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How implement Php's openssl_encrypt method in c#?

as in the title, I need to implement in my C# code the equivalent of php's openssl_encrypt method, because I need to call a service on a php page, but we work with c#.
The php code is this:
$textToEncrypt = "test";
$algo = "AES256";
$iv = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(openssl_cipher_iv_length($algo));
$key = "1234567890987654"; //Not this key, but just same length
$parametri_enc = openssl_encrypt($textToEncrypt , $algo, $key, 0, $iv);
$iv = bin2hex($iv);
I tried many thing, actually my code is:
string textToEncrypt = "test";
string secretCode = "1234567890987654"
// Create sha256 hash
SHA256 mySHA256 = SHA256Managed.Create();
byte[] key = mySHA256.ComputeHash(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(secretCode));
// Create secret IV
byte[] iv = new byte[16];
RandomNumberGenerator generator = RandomNumberGenerator.Create();
generator.GetBytes(iv);
string encryptedText = EncryptString(textToEncrypt, key, iv);
// And I try to port also the bin2hex method
var sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (byte b in iv)
{
sb.AppendFormat("{0:x2}", b);
}
var tokenBytesHex = sb.ToString();
And the method EncryptString is
public static string EncryptString(string plainText, byte[] key, byte[] iv)
{
//Instantiate a new Aes object to perform string symmetric encryption
Aes encryptor = Aes.Create();
encryptor.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
// Set key and IV
byte[] aesKey = new byte[32];
Array.Copy(key, 0, aesKey, 0, 32);
encryptor.Key = aesKey;
encryptor.IV = iv;
// Instantiate a new MemoryStream object to contain the encrypted bytes
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
// Instantiate a new encryptor from our Aes object
ICryptoTransform aesEncryptor = encryptor.CreateEncryptor();
// Instantiate a new CryptoStream object to process the data and write it to the
// memory stream
CryptoStream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, aesEncryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write);
// Convert the plainText string into a byte array
byte[] plainBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(plainText);
// Encrypt the input plaintext string
cryptoStream.Write(plainBytes, 0, plainBytes.Length);
// Complete the encryption process
cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();
// Convert the encrypted data from a MemoryStream to a byte array
byte[] cipherBytes = memoryStream.ToArray();
// Close both the MemoryStream and the CryptoStream
memoryStream.Close();
cryptoStream.Close();
// Convert the encrypted byte array to a base64 encoded string
string cipherText = Convert.ToBase64String(cipherBytes, 0, cipherBytes.Length);
// Return the encrypted data as a string
return cipherText;
}
I tried many variation about this porting (that I've found on internet), but without result. If I use a correct encrypted string from my code, I can call the service, so it is working. I need only to encrypt correctly that string, but until now, I've failed

Ok i solved my own problem. I'll share it so if anyone has the same problem, this could work. Basically I saw a decryption c# code here so I update my code in this way
First, I pass my secretCode in string format instead of byte[]
So i changed my method signature in this way:
public static string EncryptString(string plainText, string secretcode, byte[] iv)
and inside I changed the way I manipulate the secretCode (passphrase in php equivalent method)
// Set key and IV
var aesKey = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(secretcode);
//pad key out to 32 bytes (256bits) if its too short
if (aesKey.Length < 32)
{
var paddedkey = new byte[32];
Buffer.BlockCopy(aesKey, 0, paddedkey, 0, aesKey.Length);
aesKey = paddedkey;
}
So it worked! No other change, just this two small change from my previous post
Updated method
public static string EncryptString(string plainText, string secretcode, byte[] iv)
{
// Instantiate a new Aes object to perform string symmetric encryption
Aes encryptor = Aes.Create();
encryptor.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
// Set key and IV
var aesKey = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(secretcode);
//pad key out to 32 bytes (256bits) if its too short
if (aesKey.Length < 32)
{
var paddedkey = new byte[32];
Buffer.BlockCopy(aesKey, 0, paddedkey, 0, aesKey.Length);
aesKey = paddedkey;
}
encryptor.Key = aesKey;
encryptor.IV = iv;
// Instantiate a new MemoryStream object to contain the encrypted bytes
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
// Instantiate a new encryptor from our Aes object
ICryptoTransform aesEncryptor = encryptor.CreateEncryptor();
// Instantiate a new CryptoStream object to process the data and write it to the
// memory stream
CryptoStream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, aesEncryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write);
// Convert the plainText string into a byte array
byte[] plainBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(plainText);
// Encrypt the input plaintext string
cryptoStream.Write(plainBytes, 0, plainBytes.Length);
// Complete the encryption process
cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();
// Convert the encrypted data from a MemoryStream to a byte array
byte[] cipherBytes = memoryStream.ToArray();
// Close both the MemoryStream and the CryptoStream
memoryStream.Close();
cryptoStream.Close();
// Convert the encrypted byte array to a base64 encoded string
string cipherText = Convert.ToBase64String(cipherBytes, 0, cipherBytes.Length);
// Return the encrypted data as a string
return cipherText;
}

