Develop Reference

C# PHP SHA-256 hashing returns different value, but SHA-1 & base64 not

I am making backend system for mine game (server & client). I use following code to generate first part of signature (this one is corrupted one):
#example data
string Url = "https://example.com/api/test/example.php";
Dictionary<string, string> RequestBody = new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "example_value", "test" } };
string CreateFirstHash()
{
string Combined = "";
foreach(KeyValuePair<string, string> BodyPart in RequestBody)
{
Combined += BodyPart.Key + "-" + BodyPart.Value + ".";
}
string HashedCombined = Encryption.SHA1(Combined);
string EncodedUrl = Encryption.Base64Encode(this.Url);
string PlainText = HashedCombined + ":" + EncodedUrl + ":" + 'ACBANE8AX98FT7JY6YVWKAMTMJHMYH3E2C582FCYJBTQLU4UZVSJ2E67CPB7BG75NDASGS3BAMR34UVUZN2SSPCV35A8VJPKPPCGGVEH5U9JM47GLUKRZSH3T65MBVZ2RY78C69ZGMC7JG998HRBY6U9TLQH6JDCVRE5YAR8D3TUJ3H2LBE2C598M7VNDSME5WM2YX2449Q8Z923QWGPFLCXXXCC4CETTKUJ28RYSHN372WP2KCXH6V7ZNZNJRAE';
return Encryption.SHA256(PlainText);
}
Here is Encryption class:
using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;
public class Encryption
{
private static readonly Encoding enc = Encoding.UTF8;
public static string MD5(string input)
{
byte[] inputBytes = enc.GetBytes(input);
using(System.Security.Cryptography.MD5 md5 = System.Security.Cryptography.MD5.Create())
{
byte[] hashBytes = md5.ComputeHash(inputBytes);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach(byte hashByte in hashBytes)
{
sb.Append(hashByte.ToString("x2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
public static string SHA1(string input)
{
byte[] inputBytes = enc.GetBytes(input);
using(SHA1Managed sha = new SHA1Managed())
{
byte[] hashBytes = sha.ComputeHash(inputBytes);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach(byte hashByte in hashBytes)
{
sb.Append(hashByte.ToString("x2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
public static string SHA256(string input)
{
byte[] inputBytes = enc.GetBytes(input);
using (SHA256Managed sha = new SHA256Managed())
{
byte[] hashBytes = sha.ComputeHash(inputBytes);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (byte hashByte in hashBytes)
{
sb.Append(hashByte.ToString("x2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
public static string SHA512(string input)
{
byte[] inputBytes = enc.GetBytes(input);
using (SHA512Managed sha = new SHA512Managed())
{
byte[] hashBytes = sha.ComputeHash(inputBytes);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (byte hashByte in hashBytes)
{
sb.Append(hashByte.ToString("x2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
public static string HMAC512(string input, string secret)
{
byte[] inputBytes = enc.GetBytes(input);
byte[] secretBytes = enc.GetBytes(secret);
using(HMACSHA512 hmac = new HMACSHA512(secretBytes))
{
byte[] hashBytes = hmac.ComputeHash(inputBytes);
return BitConverter.ToString(hashBytes).Replace("-", "").ToLower();
}
}
public static string Base64Encode(string input)
{
byte[] inputBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(input);
return Convert.ToBase64String(inputBytes);
}
}
Server validates data by making same hash, with the same data and finally checks if generated signature is equal to input one. This is server implementation for CreateFirstHash() function:
#example data
public $requestBody = array('example_value' => 'test');
public $url = 'https://example.com/api/test/example.php';
public $scope = 'game'; #this is not important, you can disregard it
private static function generateFirstHash($requestBody, $url, $scope)
{
$combined = "";
foreach ($requestBody as $key => $value)
{
$combined .= $key . '-' . $value . ".";
}
$combined = sha1($combined);
$encodedUrl = base64_encode($url);
$plainString = $combined . ':' . $encodedUrl . ':' . 'ACBANE8AX98FT7JY6YVWKAMTMJHMYH3E2C582FCYJBTQLU4UZVSJ2E67CPB7BG75NDASGS3BAMR34UVUZN2SSPCV35A8VJPKPPCGGVEH5U9JM47GLUKRZSH3T65MBVZ2RY78C69ZGMC7JG998HRBY6U9TLQH6JDCVRE5YAR8D3TUJ3H2LBE2C598M7VNDSME5WM2YX2449Q8Z923QWGPFLCXXXCC4CETTKUJ28RYSHN372WP2KCXH6V7ZNZNJRAE';
return hash('sha256', $plainString);
}
All data from input were the same (checked manually). This is list what was the same in debug (step by step):
Combined string: same
SHA-1 hash of combined string: same
Encoded URL: same
Plain text: same
Final SHA-256 hash: invalid
Can anyone knows what is wrong and how can I make this valid?
Edit 1
Added example input data.

