Hashing a SecureString in .NET

Question

In .NET, we have the SecureString class, which is all very well until you come to try and use it, as to (for example) hash the string, you need the plaintext. I\'ve had a go

Answer 1

As a further complement, could you not wrap the logic @KonradRudolph and @HansPassant supplied into a custom Stream implementation?

This would allow you to use the HashAlgorithm.ComputeHash(Stream) method, which would keep the interface managed (although it would be down to you to dispose the stream in good time).

Of course, you are at the mercy of the HashAlgorithm implementation as to how much data ends up in memory at a time (but, of course, that's what the reference source is for!)

Just an idea...

public class SecureStringStream : Stream
{
    public override bool CanRead { get { return true; } }
    public override bool CanWrite { get { return false; } }
    public override bool CanSeek { get { return false; } }

    public override long Position
    {
        get { return _pos; }
        set { throw new NotSupportedException(); }
    }

    public override void Flush() { throw new NotSupportedException(); }
    public override long Seek(long offset, SeekOrigin origin) { throw new NotSupportedException(); }
    public override void SetLength(long value) { throw new NotSupportedException(); }
    public override void Write(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count) { throw new NotSupportedException(); }

    private readonly IntPtr _bstr = IntPtr.Zero;
    private readonly int _length;
    private int _pos;

    public SecureStringStream(SecureString str)
    {
        if (str == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("str");
        _bstr = Marshal.SecureStringToBSTR(str);

        try
        {
            _length = Marshal.ReadInt32(_bstr, -4);
            _pos = 0;
        }
        catch
        {
            if (_bstr != IntPtr.Zero) Marshal.ZeroFreeBSTR(_bstr);
            throw;
        }
    }

    public override long Length { get { return _length; } }

    public override int Read(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count)
    {
        if (buffer == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("buffer");
        if (offset < 0) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("offset");
        if (count < 0) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("count");
        if (offset + count > buffer.Length) throw new ArgumentException("offset + count > buffer");

        if (count > 0 && _pos++ < _length) 
        {
            buffer[offset] = Marshal.ReadByte(_bstr, _pos++);
            return 1;
        }
        else return 0;
    }

    protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        try { if (_bstr != IntPtr.Zero) Marshal.ZeroFreeBSTR(_bstr); }
        finally { base.Dispose(disposing); }
    }
}

void RunMe()
{
    using (SecureString s = new SecureString())
    {
        foreach (char c in "jimbobmcgee") s.AppendChar(c);
        s.MakeReadOnly();

        using (SecureStringStream ss = new SecureStringStream(s))
        using (HashAlgorithm h = MD5.Create())
        {
            Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToBase64String(h.ComputeHash(ss)));
        }
    }
}