Unrecognized unicode result from AES decryption

I try to build simple AES encryption helper to encrypt/decrypt some strings
Fist, I have an issue with Padding mode wherein decryption it only accepts if Zero otherwise an error about padding occurs!
The second issue is when I try to encrypt simple string "Hello World," it got encrypted, and I have the base64 string, but when trying to decrypt, there's no error, but a weird unknown character is shown! like 㡲啁䎰廾ử靱힩㡲啁䎰廾ử靱힩
My code:
private static int keySizes = 256;
private static int blockSize = 128;
private static PaddingMode pMode = PaddingMode.Zeros;
private static CipherMode cMode = CipherMode.ECB;
private static byte[] key = GenEncryptionKey();
private const string passphrase = #"StartYourMorningWithASmile";
private static byte[] GenEncryptionKey()
{
HashAlgorithm hash = MD5.Create();
return hash.ComputeHash(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(passphrase));
}
private static AesManaged CreateCryptor()
{
AesManaged cryptor = new AesManaged();
cryptor.KeySize = keySizes;
cryptor.BlockSize = blockSize;
cryptor.Padding = pMode;
cryptor.Key = key;
cryptor.Mode = cMode;
cryptor.GenerateIV();
return cryptor;
}
public static string EncryptParams(string reqVal)
{
string cipherText = "";
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(reqVal) || reqVal.Length < 1)
throw new ArgumentNullException();
byte[] plainBytes = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(reqVal);
using (var cryptor = CreateCryptor())
{
ICryptoTransform encryptor = cryptor.CreateEncryptor();
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(ms, encryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cs.Write(plainBytes, 0, plainBytes.Length);
}
byte[] cipherBytes = ms.ToArray();
cipherText = Convert.ToBase64String(cipherBytes);
}
cryptor.Clear();
}
return cipherText;
}
public static string DecryptParams(string resVal)
{
var data = Convert.FromBase64String(resVal);
byte[] cipherBytes = new byte[data.Length];
string plainText = "";
using (var crypto = CreateCryptor())
{
ICryptoTransform Dec = crypto.CreateDecryptor();
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, Dec, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cs.Write(cipherBytes, 0, cipherBytes.Length);
plainText = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(ms.ToArray());
}
}
crypto.Clear();
}
return plainText;
}

