Calculate a MD5 hash from a string

Question

I use the following C# code to calculate a MD5 hash from a string. It works well and generates a 32-character hex string like this: 900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72

Answer 1

You can use Convert.ToBase64String to convert 16 byte output of MD5 to a ~24 char string. A little bit better without reducing security. (j9JIbSY8HuT89/pwdC8jlw== for your example)

Answer 2

System.Text.StringBuilder hash = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
        System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider md5provider = new System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
        byte[] bytes = md5provider.ComputeHash(new System.Text.UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(YourEntryString));

        for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
        {
            hash.Append(bytes[i].ToString("x2")); //lowerCase; X2 if uppercase desired
        }
        return hash.ToString();

Answer 3

A faster alternative of existing answer for .NET Core 2.1 and higher:

public static string CreateMD5(string s)
{
    using (System.Security.Cryptography.MD5 md5 = System.Security.Cryptography.MD5.Create())
    {
        var encoding = Encoding.ASCII;
        var data = encoding.GetBytes(s);

        Span<byte> hashBytes = stackalloc byte[16];
        md5.TryComputeHash(data, hashBytes, out int written);
        if(written != hashBytes.Length)
            throw new OverflowException();


        Span<char> stringBuffer = stackalloc char[32];
        for (int i = 0; i < hashBytes.Length; i++)
        {
            hashBytes[i].TryFormat(stringBuffer.Slice(2 * i), out _, "x2");
        }
        return new string(stringBuffer);
    }
}

You can optimize it even more if you are sure that your strings are small enough and replace encoding.GetBytes by unsafe int GetBytes(ReadOnlySpan chars, Span bytes) alternative.

Answer 4

Depends entirely on what you are trying to achieve. Technically, you could just take the first 12 characters from the result of the MD5 hash, but the specification of MD5 is to generate a 32 char one.

Reducing the size of the hash reduces the security, and increases the chance of collisions and the system being broken.

Perhaps if you let us know more about what you are trying to achieve we may be able to assist more.

Answer 5

As per MSDN

Create MD5:

public static string CreateMD5(string input)
{
    // Use input string to calculate MD5 hash
    using (System.Security.Cryptography.MD5 md5 = System.Security.Cryptography.MD5.Create())
    {
        byte[] inputBytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(input);
        byte[] hashBytes = md5.ComputeHash(inputBytes);

        // Convert the byte array to hexadecimal string
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        for (int i = 0; i < hashBytes.Length; i++)
        {
            sb.Append(hashBytes[i].ToString("X2"));
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }
}

Answer 6

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.security.cryptography.md5?view=netframework-4.7.2

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;

    static string GetMd5Hash(string input)
            {
                using (MD5 md5Hash = MD5.Create())
                {

                    // Convert the input string to a byte array and compute the hash.
                    byte[] data = md5Hash.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input));

                    // Create a new Stringbuilder to collect the bytes
                    // and create a string.
                    StringBuilder sBuilder = new StringBuilder();

                    // Loop through each byte of the hashed data 
                    // and format each one as a hexadecimal string.
                    for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++)
                    {
                        sBuilder.Append(data[i].ToString("x2"));
                    }

                    // Return the hexadecimal string.
                    return sBuilder.ToString();
                }
            }

            // Verify a hash against a string.
            static bool VerifyMd5Hash(string input, string hash)
            {
                // Hash the input.
                string hashOfInput = GetMd5Hash(input);

                // Create a StringComparer an compare the hashes.
                StringComparer comparer = StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase;

                return 0 == comparer.Compare(hashOfInput, hash);

            }