Thanks for adding some sample data but your C#-code is not running directly as some functions are missing.
I run your PHP-code and could extract the input to the SHA256-function:
plainString: d4a1466c15dc46dd6f7533b172313660eab1aba5:aHR0cHM6Ly9leGFtcGxlLmNvbS9hcGkvdGVzdC9leGFtcGxlLnBocA==:ACBANE8AX98FT7JY6YVWKAMTMJHMYH3E2C582FCYJBTQLU4UZVSJ2E67CPB7BG75NDASGS3BAMR34UVUZN2SSPCV35A8VJPKPPCGGVEH5U9JM47GLUKRZSH3T65MBVZ2RY78C69ZGMC7JG998HRBY6U9TLQH6JDCVRE5YAR8D3TUJ3H2LBE2C598M7VNDSME5WM2YX2449Q8Z923QWGPFLCXXXCC4CETTKUJ28RYSHN372WP2KCXH6V7ZNZNJRAE
With this input the PHP-SHA256 is:
hash: dced08719b7da56f69f70204122a498f5eda5090ad6b5a90691eb73731cc4c15
Test the plainString-value with an online-tool (https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha256.html) gives the same result:
dced08719b7da56f69f70204122a498f5eda5090ad6b5a90691eb73731cc4c15
Last but not least I tested your C#-implementation of SHA256 after fixing the missing
byte[] inputBytes = **enc.GetBytes**(input);
and got the result:
dced08719b7da56f69f70204122a498f5eda5090ad6b5a90691eb73731cc4c15
So in the end - there is no difference in SHA256-results between C# and PHP.

Get a C# byte array equal to a php hex string

So I have this piece of php code that I'm not allowed to modify for now, mainly because it's old and works properly.
Warning! Very bad code overal. the IV is not being randomized neither stored with the output. I'm not asking this because I want to,
I'm asking because I need to. I'm also planning on refactoring when I get this working and completing my C# code with actually reliable cyphering code.
function encrypt($string)
{
$output = false;
$encrypt_method = "AES-256-CBC";
$param1 = 'ASasd564D564aAS64ads564dsfg54er8G74s54hjds346gf445gkG7';
$param2 = '654dsfg54er8ASG74sdfg54hjdas346gf34kjdDJF56hfs2345gkFG';
$ky = hash('sha256', $param1); // hash
$iv = substr(hash('sha256', $param2), 0, 16);
$output = openssl_encrypt($string, $encrypt_method, $ky, 0, $iv);
$output = base64_encode($output);
return $output;
}
I want to do the same in C# because I'm getting an entity with all its fields encrypted with that code.
I want to be able to encrypt that data so I can query my entity list whithout having to decrypt all the entities. And I want to decrypt some properties of the filtered entities so they can actually be useful.
Now, for that matter I created a CryptoHelper that will do this, except it doesn't.
I try to calculate the Key and IV in the constructor:
public readonly byte[] Key;
public readonly byte[] IV;
public CryptoHelper()
{
Key = GetByteArraySha256Hash("ASasd564D564aAS64ads564dsfg54er8G74s54hjds346gf445gkG7", false);
IV = GetByteArraySha256Hash("654dsfg54er8ASG74sdfg54hjdas346gf34kjdDJF56hfs2345gkFG", true);
}
private byte[] GetByteArraySha256Hash(string source, bool salt)
{
byte[] result;
try
{
using (SHA256 sha256Hash = SHA256.Create())
{
result = sha256Hash.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(source));
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
if (salt)
{
return result.Take(16).ToArray();
}
return result;
}
And then use a Encrypt and Decrypt methods that are working pretty well when I test them with a test string. The only problem is that the string have some padding at the end, but it's kind of a minor problem considering that any string encrypted with the php method results in gibberish.
private string Encrypt(string source)
{
try
{
string result = "";
using (var aes = new AesManaged { Key = Key, IV = IV, Mode = CipherMode.CBC, Padding = PaddingMode.Zeros })
{
byte[] sourceByteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(source);
using (var encryptor = aes.CreateEncryptor(aes.Key, aes.IV))
{
byte[] encriptedSource = encryptor.TransformFinalBlock(sourceByteArray, 0, sourceByteArray.Length);
result = Convert.ToBase64String(encriptedSource);
result = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(result));
}
}
return result;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw;
}
}
private string Decrypt(string source)
{
try
{
string result = "";
//Double Base64 conversion, as it's done in the php code.
byte[] sourceByte = Convert.FromBase64String(source);
byte[] sourceFreeOfBase64 = Convert.FromBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(sourceByte));
byte[] resultByte;
int decryptedByteCount = 0;
using (var aes = new AesManaged { Key = Key, IV = IV, Mode = CipherMode.CBC, Padding = PaddingMode.Zeros })
{
using (ICryptoTransform AESDecrypt = aes.CreateDecryptor(aes.Key, aes.IV))
{
using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream(sourceFreeOfBase64))
{
using (CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, AESDecrypt, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
{
resultByte = new byte[sourceFreeOfBase64.Length];
decryptedByteCount = cs.Read(resultByte, 0, resultByte.Length);
}
}
}
//This returns the encoded string with a set of "\0" at the end.
result = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(resultByte);
result = result.Replace("\0", "");
}
return result;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw;
}
}
I'm pretty sure that the main problem here lies in the php line $iv = substr(hash('sha256', $param2), 0, 16);. I checked the results of both hash functions in php and C# and are exactly the same.
From what I've been reading php treats strings as byte arrays (correct me if I'm wrong) so a 16 char string should be enough to get a 16 byte array and a 128 block. But in C#, when I get the 16 byte array and convert it to a string I get a 32 char string that is the same as if I did $iv = substr(hash('sha256', $param2), 0, 32);.
So my question is, how do I get the same byte array result in C# that I get in this line $iv = substr(hash('sha256', $param2), 0, 16); of php? Is this even possible?