UPDATE 1:
Please set also the IV yourself to achieve successful decryption, as #maarten-bodewes pointed out. I missed that part and the decryption somehow worked (?) with your existing code, but you always should provide the same key and IV to a symmetric encryption algorithm to have it work both ways.
ORIGINAL ANSWER:
Your decryption fails (produces incorrect results) because you implemented the decryption part incorrectly (by using CryptoStreamMode.Write instead of CryptoStreamMode.Read) and besides feeding the decryption stream all zero bytes
At the point of execution of
cs.Write(cipherBytes, 0, cipherBytes.Length);
the variable cipherBytes is all zero. The real encrypted buffer is in the data variable which you only use to set the length of cipherBytes
So change your decryption method to this.
BONUS: After correcting the decryption part, you can specify the padding as you wish! I tested with PKCS7 and it is ok.
public static string DecryptParams(string resVal)
{
var cipherBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(resVal);
string plainText = "";
using (var crypto = CreateCryptor())
{
ICryptoTransform Dec = crypto.CreateDecryptor();
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(cipherBytes))
{
using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, Dec, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
{
byte[] decryptBlock = new byte[4096];
MemoryStream decryptStream = new MemoryStream();
int readBytes;
while ((readBytes = cs.Read(decryptBlock, 0, 4096)) > 0)
{
decryptStream.Write(decryptBlock, 0, readBytes);
}
plainText = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(decryptStream.ToArray());
}
}
crypto.Clear();
}
return plainText;
}
Hope this helps.

Thanks to Oguz
Below is my description method after edit
public static string DecryptParams(string resVal)
{
var data = Convert.FromBase64String(resVal);
byte[] cipherBytes = new byte[data.Length];
string plainText = "";
using (var crypto = CreateCryptor())
{
ICryptoTransform Dec = crypto.CreateDecryptor();
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(data))
{
using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, Dec, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
{
cs.Read(cipherBytes, 0, cipherBytes.Length);
plainText = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(cipherBytes.ToArray());
}
}
crypto.Clear();
}
return plainText;
}
one more thing about the return result after the decryption I got the original string plus \0\0\0\0 so I use myString.TrimEnd('\0') to solve that.

Junk bytes before payload in C# UTF8 to AES to Base64 conversion

I have been trying to implement proper IV practice in methods to encrypt and decrypt a UTF-8 string with AES which is then returned as a Base64 string. Using this question as a reference, I have prepended the generated IV to the byte array before the Base64 conversion. I'm having an issue where the decrypt method returns the UTF-8 string with exactly fifty characters of random junk (encryption artifacts?). I don't believe the issue is with the encryption because the decrypt method does consistently return the encrypted string. I think the problem is with one of the other conversion steps but I'm having trouble seeing where this might be coming from. Any help would be wildly appreciated.
Encrypt method
public static string EncryptString(string input, string key)
{
using (var aes = new AesCryptoServiceProvider())
{
aes.Key = System.Convert.FromBase64String(key);
aes.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
aes.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
byte[] rawData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input);
// IV is the 16 byte AES Initialization Vector
aes.GenerateIV();
using (var encryptor = aes.CreateEncryptor(aes.Key, aes.IV))
{
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
ms.Write(aes.IV, 0, aes.IV.Length); // aes.IV.Length should be 16
using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, encryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cs.Write(rawData, 0, rawData.Length);
cs.FlushFinalBlock();
}
byte[] encryptedData = ms.ToArray();
// this will hold the IV prepended to the encrypted data
byte[] output = new byte[aes.IV.Length + encryptedData.Length];
Array.Copy(aes.IV, output, aes.IV.Length); // save the iv
Array.Copy(encryptedData, 0, output, aes.IV.Length, encryptedData.Length); // save the data
// now encode the whole thing as base 64
return System.Convert.ToBase64String(output);
}
}
}
}
Decrypt method
public static string DecryptString(string input, string key)
{
using (var aes = new AesCryptoServiceProvider())
{
aes.Key = Convert.FromBase64String(key);
aes.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
aes.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
byte[] rawData = Convert.FromBase64String(input);
byte[] IV = new byte[16]; // aes.IV.Length should be 16
Array.Copy(rawData, IV, IV.Length);
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, aes.CreateDecryptor(aes.Key, IV), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
using (var binaryWriter = new BinaryWriter(cs))
{
binaryWriter.Write(rawData,IV.Length ,rawData.Length - IV.Length);
}
}
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
}
}
}
My test
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string payload = "My super secret string";
string key = "tR4mPn7mBQ8G6HWusyFnGk/gqdd/enWiUTr7YbhNrJg=";
Console.WriteLine(payload);
Console.WriteLine(key);
Console.WriteLine("");
string encrypted = EncryptString(payload, key);
Console.WriteLine(encrypted);
Console.WriteLine("");
string decrypted = DecryptString(encrypted, key);
Console.WriteLine(decrypted);
Console.WriteLine(decrypted.Length.ToString() + " " + encrypted.Length.ToString());
Console.ReadKey();
}
Edit to add - this is an example of the output:
�XQ��=F�]�D�?�My super secret string

