C# version of OpenSSL EVP_BytesToKey method?

I found this pseudo-code explanation of the EVP_BytesToKey method (in /doc/ssleay.txt of the openssl source):

/* M[] is an array of message digests
 * MD() is the message digest function */
M[0]=MD(data . salt);
for (i=1; i<count; i++) M[0]=MD(M[0]);

i=1
while (data still needed for key and iv)
    {
    M[i]=MD(M[i-1] . data . salt);
    for (i=1; i<count; i++) M[i]=MD(M[i]);
    i++;
    }

If the salt is NULL, it is not used.
The digests are concatenated together.
M = M[0] . M[1] . M[2] .......

So based on that I was able to come up with this C# method (which seems to work for my purposes and assumes 32-byte key and 16-byte iv):

private static void DeriveKeyAndIV(byte[] data, byte[] salt, int count, out byte[] key, out byte[] iv)
{
    List<byte> hashList = new List<byte>();
    byte[] currentHash = new byte[0];

    int preHashLength = data.Length + ((salt != null) ? salt.Length : 0);
    byte[] preHash = new byte[preHashLength];

    System.Buffer.BlockCopy(data, 0, preHash, 0, data.Length);
    if (salt != null)
        System.Buffer.BlockCopy(salt, 0, preHash, data.Length, salt.Length);

    MD5 hash = MD5.Create();
    currentHash = hash.ComputeHash(preHash);          

    for (int i = 1; i < count; i++)
    {
        currentHash = hash.ComputeHash(currentHash);            
    }

    hashList.AddRange(currentHash);

    while (hashList.Count < 48) // for 32-byte key and 16-byte iv
    {
        preHashLength = currentHash.Length + data.Length + ((salt != null) ? salt.Length : 0);
        preHash = new byte[preHashLength];

        System.Buffer.BlockCopy(currentHash, 0, preHash, 0, currentHash.Length);
        System.Buffer.BlockCopy(data, 0, preHash, currentHash.Length, data.Length);
        if (salt != null)
            System.Buffer.BlockCopy(salt, 0, preHash, currentHash.Length + data.Length, salt.Length);

        currentHash = hash.ComputeHash(preHash);            

        for (int i = 1; i < count; i++)
        {
            currentHash = hash.ComputeHash(currentHash);
        }

        hashList.AddRange(currentHash);
    }
    hash.Clear();
    key = new byte[32];
    iv = new byte[16];
    hashList.CopyTo(0, key, 0, 32);
    hashList.CopyTo(32, iv, 0, 16);
}

UPDATE: Here’s more/less the same implementation but uses the .NET DeriveBytes interface: https://gist.github.com/1339719


OpenSSL 1.1.0c changed the digest algorithm used in some internal components. Formerly, MD5 was used, and 1.1.0 switched to SHA256. Be careful the change is not affecting you in both EVP_BytesToKey and commands like openssl enc.

Leave a Comment