appearance.Reason = "Reason1";
appearance.Contact = "";
appearance.Location = "Location1";
appearance.Acro6Layers = false;
appearance.Image = null;
appearance.SignatureRenderingMode = PdfSignatureAppearance.RenderingMode.DESCRIPTION;
appearance.SetVisibleSignature(new iTextSharp.text.Rectangle(10, 10, 100, 100), reader.NumberOfPages, null);

IExternalSignature externalSignature = new PrivateKeySignature(cp, "SHA-256");
AllPagesSignatureContainer allPagesContainer = new AllPagesSignatureContainer(appearance, externalSignature, chain);
MakeSignature.SignExternalContainer(appearance, allPagesContainer, 8192);

with this external signature container class

public class AllPagesSignatureContainer : IExternalSignatureContainer
{
    public AllPagesSignatureContainer(PdfSignatureAppearance appearance, IExternalSignature externalSignature, ICollection<X509Certificate> chain)
    {
        this.appearance = appearance;
        this.chain = chain;
        this.externalSignature = externalSignature;
    }

    public void ModifySigningDictionary(PdfDictionary signDic)
    {
        signDic.Put(PdfName.FILTER, PdfName.ADOBE_PPKMS);
        signDic.Put(PdfName.SUBFILTER, PdfName.ADBE_PKCS7_DETACHED);

        PdfStamper stamper = appearance.Stamper;
        PdfReader reader = stamper.Reader;
        PdfDictionary xobject1 = new PdfDictionary();
        PdfDictionary xobject2 = new PdfDictionary();
        xobject1.Put(PdfName.N, appearance.GetAppearance().IndirectReference);
        xobject2.Put(PdfName.AP, xobject1);

        PdfIndirectReference PRef = stamper.Writer.PdfIndirectReference;
        PdfLiteral PRefLiteral = new PdfLiteral((PRef.Number + 1 + 2*(reader.NumberOfPages - 1)) + " 0 R");

        for (int i = 1; i < reader.NumberOfPages; i++)
        {
            var signatureField = PdfFormField.CreateSignature(stamper.Writer);

            signatureField.Put(PdfName.T, new PdfString("ClientSignature_" + i.ToString()));
            signatureField.Put(PdfName.V, PRefLiteral);
            signatureField.Put(PdfName.F, new PdfNumber("132"));
            signatureField.SetWidget(appearance.Rect, null);
            signatureField.Put(PdfName.SUBTYPE, PdfName.WIDGET);

            signatureField.Put(PdfName.AP, xobject1);
            signatureField.SetPage();
            Console.WriteLine(signatureField);

            stamper.AddAnnotation(signatureField, i);
        }
    }

    public byte[] Sign(Stream data)
    {
        String hashAlgorithm = externalSignature.GetHashAlgorithm();
        PdfPKCS7 sgn = new PdfPKCS7(null, chain, hashAlgorithm, false);
        IDigest messageDigest = DigestUtilities.GetDigest(hashAlgorithm);
        byte[] hash = DigestAlgorithms.Digest(data, hashAlgorithm);
        byte[] sh = sgn.getAuthenticatedAttributeBytes(hash, null, null, CryptoStandard.CMS);
        byte[] extSignature = externalSignature.Sign(sh);
        sgn.SetExternalDigest(extSignature, null, externalSignature.GetEncryptionAlgorithm());
        return sgn.GetEncodedPKCS7(hash, null, null, null, CryptoStandard.CMS);
    }

    PdfSignatureAppearance appearance;
    ICollection<X509Certificate> chain;
    IExternalSignature externalSignature;
}

The predicted indirect object number of the signature value in the line

PdfIndirectReference PRef = stamper.Writer.PdfIndirectReference;
PdfLiteral PRefLiteral = new PdfLiteral((PRef.Number + 1 + 2*(reader.NumberOfPages - 1)) + " 0 R");

strictly depends upon the use case being “exactly one signature field per page”. For different use cases the estimate the prediction would differ.

I stress this here once again because e.g. the OP of this question did not take this into account when trying “to place multiple signatures on single page”.

Another strict requirement for the object number prediction above is that the PdfStamper is created as above, i.e. not in append mode. If the signature is applied as an incremental update, i.e. in append mode, the lines above have to be replaced by

stamper.Writer.AddToBody(new PdfNull(), stamper.Writer.PdfIndirectReference, true);

PdfIndirectReference PRef = stamper.Writer.PdfIndirectReference;
PdfLiteral PRefLiteral = new PdfLiteral((PRef.Number + reader.NumberOfPages) + " 0 R");

This made a difference in the context of this question; the first line, adding an indirect null object to the PDF, is necessary to make sure that in case of PDFs with object streams the object stream object number has already been determined and does not slip between the next objects, resulting in an off-by-one error for our prediction.

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Beware: While this procedure creates something which does not violate the letter of the PDF specifications (which only forbid the cases where the same field object is referenced from multiple pages, be it via the same or via distinct widgets), it clearly does violate its intent, its spirit. Thus, this procedure might also become forbidden as part of a Corrigenda document for the specification.