The hash function will return the same number of bytes whatever the input, so I suspect it is a difference in how you convert the resulting byte[] back to a string in C# compared to the PHP implementation.
The PHP docs say that the hash function output the result in lower case hexits. This is absolutely not the same as the UTF8 encoding that you are returning.
There isn't a built in framework way to do this, but check out this SO question for several different methods.
Also worth noting is that you do not specify the Padding value in your C# code. AES-CBC is a block cipher and will need to use some padding scheme. You may well get a padding exception. I think that it will need Zero padding (docs)
aes.Padding = PaddingMode.Zeros
but I'm not 100%

Well, I managed to solve this in a not so bad manner.
Following #ste-fu advice I tried to get rid of every piece of encoding that I could find.
But I still wasn't anywhere close to getting the Key and IV right. So I did some testing with php. I made a var_dump of the IV and got a neat 16 length array with bytes shown as integers.
var_dump result array starts allways in [1]. Be advised.
$iv = substr(hash('sha256', $param2), 0, 16);
$byte_array = unpack('C*', $iv);
var_dump($byte_array);
That peaked my interest, thinking that if I had the hex string right I should be able to convert each char in the string to it's equivalent byte. Lo and behold, I made this function in C#:
private byte[] StringToByteArray(string hex)
{
IList<byte> resultList = new List<byte>();
foreach (char c in hex)
{
resultList.Add(Convert.ToByte(c));
}
return resultList.ToArray();
}
And this worked very well for the IV. Now I just had to do the same thing for the key. And so I did, just to find that I had a 64 length byte array. That's weird, but ok. More testing in php.
Since it does make sense that the php Key behaves the same as the IV I didn't get how the openssl encryption functions allowed a 64 length Key. So I tryed to encrypt and decrypt the same data with a Key made from the first 32 chars. $ky = substr(hash('sha256', $param1), 0, 32);
And it gave me the same result as with the full Key. So, my educated guess is that openssl just takes the bytes necesary for the encoding to work. In fact it will take anything since I tested with substrings of 1, 16, 20, 32, 33 and 50 length. If the length of the string is bigger than 32 the function itself will cut it.
Anyway, i just had to get the first 32 chars of the Key hex and use my new function to convert them into a byte array and I got my Key.
So, the main C# code right now looks like this:
public CryptoHelper(string keyFilePath, string ivFilePath)
{
//Reading bytes from txt file encoded in UTF8.
byte[] key = File.ReadAllBytes(keyFilePath);
byte[] iv = File.ReadAllBytes(ivFilePath);
IV = StringToByteArray(GetStringHexSha256Hash(iv).Substring(0, 16));
Key = StringToByteArray(GetStringHexSha256Hash(key).Substring(0, 32));
//Tests
var st = Encrypt("abcdefg");
var en = Decrypt(st);
}
//Convert each char into a byte
private byte[] StringToByteArray(string hex)
{
IList<byte> resultList = new List<byte>();
foreach (char c in hex)
{
resultList.Add(Convert.ToByte(c));
}
return resultList.ToArray();
}
private string GetStringHexSha256Hash(byte[] source)
{
string result = "";
try
{
using (SHA256 sha256Hash = SHA256.Create("SHA256"))
{
//Get rid of Encoding!
byte[] hashedBytes = sha256Hash.ComputeHash(source);
for (int i = 0; i < hashedBytes.Length; i++)
{
result = string.Format("{0}{1}",
result,
hashedBytes[i].ToString("x2"));
}
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
return result;
}
private string Encrypt(string source)
{
try
{
string result = "";
using (var aes = new AesManaged { Key = Key, IV = IV, Mode = CipherMode.CBC, Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7 })
{
byte[] sourceByteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(source);
using (var encryptor = aes.CreateEncryptor(aes.Key, aes.IV))
{
byte[] encriptedSource = encryptor.TransformFinalBlock(sourceByteArray, 0, sourceByteArray.Length);
result = Convert.ToBase64String(encriptedSource);
//Nothing to see here, move along.
result = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(result));
}
}
return result;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw;
}
}
private string Decrypt(string source)
{
try
{
string result = "";
byte[] sourceByte = Convert.FromBase64String(source);
byte[] sourceFreeOfBase64 = Convert.FromBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(sourceByte));
byte[] resultByte;
int decryptedByteCount = 0;
using (var aes = new AesManaged { Key = Key, IV = IV, Mode = CipherMode.CBC, Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7 })
{
using (ICryptoTransform AESDecrypt = aes.CreateDecryptor(aes.Key, aes.IV))
{
using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream(sourceFreeOfBase64))
{
using (CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, AESDecrypt, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
{
resultByte = new byte[sourceFreeOfBase64.Length];
//Now that everything works as expected I actually get the number of bytes decrypted!
decryptedByteCount = cs.Read(resultByte, 0, resultByte.Length);
}
}
}
//Nothing to see here, move along.
result = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(resultByte);
//Use that byte count to get the actual data and discard the padding.
result = result.Substring(0, decryptedByteCount);
}
return result;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw;
}
}
I still need to clean all the code from my class from all the testing I did, but this is all that's needed to make it work.
I hope this helps anybody with the same problem that I faced.
Cheers.

The right way to compare hashed passwords

I have a field in my database which is binary(32) for storing SHA-256 passwords. Since MSSQL store the hash in upper case and with 0x prefix, I've done this:
public static string getHashSha256(string text)
{
byte[] bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);
SHA256Managed hashstring = new SHA256Managed();
byte[] hash = hashstring.ComputeHash(bytes);
string hashString = string.Empty;
foreach (byte x in hash)
{
hashString += String.Format("{0:x2}", x);
}
return "0x" + hashString.ToUpper();
}
Is this acceptable or there is a more appropriate way to do this?

public static string ConvertToHash(string dataToComputeHash)
{
var hash = "";
try
{
var keyByte = encoding.GetBytes(key);
using (var hmacsha256 = new HMACSHA256(keyByte))
{
hmacsha256.ComputeHash(encoding.GetBytes(dataToComputeHash));
hash = ByteToString(hmacsha256.Hash);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
return hash;
}

C# and Java DES Encryption value are not identical

I am trying to encrypt the same data using C# and Java. If the data is more than 7 bytes then Java and C#'s encrypted value are not identical.
Input 1: a
java output: FrOzOp/2Io8=
C# output: FrOzOp/2Io8=
Input 2: abc
j : H9A/ahl8K7I=
c#: H9A/ahl8K7I=
Input 3: aaaaaaaa (Problem)
j : Gxl7e0aWPd7j6l7uIEuMxA==
c#: Gxl7e0aWPd7sf1xR6hK4VQ==
Here is the implementation of C# and Java methods.
C# code:
public String saltTxt = "12345678";
public String Encrypt(String txt)
{
byte[] data = Encrypt(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(txt));
DESCryptoServiceProvider alg = new DESCryptoServiceProvider();
alg.Key = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(saltTxt.ToCharArray(), 0, cprovider.KeySize / 8);
alg.IV = new byte[8];
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
CryptoStream stem = new CryptoStream( ms, cprovider.CreateEncryptor(),CryptoStreamMode.Write);
stem.Write(txt, 0, txt.Length);
stem.FlushFinalBlock();
data = ms.ToArray();
return Convert.ToBase64String(data);
}
Java Code:
public String saltTxt = "12345678";
public String Encrypt(String str) {
try {
KeySpec myKey = new DESKeySpec(saltTxt.getBytes("UTF8"));
SecretKey key = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("DES").generateSecret(myKey);
Cipher ecipher = Cipher.getInstance("DES");
ecipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key);
byte[] data = str.getBytes("UTF8");
byte[] crypt = ecipher.doFinal(data);
return new BASE64Encoder().encode(crypt);
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
return null;
}
Any idea why it's not working as expected?

