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Home/ Questions/Q 9162871
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Editorial Team
  • 0
Editorial Team
Asked: June 17, 20262026-06-17T14:18:59+00:00 2026-06-17T14:18:59+00:00

Found an example of how to implement Rijndael on http://www.obviex.com/samples/Encryption.aspx Is this code secure

  • 0

Found an example of how to implement Rijndael on http://www.obviex.com/samples/Encryption.aspx

Is this code secure enough for production systems?

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

This class uses a symmetric key algorithm (Rijndael/AES) to encrypt and
decrypt data. As long as encryption and decryption routines use the same
parameters to generate the keys, the keys are guaranteed to be the same.
The class uses static functions with duplicate code to make it easier to
demonstrate encryption and decryption logic. In a real-life application,
this may not be the most efficient way of handling encryption, so – as
soon as you feel comfortable with it – you may want to redesign this class.

public class RijndaelSimple
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Encrypts specified plaintext using Rijndael symmetric key algorithm
    /// and returns a base64-encoded result.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="plainText">
    /// Plaintext value to be encrypted.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="passPhrase">
    /// Passphrase from which a pseudo-random password will be derived. The
    /// derived password will be used to generate the encryption key.
    /// Passphrase can be any string. In this example we assume that this
    /// passphrase is an ASCII string.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="saltValue">
    /// Salt value used along with passphrase to generate password. Salt can
    /// be any string. In this example we assume that salt is an ASCII string.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="hashAlgorithm">
    /// Hash algorithm used to generate password. Allowed values are: "MD5" and
    /// "SHA1". SHA1 hashes are a bit slower, but more secure than MD5 hashes.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="passwordIterations">
    /// Number of iterations used to generate password. One or two iterations
    /// should be enough.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="initVector">
    /// Initialization vector (or IV). This value is required to encrypt the
    /// first block of plaintext data. For RijndaelManaged class IV must be 
    /// exactly 16 ASCII characters long.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="keySize">
    /// Size of encryption key in bits. Allowed values are: 128, 192, and 256. 
    /// Longer keys are more secure than shorter keys.
    /// </param>
    /// <returns>
    /// Encrypted value formatted as a base64-encoded string.
    /// </returns>
    public static string Encrypt(string   plainText,
                                 string   passPhrase,
                                 string   saltValue,
                                 string   hashAlgorithm,
                                 int      passwordIterations,
                                 string   initVector,
                                 int      keySize)
    {
        // Convert strings into byte arrays.
        // Let us assume that strings only contain ASCII codes.
        // If strings include Unicode characters, use Unicode, UTF7, or UTF8 
        // encoding.
        byte[] initVectorBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(initVector);
        byte[] saltValueBytes  = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(saltValue);

        // Convert our plaintext into a byte array.
        // Let us assume that plaintext contains UTF8-encoded characters.
        byte[] plainTextBytes  = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);

        // First, we must create a password, from which the key will be derived.
        // This password will be generated from the specified passphrase and 
        // salt value. The password will be created using the specified hash 
        // algorithm. Password creation can be done in several iterations.
        PasswordDeriveBytes password = new PasswordDeriveBytes(
                                                        passPhrase, 
                                                        saltValueBytes, 
                                                        hashAlgorithm, 
                                                        passwordIterations);

        // Use the password to generate pseudo-random bytes for the encryption
        // key. Specify the size of the key in bytes (instead of bits).
        byte[] keyBytes = password.GetBytes(keySize / 8);

        // Create uninitialized Rijndael encryption object.
        RijndaelManaged symmetricKey = new RijndaelManaged();

        // It is reasonable to set encryption mode to Cipher Block Chaining
        // (CBC). Use default options for other symmetric key parameters.
        symmetricKey.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;        

        // Generate encryptor from the existing key bytes and initialization 
        // vector. Key size will be defined based on the number of the key 
        // bytes.
        ICryptoTransform encryptor = symmetricKey.CreateEncryptor(
                                                         keyBytes, 
                                                         initVectorBytes);

        // Define memory stream which will be used to hold encrypted data.
        MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();        

        // Define cryptographic stream (always use Write mode for encryption).
        CryptoStream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, 
                                                     encryptor,
                                                     CryptoStreamMode.Write);
        // Start encrypting.
        cryptoStream.Write(plainTextBytes, 0, plainTextBytes.Length);

        // Finish encrypting.
        cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();

        // Convert our encrypted data from a memory stream into a byte array.
        byte[] cipherTextBytes = memoryStream.ToArray();

        // Close both streams.
        memoryStream.Close();
        cryptoStream.Close();

        // Convert encrypted data into a base64-encoded string.
        string cipherText = Convert.ToBase64String(cipherTextBytes);

