Question

Hi ive been trying to use System.Security.Cryptography to encrypt and decrypt a file but its not working for me

this code

Private Sub EncryptFile(ByVal sInputFilename As String, ByVal sOutputFilename As String, ByVal sKey As String)
    Dim fsInput As New FileStream(sInputFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
    Dim fsEncrypted As New FileStream(sOutputFilename, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write)
    Dim DES As New DESCryptoServiceProvider()
    DES.Key = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sKey)
    DES.IV = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sKey)
    Dim desencrypt As ICryptoTransform = DES.CreateEncryptor()
    Dim cryptostream As New CryptoStream(fsEncrypted, desencrypt, CryptoStreamMode.Write)
    Dim bytearrayinput(fsInput.Length - 1) As Byte
    fsInput.Read(bytearrayinput, 0, bytearrayinput.Length)
    cryptostream.Write(bytearrayinput, 0, bytearrayinput.Length)
    cryptostream.Close()
End Sub

called with

EncryptFile(OpenFileDialog1.FileName, SaveFileDialog1.FileName, "12345678")[/CODE]

seems to work ok and i get a file the same size as the source file

heres where it goes wrong though

this code

Private Sub DecryptFile(ByVal sInputFilename As String, ByVal sOutputFilename As String, ByVal sKey As String)
    Dim DES As New DESCryptoServiceProvider()
    DES.Key() = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sKey)
    DES.IV = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sKey)
    Dim fsread As New FileStream(sInputFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
    Dim desdecrypt As ICryptoTransform = DES.CreateDecryptor()
    Dim cryptostreamDecr As New CryptoStream(fsread, desdecrypt, CryptoStreamMode.Read)
    Dim fsDecrypted As New StreamWriter(sOutputFilename)
    fsDecrypted.Write(New StreamReader(cryptostreamDecr).ReadToEnd)
    fsDecrypted.Flush()
    fsDecrypted.Close()
End Sub

called with

DecryptFile(OpenFileDialog1.FileName, SaveFileDialog1.FileName, "12345678")[/CODE]

outputs a file that is almost 2x as large as the source file that was encrypted.

whats going on im sure this was working fine a few weeks ago and i cant see anything obviously wrong with it.

any ideas please?

Answer 1

The main problem is that EncryptFile reads in the data using a byte array and DecryptFile is reading in the data using streams. The only difference between the EncryptFile and DecryptFile methods should be your ICryptoTransform assignment. It would be easier to have the common code in 1 procedure:

Private Sub EncryptFile(ByVal sInputFilename As String, ByVal sOutputFilename As String, ByVal sKey As String)
    Crypto(sInputFilename, sOutputFilename, sKey, True)
End Sub

Private Sub DecryptFile(ByVal sInputFilename As String, ByVal sOutputFilename As String, ByVal sKey As String)
    Crypto(sInputFilename, sOutputFilename, sKey, False)
End Sub

Private Sub Crypto(ByVal sInputFileName As String, ByVal sOutputFileName As String, ByVal sKey As String, ByVal bEncrypt As Boolean)
    'Define the service provider
    Dim DES As New DESCryptoServiceProvider()
    DES.Key() = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sKey)
    DES.IV = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sKey)


    'Read the input file into array
    Dim fsInput As New FileStream(sInputFileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
    Dim bytearrayinput(fsInput.Length - 1) As Byte
    fsInput.Read(bytearrayinput, 0, bytearrayinput.Length)


    'Define the crypto transformer
    Dim cryptoTransform As ICryptoTransform

    If bEncrypt Then
        cryptoTransform = DES.CreateEncryptor()
    Else
        cryptoTransform = DES.CreateDecryptor
    End If


    'Create the encrypting streams
    Dim fsEncrypted As New FileStream(sOutputFileName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write)
    Dim cryptostream As New CryptoStream(fsEncrypted, cryptoTransform, CryptoStreamMode.Write)

    'Write the output file
    cryptostream.Write(bytearrayinput, 0, bytearrayinput.Length)
    cryptostream.Close()
End Sub

The Crypto procedure is nearly identical to what EncryptFile used to be. The difference is I change the ICryptoTransform assignment based on whether you’re encrypting or decrypting.