Encryption & Decryption

Question

I want to have a Encryption using SHA1. My Code is

public static string EncryptPassword(string password)
{
    try
    {
        SHA1 sha1 = new SHA1Managed();
        var bytehash = sha1.ComputeHash(new MemoryStream(new ASCIIEncoding().GetBytes(password)));
        var stringhash = new ASCIIEncoding().GetChars(bytehash).ToString();

        return stringhash;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        // Some Exception....
    }

    return null;
}

It's not working. It only return System.Char[]. What am I doing wrong in this

You need to express your hash as a hex string, right? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/311165/how-do-you-convert-byte-array-to-hexadecimal-string-and-vice-versa — spender, Jul 04 '14 at 09:01
The normal way of converting a byte array of non-character data to a string is to express it as a hex string. Treating bytes as ascii is inherently lossy and the wrong way to solve this problem. — spender, Jul 04 '14 at 09:14
@spender: Please post your comment as an answer since the accepted answer is incorrect. — President James K. Polk, Jul 04 '14 at 12:39
@GregS No. The question is incorrect. Until OP accepts this to be the case, I am leaving notes as comments. I would prefer to close as a dupe rather than repeating the same info of the linked answers, but that also doesn't seem quite appropriate yet. — spender, Jul 04 '14 at 12:42
Com'on guys!!!!! I asked a specific question and got a specific answer. How the question is dulplicate???? — Jain, Jul 04 '14 at 17:01
@Jain : the reason that this question is problematic is that you are attempting to do something that is fundamentally broken by design. As I've stated before, the correct way to turn a byte array into a string is either as a hex string (or even a base64 encoded string). Your method here will create garbage. If that's truly what you want, then fine, but it's not very likely, right? — spender, Jul 08 '14 at 22:54

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 04 '14 at 08:54

5

Because that's what ToString() returns from an array of chars...

try

new string(new ASCIIEncoding().GetChars(bytehash));

and choose Maurice's answer, which is smarter ;)

answered Jul 04 '14 at 08:54

Raphaël Althaus

59,727
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...but a binary hash isn't ascii... what's this meant to do? make a garbage string? – spender Jul 04 '14 at 08:58
@jain ascii encoding is values from 0 to 127, but the hash is bytes with value from 0 to 255. The idea of directly converting a hash to ascii is broken by design and you will lose information by doing this. – spender Jul 04 '14 at 09:08
@spender: Currently I used to do Encryption using MachineKey Class. Would like to ask: Which Encryption Method is really good in terms of performance and security? – Jain Jul 04 '14 at 09:18

Myrtle · Answer 2 · 2014-07-04T09:11:27.303

3

Use GetString instead of GetChars

var stringhash = new ASCIIEncoding().GetString(bytehash);

However Spender wrote you a comment on your question with a link to another question that will help you resolve your actual problem. (@Spender thanks for this).

edited Jul 04 '14 at 09:11

answered Jul 04 '14 at 08:56

Myrtle

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Same issue. The hash will contain values that aren't ascii. What's this actually going to do? – spender Jul 04 '14 at 09:02
@spender I agree it is a bit useless; however this answer does what he wants; converting the bytes to an useless string. – Myrtle Jul 04 '14 at 09:08

Encryption & Decryption

2 Answers2