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Getting error Length of the data to decrypt is invalid [duplicate]

I am working in a C# application. We have common methods to store data on a file. These methods encrypt the data and store them on the file system. when we need the data, ReadData method decrypts the data and returns me plain text.
This code works fine in normal cases if size of the text in small. but for a example text given below, the decryption code is throwing exception - length of the data to decrypt is invalid.
The exception occurs at line
// close the CryptoStream
x_cryptostream.Close();
I tried different ways but no luck. Can some pls help.
Why am I encrypting already encrypted data - I am just trying to store in a file using common method of the huge application. The common methods storedata(key,data) nad readdata(key) do the encryption/decryption I can't avoid.
public static byte[] Decrypt(byte[] ciphertext, string Key, string IV)
{
byte[] k = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(Key);
byte[] iv = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(IV);
// create the encryption algorithm
SymmetricAlgorithm x_alg = SymmetricAlgorithm.Create("Rijndael");
x_alg.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
// create an ICryptoTransform that can be used to decrypt data
ICryptoTransform x_decryptor = x_alg.CreateDecryptor(k, iv);
// create the memory stream
MemoryStream x_memory_stream = new MemoryStream();
// create the CryptoStream that ties together the MemoryStream and the
// ICryptostream
CryptoStream x_cryptostream = new CryptoStream(x_memory_stream,
x_decryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write);
// write the ciphertext out to the cryptostream
x_cryptostream.Write(ciphertext, 0, ciphertext.Length);
// close the CryptoStream
x_cryptostream.Close();
// get the plaintext from the MemoryStream
byte[] x_plaintext = x_memory_stream.ToArray();
Below is the code of encrypt method.
public static byte[] Encrypt(string strplain, string Key, string IV)
{
byte[] k = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(Key);
byte[] iv = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(IV);
byte[] plaintext = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(strplain);
// create the encryption algorithm
SymmetricAlgorithm x_alg = SymmetricAlgorithm.Create("Rijndael");
x_alg.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
// create an ICryptoTransform that can be used to encrypt data
ICryptoTransform x_encryptor = x_alg.CreateEncryptor(k, iv);
// create the memory stream
MemoryStream x_memory_stream = new MemoryStream();
// create the CryptoStream that ties together the MemoryStream and
// the ICryptostream
CryptoStream x_cryptostream = new CryptoStream(x_memory_stream,
x_encryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write);
// write the plaintext out to the cryptostream
x_cryptostream.Write(plaintext, 0, plaintext.Length);
// close the CryptoStream
x_cryptostream.Close();
// get the ciphertext from the MemoryStream
byte[] x_ciphertext = x_memory_stream.ToArray();
// close memory stream
x_memory_stream.Close();
// convert from array to string
string cipher_Tx = Encoding.Default.GetString(x_ciphertext,
0, x_ciphertext.Length);
x_encryptor.Dispose();
x_alg.Clear();
byte[] cipher = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(cipher_Tx);
return cipher;
}

Your problem is string cipher_Tx = Encoding.Default.GetString(x_ciphertext, 0, x_ciphertext.Length);.
x_ciphertext is not a valid byte representation of text, it has many unpresentable characters and when you do your byte[] to string conversion you are losing information. The correct way to do it is use a string format that is designed to represent binary data using something like Convert.ToBase64String(byte[]) and Convert.FromBase64String(string).
string cipher_Tx = Convert.ToBase64String(x_ciphertext)
x_encryptor.Dispose();
x_alg.Clear();
byte[] cipher = Convert.FromBase64String(cipher_Tx)
That being said, there is a lot of other "odd" things about your code, for example you don't use using statements and you really should. Also that whole conversion to string and back is totally unnecessary, just return x_ciphertext. There may be other problems with the code too (like where did the strings for Key and IV come from) and many other best practices (like you should be generating a random IV and writing it out in to the output and the key should be generated using a key derivation function not straight from user text), but I stopped checking after I found the string conversion issue.

