How to encrypt and decrypt a file with AES-256 on vb.net?

  

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• Standard library for AES encryption for VB.NET? for Steven Doggart
  

The System.Security.Cryptography namespace contains all the classes you need to perform most of the standard encryption tasks. Unfortunately, since encryption is a complicated subject, classes are hard to work with, especially for beginners. Sometimes it's hard to find an example of simple work to begin with. But, since I am kind, I will offer you a simple example with which you can play and improve:)

The class you probably want to use is called RijndaelManaged . That's the class that implements the typical AES encryption. Here is a sample class that uses that to convert raw text strings and byte arrays:

Public Class Aes256Encrypter
    Public Function Encrypt(ByVal plainText As String, ByVal secretKey As String) As Byte()
        Dim encryptedPassword As Byte()
        Using outputStream As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream()
            Dim algorithm As RijndaelManaged = getAlgorithm(secretKey)
            Using cryptoStream As CryptoStream = New CryptoStream(outputStream, algorithm.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write)
                Dim inputBuffer() As Byte = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(plainText)
                cryptoStream.Write(inputBuffer, 0, inputBuffer.Length)
                cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock()
                encryptedPassword = outputStream.ToArray()
            End Using
        End Using
        Return encryptedPassword
    End Function

    Public Function Decrypt(ByVal encryptedBytes As Byte(), ByVal secretKey As String) As String
        Dim plainText As String = Nothing
        Using inputStream As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(encryptedBytes)
            Dim algorithm As RijndaelManaged = getAlgorithm(secretKey)
            Using cryptoStream As CryptoStream = New CryptoStream(inputStream, algorithm.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Read)
                Dim outputBuffer(0 To CType(inputStream.Length - 1, Integer)) As Byte
                Dim readBytes As Integer = cryptoStream.Read(outputBuffer, 0, CType(inputStream.Length, Integer))
                plainText = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(outputBuffer, 0, readBytes)
            End Using
        End Using
        Return plainText
    End Function

    Private Function getAlgorithm(ByVal secretKey As String) As RijndaelManaged
        Const salt As String = "put your salt here"
        Const keySize As Integer = 256

        Dim keyBuilder As Rfc2898DeriveBytes = New Rfc2898DeriveBytes(secretKey, Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(salt))
        Dim algorithm As RijndaelManaged = New RijndaelManaged()
        algorithm.KeySize = keySize
        algorithm.IV = keyBuilder.GetBytes(CType(algorithm.BlockSize / 8, Integer))
        algorithm.Key = keyBuilder.GetBytes(CType(algorithm.KeySize / 8, Integer))
        algorithm.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7
        Return algorithm
    End Function
End Class

You should change the constant salt for something else. Ideally, it would not even be a constant, since, to be as safe as possible, you should use a different salt every time you perform the encryption, but that is a totally different issue.

If you want the encrypted value to be returned as a string instead of a byte array, you can use the Base-64 encoding to convert the array of bytes to strings and from strings like this:

Public Class Aes256Base64Encrypter
    Public Function Encrypt(ByVal plainText As String, ByVal secretKey As String) As String
        Dim encryptedPassword As String = Nothing
        Using outputStream As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream()
            Dim algorithm As RijndaelManaged = getAlgorithm(secretKey)
            Using cryptoStream As CryptoStream = New CryptoStream(outputStream, algorithm.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write)
                Dim inputBuffer() As Byte = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(plainText)
                cryptoStream.Write(inputBuffer, 0, inputBuffer.Length)
                cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock()
                encryptedPassword = Convert.ToBase64String(outputStream.ToArray())
            End Using
        End Using
        Return encryptedPassword
    End Function

    Public Function Decrypt(ByVal encryptedBytes As String, ByVal secretKey As String) As String
        Dim plainText As String = Nothing
        Using inputStream As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(encryptedBytes))
            Dim algorithm As RijndaelManaged = getAlgorithm(secretKey)
            Using cryptoStream As CryptoStream = New CryptoStream(inputStream, algorithm.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Read)
                Dim outputBuffer(0 To CType(inputStream.Length - 1, Integer)) As Byte
                Dim readBytes As Integer = cryptoStream.Read(outputBuffer, 0, CType(inputStream.Length, Integer))
                plainText = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(outputBuffer, 0, readBytes)
            End Using
        End Using
        Return plainText
    End Function

    Private Function getAlgorithm(ByVal secretKey As String) As RijndaelManaged
        Const salt As String = "put your salt here"
        Const keySize As Integer = 256

        Dim keyBuilder As Rfc2898DeriveBytes = New Rfc2898DeriveBytes(secretKey, Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(salt))
        Dim algorithm As RijndaelManaged = New RijndaelManaged()
        algorithm.KeySize = keySize
        algorithm.IV = keyBuilder.GetBytes(CType(algorithm.BlockSize / 8, Integer))
        algorithm.Key = keyBuilder.GetBytes(CType(algorithm.KeySize / 8, Integer))
        algorithm.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7
        Return algorithm
    End Function
End Class

If you are storing the encrypted value in a text file, XML or even a database, it is often easier to use Base-64 as well.