You are writing the IV to the output twice in EncryptString. First you have:
ms.Write(aes.IV, 0, aes.IV.Length); // aes.IV.Length should be 16
which is the start of encryptedData. You then copy the IV and encryptedData (which already includes the IV) into a new byte array:
// this will hold the IV prepended to the encrypted data
byte[] output = new byte[aes.IV.Length + encryptedData.Length];
Array.Copy(aes.IV, output, aes.IV.Length); // save the iv
Array.Copy(encryptedData, 0, output, aes.IV.Length, encryptedData.Length); // save the data
This doubling of the IV is what is causing the extra bytes.
You don’t need to do the second copying. Just convert encryptedData to base 64 directly and return that:
return System.Convert.ToBase64String(encryptedData);

Decrypt an encrypted text

I got a textbox and a 'decrypt' button in my Windows Form Application where I put an encrypted string in there and try to decrypt it but the problem is this. First, I got this class code called DataEncryptor from a guy on this website:
public class DataEncryptor
{
TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider symm;
#region Factory
public DataEncryptor()
{
this.symm = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
this.symm.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
}
public DataEncryptor(TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider keys)
{
this.symm = keys;
}
public DataEncryptor(byte[] key, byte[] iv)
{
this.symm = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
this.symm.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
this.symm.Key = key;
this.symm.IV = iv;
}
#endregion
#region Properties
public TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider Algorithm
{
get { return symm; }
set { symm = value; }
}
public byte[] Key
{
get { return symm.Key; }
set { symm.Key = value; }
}
public byte[] IV
{
get { return symm.IV; }
set { symm.IV = value; }
}
#endregion
#region Crypto
public byte[] Encrypt(byte[] data) { return Encrypt(data, data.Length); }
public byte[] Encrypt(byte[] data, int length)
{
try
{
// Create a MemoryStream.
var ms = new MemoryStream();
// Create a CryptoStream using the MemoryStream
// and the passed key and initialization vector (IV).
var cs = new CryptoStream(ms,
symm.CreateEncryptor(symm.Key, symm.IV),
CryptoStreamMode.Write);
// Write the byte array to the crypto stream and flush it.
cs.Write(data, 0, length);
cs.FlushFinalBlock();
// Get an array of bytes from the
// MemoryStream that holds the
// encrypted data.
byte[] ret = ms.ToArray();
// Close the streams.
cs.Close();
ms.Close();
// Return the encrypted buffer.
return ret;
}
catch (CryptographicException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("A cryptographic error occured: {0}", ex.Message);
}
return null;
}
public string EncryptString(string text)
{
return Convert.ToBase64String(Encrypt(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text)));
}
public byte[] Decrypt(byte[] data) { return Decrypt(data, data.Length); }
public byte[] Decrypt(byte[] data, int length)
{
try
{
// Create a new MemoryStream using the passed
// array of encrypted data.
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(data);
// Create a CryptoStream using the MemoryStream
// and the passed key and initialization vector (IV).
CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(ms,
symm.CreateDecryptor(symm.Key, symm.IV),
CryptoStreamMode.Read);
// Create buffer to hold the decrypted data.
byte[] result = new byte[length];
// Read the decrypted data out of the crypto stream
// and place it into the temporary buffer.
cs.Read(result, 0, result.Length);
return result;
}
catch (CryptographicException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("A cryptographic error occured: {0}", ex.Message);
}
return null;
}
public string DecryptString(string data)
{
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Decrypt(Convert.FromBase64String(data))).TrimEnd('\0');
}
#endregion
}
And he gave the usage of it:
string message="A very secret message here.";
DataEncryptor keys=new DataEncryptor();
string encr=keys.EncryptString(message);
// later
string actual=keys.DecryptString(encr);
I copied his code and works at encrypting and decrypting:
//my code
private void proceedED(string data)
{
DataEncryptor key = new DataEncryptor();
string encr = key.EncryptString(data);
string actual = key.DecryptString(encr);
encryptedLabel.Text = encr;
decryptedLabel.Text = actual;
}
Then I created a method like this:
private void proceedDecrypt(string data)
{
DataEncryptor key = new DataEncryptor();
string decr = key.DecryptString(data);
decryptedData.Text = decr;
}
The problem is that it crashes when I submit and I don't know why.
I think it should be a true encrypted string because it's just a normal string.
How do I fix this?