        // Return encrypted string.
        return cipherText;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Decrypts specified ciphertext using Rijndael symmetric key algorithm.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="cipherText">
    /// Base64-formatted ciphertext value.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="passPhrase">
    /// Passphrase from which a pseudo-random password will be derived. The
    /// derived password will be used to generate the encryption key.
    /// Passphrase can be any string. In this example we assume that this
    /// passphrase is an ASCII string.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="saltValue">
    /// Salt value used along with passphrase to generate password. Salt can
    /// be any string. In this example we assume that salt is an ASCII string.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="hashAlgorithm">
    /// Hash algorithm used to generate password. Allowed values are: "MD5" and
    /// "SHA1". SHA1 hashes are a bit slower, but more secure than MD5 hashes.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="passwordIterations">
    /// Number of iterations used to generate password. One or two iterations
    /// should be enough.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="initVector">
    /// Initialization vector (or IV). This value is required to encrypt the
    /// first block of plaintext data. For RijndaelManaged class IV must be
    /// exactly 16 ASCII characters long.
    /// </param>
    /// <param name="keySize">
    /// Size of encryption key in bits. Allowed values are: 128, 192, and 256.
    /// Longer keys are more secure than shorter keys.
    /// </param>
    /// <returns>
    /// Decrypted string value.
    /// </returns>
    /// <remarks>
    /// Most of the logic in this function is similar to the Encrypt
    /// logic. In order for decryption to work, all parameters of this function
    /// - except cipherText value - must match the corresponding parameters of
    /// the Encrypt function which was called to generate the
    /// ciphertext.
    /// </remarks>
    public static string Decrypt(string   cipherText,
                                 string   passPhrase,
                                 string   saltValue,
                                 string   hashAlgorithm,
                                 int      passwordIterations,
                                 string   initVector,
                                 int      keySize)
    {
        // Convert strings defining encryption key characteristics into byte
        // arrays. Let us assume that strings only contain ASCII codes.
        // If strings include Unicode characters, use Unicode, UTF7, or UTF8
        // encoding.
        byte[] initVectorBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(initVector);
        byte[] saltValueBytes  = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(saltValue);

        // Convert our ciphertext into a byte array.
        byte[] cipherTextBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(cipherText);

        // First, we must create a password, from which the key will be 
        // derived. This password will be generated from the specified 
        // passphrase and salt value. The password will be created using
        // the specified hash algorithm. Password creation can be done in
        // several iterations.
        PasswordDeriveBytes password = new PasswordDeriveBytes(
                                                        passPhrase, 
                                                        saltValueBytes, 
                                                        hashAlgorithm, 
                                                        passwordIterations);

        // Use the password to generate pseudo-random bytes for the encryption
        // key. Specify the size of the key in bytes (instead of bits).
        byte[] keyBytes = password.GetBytes(keySize / 8);

        // Create uninitialized Rijndael encryption object.
        RijndaelManaged    symmetricKey = new RijndaelManaged();

        // It is reasonable to set encryption mode to Cipher Block Chaining
        // (CBC). Use default options for other symmetric key parameters.
        symmetricKey.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;

        // Generate decryptor from the existing key bytes and initialization 
        // vector. Key size will be defined based on the number of the key 
        // bytes.
        ICryptoTransform decryptor = symmetricKey.CreateDecryptor(
                                                         keyBytes, 
                                                         initVectorBytes);

        // Define memory stream which will be used to hold encrypted data.
        MemoryStream  memoryStream = new MemoryStream(cipherTextBytes);

        // Define cryptographic stream (always use Read mode for encryption).
        CryptoStream  cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, 
                                                      decryptor,
                                                      CryptoStreamMode.Read);

        // Since at this point we don't know what the size of decrypted data
        // will be, allocate the buffer long enough to hold ciphertext;
        // plaintext is never longer than ciphertext.
        byte[] plainTextBytes = new byte[cipherTextBytes.Length];

        // Start decrypting.
        int decryptedByteCount = cryptoStream.Read(plainTextBytes, 
                                                   0, 
                                                   plainTextBytes.Length);

        // Close both streams.
        memoryStream.Close();
        cryptoStream.Close();

        // Convert decrypted data into a string. 
        // Let us assume that the original plaintext string was UTF8-encoded.
        string plainText = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(plainTextBytes, 
                                                   0, 
                                                   decryptedByteCount);

        // Return decrypted string.   
        return plainText;
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Illustrates the use of RijndaelSimple class to encrypt and decrypt data.
/// </summary>
public class RijndaelSimpleTest
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The main entry point for the application.
    /// </summary>
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string   plainText          = "Hello, World!";    // original plaintext

        string   passPhrase         = "Pas5pr@se";        // can be any string
        string   saltValue          = "s@1tValue";        // can be any string
        string   hashAlgorithm      = "SHA1";             // can be "MD5"
        int      passwordIterations = 2;                  // can be any number
        string   initVector         = "@1B2c3D4e5F6g7H8"; // must be 16 bytes
        int      keySize            = 256;                // can be 192 or 128

        Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Plaintext : {0}", plainText));

        string  cipherText = RijndaelSimple.Encrypt(plainText,
                                                    passPhrase,
                                                    saltValue,
                                                    hashAlgorithm,
                                                    passwordIterations,
                                                    initVector,
                                                    keySize);

        Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Encrypted : {0}", cipherText));

        plainText          = RijndaelSimple.Decrypt(cipherText,
                                                    passPhrase,
                                                    saltValue,
                                                    hashAlgorithm,
                                                    passwordIterations,
                                                    initVector,
                                                    keySize);

        Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Decrypted : {0}", plainText));
    }
}
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  1. Editorial Team
    Editorial Team
    2026-06-17T14:19:01+00:00Added an answer on June 17, 2026 at 2:19 pm

    Nope.

    It makes the obvious mistake about not understanding the difference between character strings and octet strings. For the salt this may be excusable, but it should certainly not be the case for the IV.

    Furthermore it uses a Microsoft proprietary extended PKCS#5 PBKDF1 implementation of PasswordDeriveBytes instead of PBKDF2 as defined in Rfc2898DeriveBytes. This implementation is not secure for any bytes over 20 bytes long (which is the SHA-1 output size, and the defined output size of PBKDF1) – to the point that it may repeat bytes in the output. Any output over 20 bytes won’t be reproducible on other frameworks. Even Mono has designated this a “won’t fix”.

    The initialization vector should be generated by a secure random number generator instead of being passed as a parameter.

    CBC mode can be secure, but it does not provide integrity protection, so it is (generally) not secure when used over a transport protocol.

    This list may not be exhaustive.

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