CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netencryptioncryptography
Jonny
Jonny

Reputation: 2917

C# Cryptography generating a key

I am trying to encrypt/decrypt a string using c#. I've found countless tutorials on how to this ex: this However most of them assume you already have the key. So my question is:

How do I generate the key ?

Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1237

Answers (3)

vstm
vstm

Reputation: 12537

It depends on you handle the keys.

If you automatically generate the key and just exchange the key over some channel with a key-exchange method then you should generate the key with some strong random number generator like RNGCryptoServiceProvider. Actually most Ciphers in .NET generate a random key automatically.

If you want to have some kind of user entered password then I suggest you to use the Rfc2898DeriveBytes class. There is also a Tutorial on the .NET Security blog about Rfc2898DeriveBytes.

Upvotes: 2

anton.burger
anton.burger

Reputation: 5706

If you're using the encryption classes in the System.Security.Cryptography namespace, use the Rfc2898DeriveBytes class (@CodeInChaos points out that it supersedes PasswordDeriveBytes) to derive a key from a password.

If a random key is OK, the SymmetricAlgorithm class has a GenerateKey method.

Upvotes: 4

Adam
Adam

Reputation: 16199

Well depending on what key you want you can generate one here

http://randomkeygen.com/ or https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

But what type of key are you after?

Upvotes: 1

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