Each instance of DataEncryptor generates new keys. You need to use the same keys which encrypted the string to decrypt. If this is done in the same process then keep a reference to DataEncryptor key. Otherwise you need to initialize using the DataEncryptor(byte[] key, byte[] iv) constructor.
Try code like this:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string key, iv;
var plain="A very secret message.";
var cipher=EncryptString(plain, out key, out iv);
// Later ...
var message=DecryptString(cipher, key, iv);
}
public static string EncryptString(string plain, out string key, out string iv)
{
var crypto=new DataEncryptor();
iv=Convert.ToBase64String(crypto.IV);
key=Convert.ToBase64String(crypto.Key);
return crypto.EncryptString(plain);
}
public static string DecryptString(string cipher, string key, string iv)
{
var crypto=new DataEncryptor(
Convert.FromBase64String(key),
Convert.FromBase64String(iv));
return crypto.DecryptString(cipher);
}
}

You can use encryption and decription with System.Security.Cryptography
1) Set encryption decription key
2) Encrypt data with encryption key
3) Decrypt data with same encryption key
Please refer below link with Encryption and Decription example.
Encryption/Decryption Function in .NET using the TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider Class

you are creating new object in both function;
DataEncryptor key = new DataEncryptor();
That is the reason, for your error.
Just declare;
DataEncryptor key = new DataEncryptor();
Out side of your proceedED() and proceedDecrypt(), I mean make it public.
OR you can pass pass key as parameter to proceedDecrypt() and use it in that function.
Like;
DataEncryptor key = new DataEncryptor();
private void proceedED(string data)
{
string encr = key.EncryptString(data);
string actual = key.DecryptString(encr);
encryptedLabel.Text = encr;
decryptedLabel.Text = actual;
proceedDecrypt(encr);
}
private void proceedDecrypt(string data)
{
string decr = key.DecryptString(data);
decryptedData.Text = decr;
}
Hope it helps..!!!

Well I finally solved it...
I copied this code from https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/d6a2836a-d587-4068-8630-94f4fb2a2aeb/encrypt-and-decrypt-a-string-in-c?forum=csharpgeneral
static readonly string PasswordHash = "P##Sw0rd";
static readonly string SaltKey = "S#LT&KEY";
static readonly string VIKey = "#1B2c3D4e5F6g7H8";
public static string Encrypt(string plainText)
{
byte[] plainTextBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);
byte[] keyBytes = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(PasswordHash, Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(SaltKey)).GetBytes(256 / 8);
var symmetricKey = new RijndaelManaged() { Mode = CipherMode.CBC, Padding = PaddingMode.Zeros };
var encryptor = symmetricKey.CreateEncryptor(keyBytes, Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(VIKey));
byte[] cipherTextBytes;
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, encryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cryptoStream.Write(plainTextBytes, 0, plainTextBytes.Length);
cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();
cipherTextBytes = memoryStream.ToArray();
cryptoStream.Close();
}
memoryStream.Close();
}
return Convert.ToBase64String(cipherTextBytes);
}
public static string Decrypt(string encryptedText)
{
byte[] cipherTextBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(encryptedText);
byte[] keyBytes = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(PasswordHash, Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(SaltKey)).GetBytes(256 / 8);
var symmetricKey = new RijndaelManaged() { Mode = CipherMode.CBC, Padding = PaddingMode.None };
var decryptor = symmetricKey.CreateDecryptor(keyBytes, Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(VIKey));
var memoryStream = new MemoryStream(cipherTextBytes);
var cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, decryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Read);
byte[] plainTextBytes = new byte[cipherTextBytes.Length];
int decryptedByteCount = cryptoStream.Read(plainTextBytes, 0, plainTextBytes.Length);
memoryStream.Close();
cryptoStream.Close();
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(plainTextBytes, 0, decryptedByteCount).TrimEnd("\0".ToCharArray());
}
and removed the DataEncryptor class

