A BlockHasher helper class

There are a few instances in which you'll need to hash a combination of data. You might resort to creating one big string and hashing that. It has a clear disadvantage from a memory and processing point of few. It might even be impractical when files or streams are involved. That's why I created a BlockHasher utility class that helps to generate these types of hashes.

HashAlgorithm

.NET offers the following through the HashAlgorithm class:

  • TransformBlock based on a buffer (byte array)
  • TransformFinalBlock that creates the hash (also a byte array)
  • ComputeHash(stream) - great for streams, but this method is not usable for async operations because it will block the tread until the stream has been read and it does not work together with the transform methods.

Wanted: more features

Basically you want the following features in this scenario:

  • Transformation of a stream
  • Transformation of a buffer / byte array (already present, but you might want a simpler version)
  • Transformation of a string - with optional encoding
  • Async stream transformation support!

To make things more readable, you might want to return the hash as a hexadecimal string or - a shorter, but less frequently used - base64 string. I find myself always using the same lines of code, so I added it to the class.

BlockHasher

Without further ado, let's see the class:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

/// <summary>
/// Helps with block hashing.
/// </summary>
public class BlockHasher : IDisposable
{
	private HashAlgorithm _hasher;
	/// <summary>
	/// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "BlockHasher"/> class.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "name">The name.</param>
	public BlockHasher(string name)
	{
		if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
		{
			throw new ArgumentNullException("name");
		}

		_hasher = HashAlgorithm.Create(name);
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref = "BlockHasher"/> class.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "algorithm">The algorithm.</param>
	public BlockHasher(HashAlgorithm algorithm)
	{
		if (algorithm == null)
		{
			throw new ArgumentNullException("algorithm");
		}

		_hasher = algorithm;
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Indicates how to format the string.
	/// </summary>
	public enum StringFormat
	{
		Hexadecimal,
		Base64
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Performs application-defined tasks associated with freeing, releasing, or resetting unmanaged resources.
	/// </summary>
	public void Dispose()
	{
		_hasher.Dispose();
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Gets the hash.
	/// </summary>
	/// <returns>A byte array with the hash.</returns>
	public byte[] GetHash()
	{
		_hasher.TransformFinalBlock(new byte[0], 0, 0);
		return _hasher.Hash;
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Gets the string hash.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "format">The format.</param>
	/// <returns>The hash.</returns>
	public string GetStringHash(StringFormat format = StringFormat.Hexadecimal)
	{
		var hash = GetHash();
		switch (format)
		{
			case StringFormat.Hexadecimal:
			{
				string result = "";
				for (int i = 0; i < hash.Length; i++)
				{
					result += hash[i].ToString("x2");
				}

				return result;
			}

			case StringFormat.Base64:
			{
				return Convert.ToBase64String(hash);
			}

			default:
			{
				throw new NotSupportedException();
			}
		}
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Transforms the specified stream.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "stream">The stream.</param>
	/// <param name = "bufferSize">Size of the buffer.</param>
	public void Transform(Stream stream, int bufferSize = 8 * 1024)
	{
		if (stream == null)
		{
			throw new ArgumentNullException("stream");
		}

		byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
		int read;
		while ((read = stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
		{
			Transform(buffer, 0, read);
		}
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Transforms the specified string. Assumes UTF8 encoding.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "str">The string.</param>
	public void Transform(string str)
	{
		Transform(str, Encoding.UTF8);
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Transforms the specified string using the specified encoding.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "str">The string.</param>
	/// <param name = "encoding">The encoding.</param>
	public void Transform(string str, Encoding encoding)
	{
		var bytes = encoding.GetBytes(str);
		Transform(bytes);
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Transforms the specified buffer.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "buffer">The buffer.</param>
	public void Transform(byte[] buffer)
	{
		Transform(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Transforms the specified buffer.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "buffer">The buffer.</param>
	/// <param name = "offset">The offset.</param>
	/// <param name = "length">The length.</param>
	public void Transform(byte[] buffer, int offset, int length)
	{
		_hasher.TransformBlock(buffer, offset, length, null, 0);
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Transforms the specified stream asynchronously.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name = "stream">The stream.</param>
	/// <param name = "bufferSize">Size of the buffer.</param>
	/// <returns>The task.</returns>
	public async Task TransformAsync(Stream stream, int bufferSize = 8 * 1024)
	{
		byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
		int read;
		while ((read = await stream.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
		{
			Transform(buffer, 0, read);
		}
	}
}

API Signature Hashing

Lots of API's use a HMAC SHA1 signature to authenticate messages. I've created some example code on how the BlockHasher can be used to generate the signature:

[TestCategory("UnitTest")]
[TestMethod]
public void BlockHasher_ApiRequest_HMACSHA1()
{
	//api information
	string apiKey = "DvTVukOITB5GJ5r79IEy3J9LALZ1LLex";
	string clientSecret = "5d18SSM38x1lGjMD5qCX1FJGsw4jJ12t";
	//request data
	Dictionary<string, string> request = new Dictionary<string, string>();
	request.Add("Message", "Hello world!");
	request.Add("PublishDate", "1984-09-12");
	request.Add("Tags", "first,message,ever");
	request.Add("Active", "true");
	string signature = null;
	using (var algorithm = new HMACSHA1(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(clientSecret)))
	{
		var hasher = new BlockHasher(algorithm);
		var orderedKeys = request.Keys.OrderBy(k => k);
		//hash keys
		foreach (var k in orderedKeys)
		{
			hasher.Transform(k);
			hasher.Transform(",");
		}

		//hash values
		foreach (var k in orderedKeys)
		{
			hasher.Transform(request[k]);
			hasher.Transform(",");
		}

		hasher.Transform(apiKey);
		signature = hasher.GetStringHash(BlockHasher.StringFormat.Base64);
	}

	Assert.AreEqual("279y647EmEXFNFH2ZtNesIc6Skw=", signature);
}

Async stream hashing

Hashing big files using async streams is pretty easy:

public async Task<string> HashFile(string path, string algorithm = "md5")
{
	using (var file = File.OpenRead(path))
	{
		using (var blockhasher = new BlockHasher("md5"))
		{
			await blockhasher.TransformAsync(file);
			return blockhasher.GetStringHash();
		}
	}
}

Wrap up

So that's it. Be sure to visit the class on GitHub if you think it should be changed / expanded.

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