How does ASN.1 encode an object identifier?

Question

I am having trouble understanding the basic concepts of ASN.1.

If a type is an OID, does the corresponding number get actually encoded in the binary data?

Fo

Answer 1

This is a simplistic Python 3 implementation of the of above, resp. a string form of an object identifier into ASN.1 DER or BER form.

def encode_variable_length_quantity(v:int) -> list:
    # Break it up in groups of 7 bits starting from the lowest significant bit
    # For all the other groups of 7 bits than lowest one, set the MSB to 1
    m = 0x00
    output = []
    while v >= 0x80:
        output.insert(0, (v & 0x7f) | m)
        v = v >> 7
        m = 0x80
    output.insert(0, v | m)
    return output

def encode_oid_string(oid_str:str) -> tuple:
    a = [int(x) for x in oid_str.split('.')]
    oid = [a[0]*40 + a[1]] # First two items are coded by a1*40+a2
    # A rest is Variable-length_quantity
    for n in a[2:]:
        oid.extend(encode_variable_length_quantity(n))
    oid.insert(0, len(oid)) # Add a Length
    oid.insert(0, 0x06) # Add a Type (0x06 for Object Identifier)
    return tuple(oid)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    oid = encode_oid_string("1.2.840.10045.3.1.7")
    print(oid)