C# Encrypt Text Output

I have created a few little programs that export data to a text file using StreamWriter and then I read them back in using StreamReader. This works great and does what I need it to do but I was wondering if there was a way that I could save this information without the user being able to access or modify it either intentionally or unintentionally. An example of something I would have in a text file would be if a checkbox was ticked, when you tick it it outputs "Ticked" to a text file, when the program is re - opened I know what state the form was in when it was closed. I obviously don't want to keep using text files. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can easily store this information without the user being able to modify it? Thank you very much.

The simplest way is to Base-64 encode/decode this text. This is not secure, but will prevent a casual user from modifying the data.
static public string EncodeTo64(string toEncode)
{
byte[] toEncodeAsBytes
= System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(toEncode);
string returnValue
= System.Convert.ToBase64String(toEncodeAsBytes);
return returnValue;
}
static public string DecodeFrom64(string encodedData)
{
byte[] encodedDataAsBytes
= System.Convert.FromBase64String(encodedData);
string returnValue =
System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(encodedDataAsBytes);
return returnValue;
}
EDIT: Real encryption
#region Encryption
string passPhrase = "Pasword"; // can be any string
string saltValue = "sALtValue"; // can be any string
string hashAlgorithm = "SHA1"; // can be "MD5"
int passwordIterations = 7; // can be any number
string initVector = "~1B2c3D4e5F6g7H8"; // must be 16 bytes
int keySize = 256; // can be 192 or 128
private string Encrypt(string data)
{
byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(this.initVector);
byte[] rgbSalt = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(this.saltValue);
byte[] buffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data);
byte[] rgbKey = new PasswordDeriveBytes(this.passPhrase, rgbSalt, this.hashAlgorithm, this.passwordIterations).GetBytes(this.keySize / 8);
RijndaelManaged managed = new RijndaelManaged();
managed.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
ICryptoTransform transform = managed.CreateEncryptor(rgbKey, bytes);
MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
CryptoStream stream2 = new CryptoStream(stream, transform, CryptoStreamMode.Write);
stream2.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
stream2.FlushFinalBlock();
byte[] inArray = stream.ToArray();
stream.Close();
stream2.Close();
return Convert.ToBase64String(inArray);
}
private string Decrypt(string data)
{
byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(this.initVector);
byte[] rgbSalt = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(this.saltValue);
byte[] buffer = Convert.FromBase64String(data);
byte[] rgbKey = new PasswordDeriveBytes(this.passPhrase, rgbSalt, this.hashAlgorithm, this.passwordIterations).GetBytes(this.keySize / 8);
RijndaelManaged managed = new RijndaelManaged();
managed.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
ICryptoTransform transform = managed.CreateDecryptor(rgbKey, bytes);
MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(buffer);
CryptoStream stream2 = new CryptoStream(stream, transform, CryptoStreamMode.Read);
byte[] buffer5 = new byte[buffer.Length];
int count = stream2.Read(buffer5, 0, buffer5.Length);
stream.Close();
stream2.Close();
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer5, 0, count);
}
#endregion

You should call ProtectedData.Protect to encrypt the data using a per-user key.
Note that it wouldn't be very hard for a skilled user to decrypt and modify the data.
Anything that your program does on the user's machine can be done by the user too.

