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CryptoStream Class

Defines a stream that links data streams to cryptographic transformations.

System.Object
  System.MarshalByRefObject
    System.IO.Stream
      System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStream

Namespace:  System.Security.Cryptography
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public class CryptoStream : Stream, 
	IDisposable

The CryptoStream type exposes the following members.

  Name Description
Public method CryptoStream Initializes a new instance of the CryptoStream class with a target data stream, the transformation to use, and the mode of the stream.
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  Name Description
Public property CanRead Gets a value indicating whether the current CryptoStream is readable. (Overrides Stream.CanRead.)
Public property CanSeek Gets a value indicating whether you can seek within the current CryptoStream. (Overrides Stream.CanSeek.)
Public property CanTimeout Gets a value that determines whether the current stream can time out. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public property CanWrite Gets a value indicating whether the current CryptoStream is writable. (Overrides Stream.CanWrite.)
Public property HasFlushedFinalBlock Gets a value indicating whether the final buffer block has been written to the underlying stream.
Public property Length Gets the length in bytes of the stream. (Overrides Stream.Length.)
Public property Position Gets or sets the position within the current stream. (Overrides Stream.Position.)
Public property ReadTimeout Gets or sets a value, in miliseconds, that determines how long the stream will attempt to read before timing out. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public property WriteTimeout Gets or sets a value, in miliseconds, that determines how long the stream will attempt to write before timing out. (Inherited from Stream.)
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  Name Description
Public method BeginRead Begins an asynchronous read operation. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method BeginWrite Begins an asynchronous write operation. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method Clear Releases all resources used by the CryptoStream.
Public method Close Closes the current stream and releases any resources (such as sockets and file handles) associated with the current stream. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method CopyTo(Stream) Reads the bytes from the current stream and writes them to the destination stream. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method CopyTo(Stream, Int32) Reads all the bytes from the current stream and writes them to a destination stream, using a specified buffer size. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method CreateObjRef Creates an object that contains all the relevant information required to generate a proxy used to communicate with a remote object. (Inherited from MarshalByRefObject.)
Protected method CreateWaitHandle Obsolete. Allocates a WaitHandle object. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method Dispose() Releases all resources used by the Stream. (Inherited from Stream.)
Protected method Dispose(Boolean) Releases the unmanaged resources used by the CryptoStream and optionally releases the managed resources. (Overrides Stream.Dispose(Boolean).)
Public method EndRead Waits for the pending asynchronous read to complete. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method EndWrite Ends an asynchronous write operation. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method Equals(Object) Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method Finalize Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Flush Clears all buffers for this stream and causes any buffered data to be written to the underlying device. (Overrides Stream.Flush().)
Public method FlushFinalBlock Updates the underlying data source or repository with the current state of the buffer, then clears the buffer.
Public method GetHashCode Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method GetLifetimeService Retrieves the current lifetime service object that controls the lifetime policy for this instance. (Inherited from MarshalByRefObject.)
Public method GetType Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method InitializeLifetimeService Obtains a lifetime service object to control the lifetime policy for this instance. (Inherited from MarshalByRefObject.)
Protected method MemberwiseClone() Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method MemberwiseClone(Boolean) Creates a shallow copy of the current MarshalByRefObject object. (Inherited from MarshalByRefObject.)
Protected method ObjectInvariant Infrastructure. Provides support for a Contract. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method Read Reads a sequence of bytes from the current CryptoStream and advances the position within the stream by the number of bytes read. (Overrides Stream.Read(Byte[], Int32, Int32).)
Public method ReadByte Reads a byte from the stream and advances the position within the stream by one byte, or returns -1 if at the end of the stream. (Inherited from Stream.)
Public method Seek Sets the position within the current stream. (Overrides Stream.Seek(Int64, SeekOrigin).)
Public method SetLength Sets the length of the current stream. (Overrides Stream.SetLength(Int64).)
Public method ToString Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Write Writes a sequence of bytes to the current CryptoStream and advances the current position within this stream by the number of bytes written. (Overrides Stream.Write(Byte[], Int32, Int32).)
Public method WriteByte Writes a byte to the current position in the stream and advances the position within the stream by one byte. (Inherited from Stream.)
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The common language runtime uses a stream-oriented design for cryptography. The core of this design is CryptoStream. Any cryptographic objects that implement CryptoStream can be chained together with any objects that implement Stream, so the streamed output from one object can be fed into the input of another object. The intermediate result (the output from the first object) does not need to be stored separately.