Your code above works as long as the key and iv used to decrypt match the key and iv used to encrypt. Try this:
byte[] test = new byte[1000000];
for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++)
{
test[i] = (byte)i;
}
var ciphertext = Encrypt(Encoding.Default.GetString(test), "0000000000000000", "0000000000000000");
byte[] check = Decrypt(ciphertext, "0000000000000000", "0000000000000000");
for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++)
{
Debug.Assert(check[i] == (byte)i, "round trip");
}
As you can see, one million bytes encrypt and decrypt just fine with your code, so I don't think it has anything to do with data size.
However, change the IV like this:
byte[] check = Decrypt(ciphertext, "0000000000000000", "000000000000000X"); // note X
and the Debug.Assert will fire -- the decryption will not match. However, x_cryptostream.Close() succeeds.
Next, try changing the key like this:
byte[] check = Decrypt(ciphertext, "000000000000000X", "0000000000000000"); // note X
Now, x_cryptostream.Close() will fail with a CryptographicException, probably, "Padding is invalid and cannot be removed."
Corrupting the key will cause the decryption to fail, and x_cryptostream.Close() to fail.
I think the problem is in your saving and later restoring the key bytes.
BTW: Hopefully you are using the full binary range of the key, and not basing it only on ASCII characters, otherwise you don't really have a strong key.

Using SharpAESCrypt to encrypt strings

I decided to use the SharpAESCrypt implementation of AES encryption in C#. According to their documentation (https://www.aescrypt.com/sharp_aes_crypt.html) you should be able to use a static method, providing a password string, plain-text input stream and a output stream. The data I get out of my output stream appears to be all zero's.
I suspect I am doing something wrong converting strings to a stream and back. Can anyone see anything that is obviously wrong with the code below? (It compiles and runs, but the newByteArray is filled with 0's at the end)
private void encryptMemStream()
{
byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(DecryptedTB.Text);
using (MemoryStream plainText = new MemoryStream(byteArray))
{
using (MemoryStream encryptedData = new MemoryStream())
{
//plainText.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);
SharpAESCrypt.Encrypt(PasswordTB.Text, plainText, encryptedData);
encryptedData.Position = 0;
byte[] newByteArray = new byte[encryptedData.Length];
newByteArray = encryptedData.ToArray();
EncryptedTB.Text = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newByteArray);
}
}
}
Edit: The native implementation of this code uses fileStreams, but it should work with MemoryStreams too. I will test filestreams and add my results here.
More Edits:
So when you use a file stream you call this code
//Code from the AES Crypt Library
public static void Encrypt(string password, string inputfile, string outputfile)
{
using (FileStream infs = File.OpenRead(inputfile))
using (FileStream outfs = File.Create(outputfile))
Encrypt(password, infs, outfs);
}
Which calls a function which I have been calling directly
//Code from the AES Crypt Library
public static void Encrypt(string password, Stream input, Stream output)
{
int a;
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024 * 4];
SharpAESCrypt c = new SharpAESCrypt(password, output, OperationMode.Encrypt);
while ((a = input.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0)
c.Write(buffer, 0, a);
c.FlushFinalBlock();
}
There is obviously some subtle difference in using a MemoryStream and a FileStream which I don't understand. FileStream works fine, where as MemoryStream returns a blank array...

A quick code review reveals a few things including what, from discussion, seems to be the main problem you are facing. The problematic line is
EncryptedTB.Text = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newByteArray);
This line is taking the binary data in newByteArray and telling your code that it is a valid UTF8 byte array. Chances are that it is almost certainly not actually going to be valid UTF8. Parts of it may be (such as the header) but the actually encrypted data is not going to be and so you shouldn't use this method to get a string.
If you need a printable string to put in a textbox of some sort then the correct way to do this for binary data is through base64 encoding.
EncryptedTB.Text = Convert.ToBase64String(newByteArray);
Base64 encoding effectively takes groups of three bytes (24 bits) and converts them to groups of four characters.
A further note while I'm here is that in these two lines:
byte[] newByteArray = new byte[encryptedData.Length];
newByteArray = encryptedData.ToArray();
You declare a byte array and allocate a new array to it. You then immediately discard this in favour of the array from encryptedData.ToArray(). This does not put data into the array allocated by new byte[encryptedData.Length] but creates a new array and puts it into the newByteArray variable. Better would be to just do:
byte[] newByteArray = encryptedData.ToArray();
Full working code below:
byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sourceText);
Byte[] newByteArray;
using (MemoryStream plainText = new MemoryStream(byteArray))
{
using (MemoryStream encryptedData = new MemoryStream())
{
SharpAESCrypt.Encrypt(password, plainText, encryptedData);
newByteArray = encryptedData.ToArray();
}
}
EncryptedTB.Text = Convert.ToBase64String(newByteArray);