You can add a checksum or hash to the file - if the file contents doesn't agree with the checksum, you know it was tampered with.
If it is important that users can't read the contents of the file, you can encrypt it.
I don't believe you can make a file that can't be tampered with (a savvy user could use a hex editor and change it, for example) - the best you can do is detect such tampering.

You can use the Ionic zip libraries to zip those text files. If necessary you could also use features of Ionic zip like password protection and encryption. And you'll still be able to open the file (with zipping applications like, for example, 7zip) manually yourself using the same settings you used to create it in the first place.

If a program can access the information, a user usually can too. However you can produce data the user will not immediately understand.
I would start by creating a class that holds all state information you want to save, isolating the problem. Coincidentally, the BinaryFormatter class will then allow you to easily save and load this class to/from a file. I don't know if it's results are "unreadable enough" - if not, apply Base64 encoding like Leon mentioned.

While you could base64 encode or even fully encrypt your configuration data (with SHA1 or MD5) as already suggested, I think good practice would be to work with the framework classes dealing with configuration data (Configuration under the System.Configuration namespace) and it's built in ability to encrypt data (via the ProtectSection method of the ConfigurationSection class).
First of all you should declare and initialize an instance:
using System.Configuration;
...
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Configuration config;
config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(/*path to config file*/); //Use ConfigurationManager.OpenMachineConfiguration(/*path to config file*/) when opening machine configuration
...
After that you need to define a custom configuration section that defines your configuration (msdn example)
Once you've done that you just need to initialize an instance of your custom configuration section and add it to the configuration file using this code:
isTicked = config.Sections.Add("isTicked", customSection);
To encrypt the section you just added use this code (with further examples in both VB.NET and C# found here):
config.Sections["isTicked"].SectionInformation.ProtectSection("protection provider");
The "DPAPIProtectedConfigurationProvider" and "RSAProtectedConfigurationProvider" are built in by default.
Once you want to decrypt the section use this code:
config.Sections["isTicked"].SectionInformation.UnprotectSection();
To stress a point - encryption and decryption both take effect only after you save the configuration file
To save the file, use the code:
config.Save(); //config.SaveAs("string") is also available
Further information about the relevant classes and methods can be found in the msdn, starting with the Configuration class page linked above.

Try this code to encrypt and decrypt your text!
It is quite easy and strong I think...
public static class Crypto
{
private static readonly byte[] IVa = new byte[] { 0x0b, 0x0c, 0x0d, 0x0e, 0x0f, 0x11, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17 };
public static string Encrypt(this string text, string salt)
{
try
{
using (Aes aes = new AesManaged())
{
Rfc2898DeriveBytes deriveBytes = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(IVa, 0, IVa.Length), Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(salt));
aes.Key = deriveBytes.GetBytes(128 / 8);
aes.IV = aes.Key;
using (MemoryStream encryptionStream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (CryptoStream encrypt = new CryptoStream(encryptionStream, aes.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
byte[] cleanText = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("Before encryption text data size: ", text.Length.ToString()));
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("Before encryption byte data size: ", cleanText.Length.ToString()));
encrypt.Write(cleanText, 0, cleanText.Length);
encrypt.FlushFinalBlock();
}
byte[] encryptedData = encryptionStream.ToArray();
string encryptedText = Convert.ToBase64String(encryptedData);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("Encrypted text data size: ", encryptedText.Length.ToString()));
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("Encrypted byte data size: ", encryptedData.Length.ToString()));
return encryptedText;
}
}
}
catch(Exception e)
{
return String.Empty;
}
}
public static string Decrypt(this string text, string salt)
{
try
{
using (Aes aes = new AesManaged())
{
Rfc2898DeriveBytes deriveBytes = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(IVa, 0, IVa.Length), Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(salt));
aes.Key = deriveBytes.GetBytes(128 / 8);
aes.IV = aes.Key;
using (MemoryStream decryptionStream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (CryptoStream decrypt = new CryptoStream(decryptionStream, aes.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
byte[] encryptedData = Convert.FromBase64String(text);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("Encrypted text data size: ", text.Length.ToString()));
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("Encrypted byte data size: ", encryptedData.Length.ToString()));
decrypt.Write(encryptedData, 0, encryptedData.Length);
decrypt.Flush();
}
byte[] decryptedData = decryptionStream.ToArray();
string decryptedText = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decryptedData, 0, decryptedData.Length);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("After decryption text data size: ", decryptedText.Length.ToString()));
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat("After decryption byte data size: ", decryptedData.Length.ToString()));
return decryptedText;
}
}
}
catch(Exception e)
{
return String.Empty;
}
}
}