The problem was in mode of encryption.
SunJCE provider uses ECB as the default mode, and PKCS5Padding as the default padding scheme for DES, DES-EDE and Blowfish ciphers. (JCA Doc)
and
In .Net, The default operation mode for the symmetric algorithm is CipherMode.CBC and default padding is PaddingMode.PKCS7. (msdn..SymmetricAlgorithm)
The following changes resolve the problem.
// in C#
DESCryptoServiceProvider alg = new DESCryptoServiceProvider();
alg.Mode = CipherMode.ECB; // specified
or
// in java
chiper = Cipher.getInstance("DES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
don't change in both sides.

You're probably seeing ISO 10126 padding, which appends random bytes to the plaintext to fill it up t oa multiple of the block size.
This behavior is by design.

The code (Java/Android) bellow worke for me.
I used the same approach on C#.
public static String Cripto(String Password)
{
String PasswordCripto = "";
try
{
String encryptionKey = "anyEncryptionString";
MessageDigest messageDigest = MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5");
messageDigest.update(encryptionKey.getBytes("UTF-8"), 0, encryptionKey.length());
byte[] encryptionKeyBytes = messageDigest.digest();
SecretKeySpec Key = new SecretKeySpec(encryptionKeyBytes,"DESede");
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESEDE/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, Key);
byte[] encryptedBytes = cipher.doFinal(Password.getBytes("UTF-8"));
PasswordCripto = new String(Base64.encode(encryptedBytes, Base64.DEFAULT), "UTF-8");
} catch(Exception e) { }
return PasswordCripto ;
}

Calculating HMACSHA256 using c# to match payment provider example

For a payment provider, I need to calculate a hash-based message authentication code, using HMAC-SHA256. That is causing me quite a bit of trouble.
The payment provider gives two examples of orrectly calculated authentication code in pseudo-code. All keys are in hex.
Method 1
key = 57617b5d2349434b34734345635073433835777e2d244c31715535255a366773755a4d70532a5879793238235f707c4f7865753f3f446e633a21575643303f66
message = "amount=100&currency=EUR"
MAC = HMAC-SHA256( hexDecode(key), message )
result = b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905
Method 2
message = "amount=100&currency=EUR"
Ki = 61574d6b157f757d02457573556645750e0341481b127a07476303136c005145436c7b46651c6e4f4f040e1569464a794e534309097258550c17616075060950
Ko = 0b3d27017f151f17682f1f193f0c2f1f64692b227178106d2d096979066a3b2f2906112c0f760425256e647f032c2013243929636318323f667d0b0a1f6c633a
MAC = SHA256( hexDecode(Ko) + SHA256( hexDecode(Ki) + message ) )
result = b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905
I tried to write the code to do this, after doing some research, but I keep coming up with different results.
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
var key = "57617b5d2349434b34734345635073433835777e2d244c31715535255a366773755a4d70532a5879793238235f707c4f7865753f3f446e633a21575643303f66";
var ki = "61574d6b157f757d02457573556645750e0341481b127a07476303136c005145436c7b46651c6e4f4f040e1569464a794e534309097258550c17616075060950";
var ko = "0b3d27017f151f17682f1f193f0c2f1f64692b227178106d2d096979066a3b2f2906112c0f760425256e647f032c2013243929636318323f667d0b0a1f6c633a";
var mm = "amount=100&currency=EUR";
var result1 = CalcHMACSHA256Hash(HexDecode(key), mm);
var result2 = CalcSha256Hash(string.Format("{0}{1}", HexDecode(ko), CalcSha256Hash(HexDecode(ki) + mm)));
Console.WriteLine("Expected: b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905");
Console.WriteLine("Actual 1: " + result1);
Console.WriteLine("Actual 2: " + result2);
Console.WriteLine("------------------------------");
Console.ReadKey();
}
private static string HexDecode(string hex)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i <= hex.Length - 2; i += 2)
{
sb.Append(Convert.ToString(Convert.ToChar(Int32.Parse(hex.Substring(i, 2), System.Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber))));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
private static string CalcHMACSHA256Hash(string plaintext, string salt)
{
string result = "";
var enc = Encoding.Default;
byte[]
baText2BeHashed = enc.GetBytes(plaintext),
baSalt = enc.GetBytes(salt);
System.Security.Cryptography.HMACSHA256 hasher = new HMACSHA256(baSalt);
byte[] baHashedText = hasher.ComputeHash(baText2BeHashed);
result = string.Join("", baHashedText.ToList().Select(b => b.ToString("x2")).ToArray());
return result;
}
public static string CalcSha256Hash(string input)
{
SHA256 sha256 = new SHA256Managed();
byte[] sha256Bytes = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(input);
byte[] cryString = sha256.ComputeHash(sha256Bytes);
string sha256Str = string.Empty;
for (int i = 0; i < cryString.Length; i++)
{
sha256Str += cryString[i].ToString("x2");
}
return sha256Str;
}
And this is the result I get:
Expected: b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905
Actual 1: 421ce16f2036bb9f2a3770c16f01e9220f0232d45580584ca41768fd16c15fe6
Actual 2: 290f14398bf8c0959dfc963e2fd9c377534c6fec1983025d2ab192382f132b92
So with none of the two methods, I can get the result the provider example wants.
What am I missing here? Is it encoding? Is my hexDecode screwed up?
Test tool from payment provider: http://tech.dibs.dk/dibs_api/other_features/hmac_tool/
PHP sample code: http://tech.dibspayment.com/dibs_api/other_features/mac_calculation/