Rijndael encrypted text causes length of data to decrypt is invalid error - C#

I have searched online but have not been able to find any solutions to my problem.
I am using previously written methods to encrypt and ecrypt text using the Rijndael class.
I use these functions to encrypt and decrypt usernames and emails for a web application I have been working on.
The encryption/decryption works perfectly, but every once in a while I get this error:
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: Length of the data to decrypt is invalid.
Currently, I am getting this error with a specific email address and I can't reproduce the error even if I replace some of the letters in the email.
Here are the encryption/decrytpion functions. The IV and Key are defined as read only strings.
static public string Encrypting(string Source)
{
byte[] bytIn = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(Source);
// create a MemoryStream so that the process can be done without I/O files
System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
byte[] IVBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(IV);
byte[] KEYBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(KEY);
Rijndael rijndael = Rijndael.Create();
rijndael.IV = IVBytes;
rijndael.Key = KEYBytes;
// create Crypto Stream that transforms a stream using the encryption
CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(ms, rijndael.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write);
// write out encrypted content into MemoryStream
cs.Write(bytIn, 0, bytIn.Length);
cs.FlushFinalBlock();
// get the output and trim the '\0' bytes
byte[] bytOut = ms.GetBuffer();
int i = 0;
for (i = 0; i < bytOut.Length; i++)
if (bytOut[i] == 0)
break;
// convert into Base64 so that the result can be used in xml
return System.Convert.ToBase64String(bytOut, 0, i);
}
static public string Decrypting(string Source)
{
// convert from Base64 to binary
byte[] bytIn = System.Convert.FromBase64String(Source);
// create a MemoryStream with the input
System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream(bytIn, 0, bytIn.Length);
byte[] IVBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(IV);
byte[] KEYBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(KEY);
Rijndael rijndael = Rijndael.Create();
rijndael.IV = IVBytes;
rijndael.Key = KEYBytes;
// create Crypto Stream that transforms a stream using the decryption
CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(ms, rijndael.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Read);
// read out the result from the Crypto Stream
System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(cs);
return sr.ReadToEnd();
}
FYI - I am very new to cryptography and security.
Can these functions be fixed to avoid special cases that cause the error, or should I scrap these and use the RijndaelManaged class?
Sites I found that use RijndaelManaged:
SeeSharp
TekEye

The issue is almost certainly nothing to do with Rijndael vs. RijndaelManaged (or any other such implementation), but instead because the encrypted data contains a 0x00, and you are incorrectly assuming that the the ciphertext ends at the first 0x00 byte. Since the ciphertext can legitimately contain any byte value you should instead use the stream's Length property to determine the length of the ciphertext.
Eliminate the section you've commented: "get the output and trim the '\0' bytes" and replace the return ... statement with:
return System.Convert.ToBase64String(ms.GetBuffer(), 0, ms.Length);
It should be noted that there are many other issues with your use of cryptography here, e.g. the use of a key generated directly from the ASCII encoding of a string, and the fact you're using a fixed IV both negatively impact security.

The norm for the error is a padding issue. What version of .NET are you using? It is more common to use the AES classes (AES, or Advanced Encryption Standard, which is Rijndael). There are plenty of AES implementations you can find as samples.
If you need some proof AES is Rijndael: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard

Creating Encryption Using string

Hi I'm just trying to encrypt a string but i want to reverse the decryption method to create exactly encrypted key
decryption was
public string newSample(string s)
{
byte[] buffer = Convert.FromBase64String(s);
Encoding utF8 = Encoding.UTF8;
byte[] bytes1 = utF8.GetBytes("key1");
byte[] bytes2 = utF8.GetBytes("key2");
RijndaelManaged rijndaelManaged1 = new RijndaelManaged();
rijndaelManaged1.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
rijndaelManaged1.Padding = PaddingMode.Zeros;
rijndaelManaged1.BlockSize = 128;
rijndaelManaged1.KeySize = 128;
RijndaelManaged rijndaelManaged2 = rijndaelManaged1;
ICryptoTransform transform = (ICryptoTransform)null;
transform = rijndaelManaged2.CreateDecryptor(bytes2, bytes1);
byte[] bytes3 = (byte[])null;
using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (CryptoStream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream((Stream)memoryStream, transform, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cryptoStream.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.GetLength(0));
cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();
}
rijndaelManaged2.Clear();
bytes3 = memoryStream.ToArray();
}
return new string(Encoding.UTF8.GetChars(bytes3));
}
is it possible to reverse the code and create encryption key ? if so
how could be the encryption should look lik for this decryption method ??
thanks

