C# Import or Export Cert to Base64 String

ExportAndImportCertToBase64.cs

        public void ExportCertToBase64()
        {
            var certificate = new System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2("c:\\temp\\Signing Cert.pfx", "XXXXXXXXXXXXXX", X509KeyStorageFlags.Exportable);

            StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();

            builder.AppendLine("-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----");
            builder.AppendLine(Convert.ToBase64String(certificate.Export(X509ContentType.Pkcs12, "XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"), Base64FormattingOptions.InsertLineBreaks));
            builder.AppendLine("-----END CERTIFICATE-----");

             Console.WriteLine( builder.ToString());

            
        }

        public void ImportCertFromBase64()
        {
         var rawSIgningCert = @"
          -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
          MIIDLzCCAhegAwIBAgIQJAw.......
          -----END CERTIFICATE-----
          ";


          var certBytes =  Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(rawSIgningCert);
                          var signingcert = new System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2(
                          certBytes,  "XXXXXXXXXXXXXX", 
                          System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509KeyStorageFlags.Exportable);

        }

The only way I could get this to work was by using "Convert.FromBase64String" instead of "Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes". I also had to parse out the "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" and "-----END CERTIFICATE-----" text from the "rawSIgningCert" field because Convert.FromBase64String chokes on non-base64 characters like the hyphen otherwise. After making those changes, this solution worked great.

const string certificatePem = @"
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIF8DCCBVmgAwIBAgIKYFOB9QABAACIvTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADBGMQswCQYD
...
OpueYUG3NBcHP/5IzhUYIQJbGzlQaUaZBMaQeC8ZslMNLWI2
-----END CERTIFICATE-----";

var pemData = Regex.Replace(Regex.Replace(certificatePem, @"\s+", string.Empty), @"-+[^-]+-+", string.Empty);
var pemBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(pemData);
return new X509Certificate2(pemBytes);