Edit: You likely are looking for a quick and simple way to do HMAC-SHA256 and not get into the finer details. The original question asks of those finer details which are explained further below.
I want to perform a HMAC-SHA256 on a byte[] message input
using System.Security.Cryptography;
...
private static byte[] HashHMAC(byte[] key, byte[] message)
{
var hash = new HMACSHA256(key);
return hash.ComputeHash(message);
}
I want to perform HMAC-SHA256 but I have a hex string input
In .NET 5 and above, use System.Convert.FromHexString like so, (thanks #proximab). If you're on pre-.NET 5, scroll to "Helper functions" which has alternative solutions.
using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
...
private static byte[] HashHMACHex(string keyHex, string messageHex)
{
var key = Convert.FromHexString(hexKey);
var message = Convert.FromHexString(messageHex);
var hash = new HMACSHA256(key);
return hash.ComputeHash(message);
}
I'm using a strange API service that sort of does HMAC, but it's something custom
Continue reading. You likely want to use "Method 2" below as a reference point and adjust it to however your service wants you to implement HMAC for message anti-tampering.
How HMAC-SHA256 Works (should you need to know how...)
Here we will compute an HMAC-SHA256 manually (this answers "Method 2" from the original question).
Assume outerKey, innerKey, and message are already byte arrays, we perform the following:
Notation: Assume A + B concatenates byte array A and B. You may
alternatively see A || B notation used in more academic settings.
HMAC = SHA256( outerKey + SHA256( innerKey + message ) )
. . `------------------´ . .
\ \ `innerData` / /
\ `------------------------´ /
\ `innerHash` /
`----------------------------------´
`data`
So the code can be broken down into these steps (using the above as a guide):
Create an empty buffer byte[] innerData the length of innerKey.Length + message.Length (again assuming byte arrays)
Copy the innerKey and the message into the byte[] innerData
Compute SHA256 of innerData and store it in byte[] innerHash
Create an empty buffer byte[] data the length of outerKey.Length + innerHash.Length
Copy the outerKey and innerHash (from step #3)
Compute the final hash of data and store it in byte[] result and return it.
To do the byte copying I'm using the Buffer.BlockCopy() function since it apparently faster than some other ways (source).
n.b. There is likely (read: most certainly) a better way to do this using the the new ReadOnlySpan<T> API.
We can translate those steps into the following:
using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
...
private static byte[] HashSHA(byte[] innerKey, byte[] outerKey, byte[] message)
{
var hash = new SHA256Managed();
// Compute the hash for the inner data first
byte[] innerData = new byte[innerKey.Length + message.Length];
Buffer.BlockCopy(innerKey, 0, innerData, 0, innerKey.Length);
Buffer.BlockCopy(message, 0, innerData, innerKey.Length, message.Length);
byte[] innerHash = hash.ComputeHash(innerData);
// Compute the entire hash
byte[] data = new byte[outerKey.Length + innerHash.Length];
Buffer.BlockCopy(outerKey, 0, data, 0, outerKey.Length);
Buffer.BlockCopy(innerHash, 0, data, outerKey.Length, innerHash.Length);
