Question

I’ve managed to port RC4 implementation from PolarSSL to delphi, since I need an encrypted communication between 2 applications (C and Delphi), but the problem is, the encrypted data is never the same, both codes encrypt and decrypt data on their own successfully but not the data encrypted by the other.

Here are both codes:

C Code (Taken from PolarSSL)

typedef struct
{
    int x;                      /*!< permutation index */
    int y;                      /*!< permutation index */
    unsigned char m[256];       /*!< permutation table */
}
arc4_context;

void arc4_setup(arc4_context *ctx, unsigned char *key, int keylen)
{
    int i, j, k, a;
    ctx->x = 0;
    ctx->y = 0;
    for( i = 0; i < 256; i++ ) ctx->m[i] = (unsigned char) i;
    j = k = 0;
    for( i = 0; i < 256; i++, k++ )
    {
        if( k >= keylen ) k = 0;
        a = ctx->m[i];
        j = ( j + a + key[k] ) & 0xFF;
        ctx->m[i] = ctx->m[j];
        ctx->m[j] = (unsigned char) a;
    }
    return;
}

void arc4_crypt( arc4_context *ctx, unsigned char *buf, int buflen )
{
    int i, x, y, a, b;
    unsigned char m[256];

    x = ctx->x;
    y = ctx->y;

    for (i = 0; i < 256; i++) m[i] = ctx->m[i];
    for( i = 0; i < buflen; i++ )
    {
        x = ( x + 1 ) & 0xFF; a = m[x];
        y = ( y + a ) & 0xFF; b = m[y];

        m[x] = (unsigned char) b;
        m[y] = (unsigned char) a;

        buf[i] = (unsigned char)
            ( buf[i] ^ m[(unsigned char)( a + b )] );
    }
    return;
}

My Delphi Code:

type
  arc4_context = packed record
    x, y: integer;
    m: array[0..255] of byte;
  end;

procedure arc4_setup(var ctx: arc4_context; key: PChar; keylen: Integer);
var
 i, j, k, a: Integer;
begin
 ctx.x := 0;
 ctx.y := 0;
 for i := 0 to 255 do ctx.m[i] := Byte(i);
 j := 0;
 k := 0;
 for i := 0 to 255 do
 begin
   if (k >= keylen) then k := 0;
   a := ctx.m[i];
   j := (j + a + Byte(key[k])) and $FF;
   ctx.m[i] := ctx.m[j];
   ctx.m[j] := a;
   Inc(k);
 end;
end;


procedure arc4_crypt(ctx:arc4_context; var buf:string; buflen:integer);
var
 i, x, y, a, b: Integer;
 m: array [0..255] of byte;
begin
 x := ctx.x;
 y := ctx.y;
 for i := 0 to 255 do m[i] := ctx.m[i];
 i := 0;
 while (i < buflen) do
 begin
  x := (x + 1) and $FF;
  a := m[x];
  y := (y + a) and $FF;
  b := m[y];

  m[x] := b;
  m[y] := a;

  buf[i+1] := Char(Byte(buf[i+1]) xor Byte(m[a + b]));
  inc(i);
 end
end;

Answer 1

I have (finally) found a difference between the two codes.

The following line of the Pascal translation is incorrect:

buf[i+1] := Char(Byte(buf[i+1]) xor Byte(m[a + b]));

The C version reads:

buf[i] = (unsigned char) ( buf[i] ^ m[(unsigned char)( a + b )] );

Note that a + b is truncated into a single unsigned char, whereas the Pascal version above says m[a + b] and so the index of a + b can exceed 255.

You should translate this line as:

buf[i+1] := chr(ord(buf[i+1]) xor ord(m[Byte(a+b)]));

I’ve changed to use Chr and ord which are cosmetic changes but I feel they are cleaner. The substantive change is in m[Byte(a+b)] where I force the a+b addition to be in the context of a byte data type.

Rather tellingly, this bug results in an out of bounds array access of the array m. If you had been running with range checking enabled, the bug would have been highlighted immediately. I can’t stress enough how valuable Delphi’s range checking feature is.