Encryption 101: Getting Your Hash On

Encryption can be a daunting topic. It’s mostly used only when needed, and it’s typically needed when sensitive data needs to be protected. There are a lot of different ways to encrypt data, and even “encryption made simple” articles can get very complicated. But, like many topics, it’s really not as difficult as it seems.

Part of simplifying the solution lies in identifying your needs. Let’s look at a very easy scenario: encrypting passwords. Obviously, you don’t want to store passwords in plain text. I’ve inherited systems with plain text passwords, and I think it’s flat-out embarrassing. The seemingly obvious solution would be to encrypt a password before saving it and then decrypt it for comparison during the authentication process. That’s over-complicating it, though; what you need is a hash!

Using a hash algorithm is a great way to create one-way encryption. This is ideal for a scenario like passwords. Encrypt the password, and store the encrypted value. When it’s time to authenticate, encrypt the user input and compare. If the encrypted strings match, so do the passwords.

Here’s an easy way to do MD5 encryption in C#:

namespace adamprescott.net.EncryptionHash
{
    using System;
    using System.Security.Cryptography;
    using System.Text;

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var p = new Program();
            p.Run();
        }

        private void Run()
        {
            Console.Write("Input: ");
            var input = Console.ReadLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Hashed: {0}", HashText(input));
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        private string HashText(string text)
        {
            using (var md5 = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                var bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);
                var hash = md5.ComputeHash(bytes);
                return Convert.ToBase64String(hash);
            }
        }
    }
}

Want to use a different hash algorithm? No problem! Just change the CryptoServiceProvider. Here’s the same example using SHA1:

namespace adamprescott.net.EncryptionHash
{
    using System;
    using System.Security.Cryptography;
    using System.Text;

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var p = new Program();
            p.Run();
        }

        private void Run()
        {
            Console.Write("Input: ");
            var input = Console.ReadLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Hashed: {0}", HashText(input));
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        private string HashText(string text)
        {
            using (var sha1 = new SHA1CryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                var bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);
                var hash = sha1.ComputeHash(bytes);
                return Convert.ToBase64String(hash);
            }
        }
    }
}

Author: Adam Prescott

I'm enthusiastic and passionate about creating intuitive, great-looking software. I strive to find the simplest solutions to complex problems, and I embrace agile principles and test-driven development. View all posts by Adam Prescott