byte[] result = hash.ComputeHash(data);
return result;
}
Helper functions
string -> byte[]
You have plain ASCII or UTF8 text, but need it to be a byte[].
Use ASCIIEncoding or UTF8Encoding or whichever exotic encoding you're using.
private static byte[] StringEncode(string text)
{
var encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
return encoding.GetBytes(text);
}
byte[] -> hex string
You have a byte[], but you need it to be a hex string.
private static string HashEncode(byte[] hash)
{
return BitConverter.ToString(hash).Replace("-", "").ToLower();
}
hex string -> byte[]
You have a hex string, but you need it to be a byte[]`.
.NET 5 and above
private static byte[] HexDecode(string hex) =>
System.Convert.FromHexString(hex);
Before .NET 5 (thanks #bobince)
private static byte[] HexDecode(string hex)
{
var bytes = new byte[hex.Length / 2];
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
{
bytes[i] = byte.Parse(hex.Substring(i * 2, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber);
}
return bytes;
}
n.b. If you need a performance tuned version on .NET Framework 4.x, you can alternatively backport the .NET 5+ version (by replacing ReadOnlySpan<byte> with byte[]). It uses proper lookup tables and conscious about hot-code paths. You can reference the .NET 5 (MIT licensed) System.Convert code on Github.
For completeness, here are the final methods answering the question using both "Method 1" and "Method 2"
"Method 1" (using .NET libraries)
private static string HashHMACHex(string keyHex, string message)
{
byte[] hash = HashHMAC(HexDecode(keyHex), StringEncode(message));
return HashEncode(hash);
}
"Method 2" (manually computed)
private static string HashSHAHex(string innerKeyHex, string outerKeyHex, string message)
{
byte[] hash = HashSHA(HexDecode(innerKeyHex), HexDecode(outerKeyHex), StringEncode(message));
return HashEncode(hash);
}
We can perform a quick sanity check with a console app:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string message = "amount=100&currency=EUR";
string expectedHex = "b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905";
Console.WriteLine("Expected: " + expectedHex);
// Test out the HMAC hash method
string key = "57617b5d2349434b34734345635073433835777e2d244c31715535255a366773755a4d70532a5879793238235f707c4f7865753f3f446e633a21575643303f66";
string hashHMACHex = HashHMACHex(key, message);
Console.WriteLine("Method 1: " + hashHMACHex);
// Test out the SHA hash method
string innerKey = "61574d6b157f757d02457573556645750e0341481b127a07476303136c005145436c7b46651c6e4f4f040e1569464a794e534309097258550c17616075060950";
string outerKey = "0b3d27017f151f17682f1f193f0c2f1f64692b227178106d2d096979066a3b2f2906112c0f760425256e647f032c2013243929636318323f667d0b0a1f6c633a";
string hashSHAHex = HashSHAHex(innerKey, outerKey, message);
Console.WriteLine("Method 2: " + hashSHAHex);
}
You should have all the hashes line up correctly:
Expected: b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905
Method 1: b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905
Method 2: b436e3e86cb3800b3864aeecc8d06c126f005e7645803461717a8e4b2de3a905
The original code for this answer can be accessed at:
http://pastebin.com/xAAuZrJX

