Encrypt and Decrypt iOS/Node.js Security Inquiry

Question

I'm currently using AES128 on both platforms and my code from this answer
Note: I changed the code a bit to deviate from using an IV because I thought it was overkill for the purpose of my application.

node.js:

    var CryptoJS = require("crypto-js");
    var crypto = require('crypto');
    var password = "1234567890123456";
    var salt = "gettingsaltyfoo!";
    var hash = CryptoJS.SHA256(salt);
    var key = CryptoJS.PBKDF2(password, hash, { keySize: 256/32, iterations: 1000 });
    var algorithm = 'aes128';
    console.log(key.toString(CryptoJS.enc.Base64));

function encrypt(text){
  var cipher = crypto.createCipher(algorithm,key.toString(CryptoJS.enc.Base64));
  var crypted = cipher.update(text,'utf8','hex');
  crypted += cipher.final('hex');
  return crypted;
}

function decrypt(text){
  var decipher = crypto.createDecipher(algorithm,key.toString(CryptoJS.enc.Base64));
  var dec = decipher.update(text,'hex','utf8');
  dec += decipher.final('utf8');
  return dec;
}

iOS:

        #import <CommonCrypto/CommonCrypto.h>
NSString* password = @"1234567890123456";
NSString* salt = @"gettingsaltyfoo!";
-(NSString *)decrypt:(NSString*)encrypted64{

    NSMutableData* hash = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
    NSMutableData* key = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
    CC_SHA256(salt.UTF8String, (CC_LONG)strlen(salt.UTF8String), hash.mutableBytes);
    CCKeyDerivationPBKDF(kCCPBKDF2, password.UTF8String, strlen(password.UTF8String), hash.bytes, hash.length, kCCPRFHmacAlgSHA1, 1000, key.mutableBytes, key.length);
    NSLog(@"Hash : %@",[hash base64EncodedStringWithOptions:0]);
    NSLog(@"Key : %@",[key base64EncodedStringWithOptions:0]);


    NSData* encryptedWithout64 = [[NSData alloc] initWithBase64EncodedString:encrypted64 options:0];
    NSMutableData* decrypted = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:encryptedWithout64.length + kCCBlockSizeAES128];
    size_t bytesDecrypted = 0;
    CCCrypt(kCCDecrypt,
            kCCAlgorithmAES128,
            kCCOptionPKCS7Padding,
            key.bytes,
            key.length,
            NULL,
            encryptedWithout64.bytes, encryptedWithout64.length,
            decrypted.mutableBytes, decrypted.length, &bytesDecrypted);
    NSData* outputMessage = [NSMutableData dataWithBytes:decrypted.mutableBytes length:bytesDecrypted];
    NSString* outputString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:outputMessage encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    NSLog(@"Decrypted : %@",outputString);


    return outputString;
}
-(NSString *)encrypt:(NSString *)toEncrypt{
    NSMutableData* hash = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
    NSMutableData* key = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
    CC_SHA256(salt.UTF8String, (CC_LONG)strlen(salt.UTF8String), hash.mutableBytes);
    CCKeyDerivationPBKDF(kCCPBKDF2, password.UTF8String, strlen(password.UTF8String), hash.bytes, hash.length, kCCPRFHmacAlgSHA1, 1000, key.mutableBytes, key.length);

    NSData* message = [toEncrypt dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    NSMutableData* encrypted = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:message.length + kCCBlockSizeAES128];
    size_t bytesEncrypted = 0;
    CCCrypt(kCCEncrypt,
            kCCAlgorithmAES128,
            kCCOptionPKCS7Padding,
            key.bytes,
            key.length,
            NULL,
            message.bytes, message.length,
            encrypted.mutableBytes, encrypted.length, &bytesEncrypted);
    NSString* encrypted64 = [[NSMutableData dataWithBytes:encrypted.mutableBytes length:bytesEncrypted] base64EncodedStringWithOptions:0];
    NSLog(@"Encrypted : %@",encrypted64);
    return encrypted64;
}

MY QUESTION: Is it okay if I hardcode the salt like this? I'm trying to encrypt and decrypt the password (the var password and NSString password will probably be hardcoded into something). I've read online that I need to keep my salt with my password in my db. If it's not okay if I hardcode my salt, how do I send it from iOS to node.js and be consistent with the salt? Should my iOS request look like this?

{
key:"someKeyGeneratedOnTheSpotWithRandomSalt",
password:"somePasswordGeneratedFromKey"
}

and in my backend check the password by pulling these fields from the database?

{
key:"someKeyGeneratedWhenTheUserFirstSignedUp",
password:"somePasswordGeneratedFromTheOrginalKeyWhenUserFirstSignedUp"
}

And then decrypt both passwords using the key and password generated from both scenarios?

OR is it okay to have a hardcoded salt, say the username, so that way the key is always the same per user?

Basically I'm confused on whether or not I have the right idea for my encryption model.

Thanks for any assistance.

Answer 1

Typically a random salt is used and prepended to the encrypted data. It is also common to all prepend the PBKDF2 iteration count along with a version number helps for future-proofing. Finally, skipping an iv reduces the protection of the first block and you might consider an authentication hash.

This is similar to what RNCryptor does. See RNCryptor-Spec-v3.md for a detail of a encrypted message.

Notes:
I don't understand CC_SHA256 of the salt, that shouldn't be necessary.

NSData* outputMessage = [NSMutableData dataWithBytes:decrypted.mutableBytes length:bytesDecrypted];
is unnecessary, just set the length of decrypted
decrypted.length = bytesDecrypted;
and use decrypted in place of outputMessage.