create PKCS7 with presigned data using bouncy castle

Question

I would like to create a detached signature in a PDF file using a PKCS7 container. The data (hash) is being signed beforehand on a different device with the private key. I want to create a PKCS7 containing the signed data along with the certificate with the public key. I can't seem to create the PKCS7 with bouncy castle without supplying the private key and having the library signing the data. This doesn't seem to work:

        InputStream inStream = new FileInputStream("1_public.pem");
        BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream( inStream );

        CertificateFactory cf = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509");

        List<Certificate> certList = new ArrayList<Certificate>();
        Certificate certificate = cf.generateCertificate(bis);
        certList.add(certificate);
        Store certs = new JcaCertStore(certList);

        CMSSignedDataGenerator gen = new CMSSignedDataGenerator();
        gen.addCertificates( certs );
        CMSProcessableInputStream msg = new CMSProcessableInputStream( new ByteArrayInputStream( "signedhash".getBytes() ) );

        CMSSignedData signedData = gen.generate(msg, false);
        byte[] pkcs7 = signedData.getEncoded() ) );

Answer 1

I managed to do this by providing a ContentSigner that doesn't sign, actually quite simple:

        InputStream inStream = new FileInputStream("1_public.pem");
        BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream( inStream );

        CertificateFactory cf = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509");

        List<Certificate> certList = new ArrayList<Certificate>();
        Certificate certificate = cf.generateCertificate(bis);
        certList.add(certificate);
        Store certs = new JcaCertStore(certList);
        CMSSignedDataGenerator gen = new CMSSignedDataGenerator();
        gen.addCertificates( certs );

        final byte[] signedHash = "signedhash".getBytes();

        ContentSigner nonSigner = new ContentSigner() {

            @Override
            public byte[] getSignature() {
                return signedHash;
            }

            @Override
            public OutputStream getOutputStream() {
                return new ByteArrayOutputStream();
            }

            @Override
            public AlgorithmIdentifier getAlgorithmIdentifier() {
                return new DefaultSignatureAlgorithmIdentifierFinder().find( "SHA256WithRSA" );
            }
        };

        org.bouncycastle.asn1.x509.Certificate cert = org.bouncycastle.asn1.x509.Certificate.getInstance(ASN1Primitive.fromByteArray(certificate.getEncoded()));
        JcaSignerInfoGeneratorBuilder sigb = new JcaSignerInfoGeneratorBuilder(new JcaDigestCalculatorProviderBuilder().build());
        sigb.setDirectSignature( true );
        gen.addSignerInfoGenerator(sigb.build(nonSigner, new X509CertificateHolder(cert)));
        CMSProcessableInputStream msg = new CMSProcessableInputStream( new ByteArrayInputStream( "not used".getBytes() ) );

        CMSSignedData signedData = gen.generate(msg, false);
        byte[] pkcs7 = signedData.getEncoded();

Answer 2

In case the "external signature" is performed by a hardware device it is possible that it also contains "signed attributes". In this case the code must also contain:

AttributeTable signedAttributes = signer.getSignedAttributes();
signerInfoBuilder.setSignedAttributeGenerator(new SimpleAttributeTableGenerator(signedAttributes));     
signatureGenerator.addSignerInfoGenerator(signerInfoBuilder.build(nonSigner, signCertificate));

you should also remove the

signatureGenerator.setDirectSignature(true)

a complete example can be found here https://www.len.ro/work/attach-payload-into-detached-pkcs7-signature/ . Since I spend a lot of time searching for a solution and this post provided a vital clue I thought I should complete with the information I still missed in an article. Thanks.