You should always explicitly close your CryptoStream object after you are done using it by calling the Close method. Doing so flushes the stream and causes all remain blocks of data to be processed by the CryptoStream object. However, if an exception occurs before you call the Close method, the CryptoStream object might not be closed. To ensure that the Close method always gets called, place your call to the Close method within the finally block of a try/catch statement.

The following example demonstrates how to use a CryptoStream to encrypt a string. This method uses RijndaelManaged class with the specified Key and initialization vector (IV).


using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace RijndaelManaged_Example
{
    class RijndaelExample
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            try
            {

                string original = "Here is some data to encrypt!";

                // Create a new instance of the Rijndael
                // class.  This generates a new key and initialization 
                // vector (IV).
                using (Rijndael myRijndael = Rijndael.Create())
                {
                    // Encrypt the string to an array of bytes.
                    byte[] encrypted = EncryptStringToBytes(original, myRijndael.Key, myRijndael.IV);

                    // Decrypt the bytes to a string.
                    string roundtrip = DecryptStringFromBytes(encrypted, myRijndael.Key, myRijndael.IV);

                    //Display the original data and the decrypted data.
                    Console.WriteLine("Original:   {0}", original);
                    Console.WriteLine("Round Trip: {0}", roundtrip);
                }

            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error: {0}", e.Message);
            }
        }
        static byte[] EncryptStringToBytes(string plainText, byte[] Key, byte[] IV)
        {
            // Check arguments.
            if (plainText == null || plainText.Length <= 0)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("plainText");
            if (Key == null || Key.Length <= 0)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("Key");
            if (IV == null || IV.Length <= 0)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("Key");
            byte[] encrypted;
            // Create an Rijndael object
            // with the specified key and IV.
            using (Rijndael rijAlg = Rijndael.Create())
            {
                rijAlg.Key = Key;
                rijAlg.IV = IV;

                // Create a decrytor to perform the stream transform.
                ICryptoTransform encryptor = rijAlg.CreateEncryptor(rijAlg.Key, rijAlg.IV);

                // Create the streams used for encryption.
                using (MemoryStream msEncrypt = new MemoryStream())
                {
                    using (CryptoStream csEncrypt = new CryptoStream(msEncrypt, encryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
                    {
                        using (StreamWriter swEncrypt = new StreamWriter(csEncrypt))
                        {

                            //Write all data to the stream.
                            swEncrypt.Write(plainText);
                        }
                        encrypted = msEncrypt.ToArray();
                    }
                }
            }


            // Return the encrypted bytes from the memory stream.
            return encrypted;

        }

        static string DecryptStringFromBytes(byte[] cipherText, byte[] Key, byte[] IV)
        {
            // Check arguments.
            if (cipherText == null || cipherText.Length <= 0)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("cipherText");
            if (Key == null || Key.Length <= 0)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("Key");
            if (IV == null || IV.Length <= 0)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("Key");

            // Declare the string used to hold
            // the decrypted text.
            string plaintext = null;

            // Create an Rijndael object
            // with the specified key and IV.
            using (Rijndael rijAlg = Rijndael.Create())
            {
                rijAlg.Key = Key;
                rijAlg.IV = IV;

                // Create a decrytor to perform the stream transform.
                ICryptoTransform decryptor = rijAlg.CreateDecryptor(rijAlg.Key, rijAlg.IV);

                // Create the streams used for decryption.
                using (MemoryStream msDecrypt = new MemoryStream(cipherText))
                {
                    using (CryptoStream csDecrypt = new CryptoStream(msDecrypt, decryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
                    {
                        using (StreamReader srDecrypt = new StreamReader(csDecrypt))
                        {

                            // Read the decrypted bytes from the decrypting stream
                            // and place them in a string.
                            plaintext = srDecrypt.ReadToEnd();
                        }
                    }
                }

            }

            return plaintext;

        }
    }
}


.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.
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Annotations FAQ
forgot to call CryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock
In ' EncryptStringToBytes' after  'swEncrypt.Write(plainText);' and before ' encrypted = msEncrypt.ToArray();' $0make sure to call csEncrypt.FlushFinalBlock()$0
useless example
there is something wrong with the example. it is not possible to reproduce the program flow using MemoryStream.