This is the problem - or at least the initial problem:
return new string(Encoding.UTF8.GetChars(bytes3));
The result of encryption is not a UTF-8-encoded byte array... it's arbitrary bytes. By assuming it's valid UTF-8-encoded text, you're losing information.
Instead, you should use a hex or base64 approach, both of which are designed to convert arbitrary binary data to text in a lossless fashion. For example:
return Convert.ToBase64String(bytes3);
Now, your decryption code should start with:
byte[] encryptedData = Convert.FromBase64String(base64EncryptedText);
(Where base64EncryptedText is the value returned from your encryption method.)
From there, it should be a matter of just reversing each step, and there are numerous examples around. You may well find that you've got a problem due to the padding mode, however - you may need to separately record the length of the original data.
As an aside, it's not clear why your method takes a string in the first place. It's odd for an encryption method to take a base64-encoded piece of data. It's more common for it to take either a normal plain text string which is converted into bytes using something like Encoding.UTF8, or for it to take a byte[] to start with.

Encryption output always different even with same key

I'm trying to store a password in a file that I'd like to retrieve for later. Hashing is not an option as I need the password for connecting to a remote server for later.
The following code works well, but it creates a different output each time even though the key is the same. This is bad as when the application shuts down and restarts I won't be able to retrieve my password any more. How can I store passwords in a file and retrieve them later?
public class EncyptDecrypt {
static System.Security.Cryptography.TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider keyProv = new System.Security.Cryptography.TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
public static System.Security.Cryptography.TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider KeyProvider {
get {
keyProv.Key = new byte[] { /* redacted with prejudice */ };
return keyProv;
}
}
public static string Encrypt(string text, SymmetricAlgorithm key) {
if (text.Equals(string.Empty)) return text;
// Create a memory stream.
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
// Create a CryptoStream using the memory stream and the
// CSP DES key.
CryptoStream encStream = new CryptoStream(ms, key.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write);
// Create a StreamWriter to write a string
// to the stream.
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(encStream);
// Write the plaintext to the stream.
sw.WriteLine(text);
// Close the StreamWriter and CryptoStream.
sw.Close();
encStream.Close();
// Get an array of bytes that represents
// the memory stream.
byte[] buffer = ms.ToArray();
// Close the memory stream.
ms.Close();
// Return the encrypted byte array.
return System.Convert.ToBase64String(buffer);
}
// Decrypt the byte array.
public static string Decrypt(string cypherText, SymmetricAlgorithm key) {
if (cypherText.Equals(string.Empty)) return cypherText;
string val;
try {
// Create a memory stream to the passed buffer.
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(System.Convert.FromBase64String(cypherText));
// Create a CryptoStream using the memory stream and the
// CSP DES key.
CryptoStream encStream = new CryptoStream(ms, key.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Read);
// Create a StreamReader for reading the stream.
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(encStream);
// Read the stream as a string.
val = sr.ReadLine();
// Close the streams.
sr.Close();
encStream.Close();
ms.Close();
}
catch (System.Exception) {
return string.Empty;
}
return val;
}
}

I believe that what's happening is that the crypto provider is randomly generating an IV. Specify this and it should no longer differ.
Edit: You can do this in your 'keyProvider' by setting the IV property.

According to the docs of CreateEncryptor:
If the current IV property is a null
reference (Nothing in Visual Basic),
the GenerateIV method is called to
create a new random IV.
This will make the ciphertext different every time.
Note: a way around this is discussed here where I suggest you can prepend the plaintext with a mac ... then the first block of ciphertext is effectively the IV, but it's all repeatable

You need to specify an IV (initialization vector), even if you generate a random one. If you use random IV then you must store it along with the ciphertext so you can use it later on decryption, or you can derive an IV from some other data (for example if you're encrypting a password, you can derive the IV from the username).