Here's a string extension method for getting a fairly standard HMAC SHA 256 token for a given string:
usage:
myMessageString.HmacSha256Digest(mySecret)
string extension method:
public static string HmacSha256Digest(this string message, string secret)
{
ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
byte[] keyBytes = encoding.GetBytes(secret);
byte[] messageBytes = encoding.GetBytes(message);
System.Security.Cryptography.HMACSHA256 cryptographer = new System.Security.Cryptography.HMACSHA256(keyBytes);
byte[] bytes = cryptographer.ComputeHash(messageBytes);
return BitConverter.ToString(bytes).Replace("-", "").ToLower();
}

You can use this method for HMACSHA256.
string key = "your key";
string message = "your message";
System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
byte[] keyByte = encoding.GetBytes(key);
HMACSHA256 hmacsha256 = new HMACSHA256(keyByte);
byte[] messageBytes = encoding.GetBytes(message);
byte[] hashmessage = hmacsha256.ComputeHash(messageBytes);
return ByteToString(hashmessage);
Here is the ByteToString method:
public static string ByteToString(byte[] buff)
{
string sbinary = "";
for (int i = 0; i < buff.Length; i++)
{
sbinary += buff[i].ToString("X2"); // hex format
}
return (sbinary);
}

A SHA hash is calculated on a sequence of bytes. Bytes are a profoundly different datatype to characters. You should not use character Strings to store binary data such as hashes.
sb.Append(Convert.ToString(Convert.ToChar(Int32.Parse(hex.Substring(i, 2)...
This creates a character string by reading each encoded byte and turning into a character of the same Unicode code point number. This is equivalent to decoding the bytes 0-255 using the ISO-8859-1 (Latin1) encoding, due to that encoding's property of matching the first 256 code points in Unicode.
var enc = Encoding.Default; [...]
baSalt = enc.GetBytes(salt);
byte[] sha256Bytes = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(input);
These both convert the characters back to bytes using the system default encoding. This encoding varies between installs, but it will never be ISO-8859-1 - even the similar Western European code page 1252 has different characters in the range 0x80-0x9F.
Consequently the byte array you are using doesn't contain the bytes implied by the example hex sequences. A cheap fix would be to use Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1") instead of the default encoding, but really you should be using a bytes array to store data in the first place instead of a String, eg:
byte[] key= new byte[] { 0x57, 0x61, 0x7b, 0x5d, 0x23, 0x49, ... };
and pass that directly into ComputeHash.
If you must initialise data from a hex string, parse it directly into a byte array, eg:
private static byte[] HexDecode(string hex) {
var bytes= new byte[hex.Length/2];
for (int i= 0; i<bytes.Length; i++) {
bytes[i]= byte.Parse(hex.Substring(i*2, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber);
}
return bytes;
}

I realize the question is answered, but I am posting this in case others need it. Here is a snippet of code created by the payment provider (DIBS):
/**
* calculateMac
* Calculates the MAC key from a Dictionary<string, string> and a secret key
* #param params_dict The Dictionary<string, string> object containing all keys and their values for MAC calculation
* #param K_hexEnc String containing the hex encoded secret key from DIBS Admin
* #return String containig the hex encoded MAC key calculated
**/
public static string calculateMac(Dictionary<string, string> paramsDict, string kHexEnc)
{
//Create the message for MAC calculation sorted by the key
var keys = paramsDict.Keys.ToList();
keys.Sort();
var msg = "";
foreach (var key in keys)
{
if (key != keys[0]) msg += "&";
msg += key + "=" + paramsDict[key];
}
//Decoding the secret Hex encoded key and getting the bytes for MAC calculation
var kBytes = new byte[kHexEnc.Length / 2];
for (var i = 0; i < kBytes.Length; i++)
{
kBytes[i] = byte.Parse(kHexEnc.Substring(i * 2, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber);
}
//Getting bytes from message
var msgBytes = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(msg);
//Calculate MAC key
var hash = new HMACSHA256(kBytes);
var macBytes = hash.ComputeHash(msgBytes);
var mac = BitConverter.ToString(macBytes).Replace("-", "").ToLower();
return mac;
}
http://tech.dibspayment.com/DX/Hosted/HMAC

Thanks you saved my time.
request.Method = "GET";
string signature = "";
string strtime = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH\\:mm\\:ssZ");
string secret = "xxxx";
string message = "sellerid:email:" + strtime;
var encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
byte[] keyByte = encoding.GetBytes(secret);
byte[] messageBytes = encoding.GetBytes(message);
using (var hmacsha256 = new HMACSHA256(keyByte))
{
var hash = new HMACSHA256(keyByte);
byte[] signature1 = hash.ComputeHash(messageBytes);
signature = BitConverter.ToString(signature1).Replace("-", "").ToLower();
}
request.Headers.Add("authorization", "HMAC-SHA256" + " " +
"emailaddress=xxx#xx.com,timestamp=" + strtime + ",signature=" + signature);
HttpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;

private static string GenerateSignature(string data, string signatureKey)
{
var keyByte = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(signatureKey);
using (var hmacsha256 = new HMACSHA256(keyByte))
{
hmacsha256.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data));
return hmacsha256.Hash.Aggregate("", (current, t) => current + t.ToString("X2")).ToLower();
}
}