Just to add another implementation of Leon's answer, and following the
Microsoft docs
Here a class example that encrypts and decrypts strings
public static class EncryptionExample
{
#region internal consts
internal const string passPhrase = "pass";
internal const string saltValue = "salt";
internal const string hashAlgorithm = "MD5";
internal const int passwordIterations = 3; // can be any number
internal const string initVector = "0123456789abcdf"; // must be 16 bytes
internal const int keySize = 64; // can be 192 or 256
#endregion
#region public static Methods
public static string Encrypt(string data)
{
string res = string.Empty;
try
{
byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(initVector);
byte[] rgbSalt = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(saltValue);
byte[] buffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data);
byte[] rgbKey = new PasswordDeriveBytes(passPhrase, rgbSalt, hashAlgorithm, passwordIterations).GetBytes(keySize / 8);
RijndaelManaged managed = new RijndaelManaged();
managed.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
ICryptoTransform transform = managed.CreateEncryptor(rgbKey, bytes);
byte[] inArray = null;
using (MemoryStream msEncrypt = new MemoryStream())
{
using (CryptoStream csEncrypt = new CryptoStream(msEncrypt, transform, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
csEncrypt.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
csEncrypt.FlushFinalBlock();
inArray = msEncrypt.ToArray();
res = Convert.ToBase64String(inArray);
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Encrypt " + ex);
}
return res;
}
public static string Decrypt(string data)
{
string res = string.Empty;
try
{
byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(initVector);
byte[] rgbSalt = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(saltValue);
byte[] buffer = Convert.FromBase64String(data);
byte[] rgbKey = new PasswordDeriveBytes(passPhrase, rgbSalt, hashAlgorithm, passwordIterations).GetBytes(keySize / 8);
RijndaelManaged managed = new RijndaelManaged();
managed.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
ICryptoTransform transform = managed.CreateDecryptor(rgbKey, bytes);
using (MemoryStream msEncrypt = new MemoryStream(buffer))
{
using (CryptoStream csDecrypt = new CryptoStream(msEncrypt, transform, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
{
using (StreamReader srDecrypt = new StreamReader(csDecrypt))
{
res = srDecrypt.ReadToEnd();
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Decrypt " + ex);
}
return res;
}
}
By the way, here is the "salt value" definition that I had googled to find out what it was.
Salt value
If an attacker does not know the password, and is trying to guess it with a brute-force attack, then every password he tries has to be tried with each salt value. So, for a one-bit salt (0 or 1), this makes the encryption twice as hard to break in this way.

Preventing unintentional string modification can be done using a checksum, as pointed in this answer.
However, it's quite easy to generate such a checksum, as they are not that many widely used algorithms.
Thus that doesn't protect you against intentional modification.
To prevent that, people use digital signatures. That allows anyone to verify your data hasn't be tampered, but only you (the owner of the private secret) can generate the signature.
Here is an example in C#.
However, as others pointed out, you need to embed your private key somewhere in your binary, and a (not so) skilled programmer will be able to retrieve it, even if you obfuscate your .net dll or you make that in a separate native process.
That would be enough for most concerns though.
If you are really concerned by security, then you need to move on the cloud, and execute the code on a machine you own.