BinaryFormatter & CryptoStream problem when deserializing

Question

I'm getting a bit desperate here. I'm trying to write an encrypted file with a serialized object to disk and later retrieve the file, decrypt it and deserialize the object back.

UPDATE: I refactored the code to this:

using (Stream innerStream = File.Create(this.GetFullFileNameForUser(securityContext.User, applicationName)))
            {
                using (Stream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(innerStream, GetCryptoProvider().CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
                {
                    // 3. write to the cryptoStream 
                    //BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
                    //bf.Serialize(cryptoStream, securityContext);
                    XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SecurityContextDTO));
                    xs.Serialize(cryptoStream, securityContext);
                }
            }


 using (Stream innerStream = File.Open(this.GetFullFileNameForUser(user, applicationName), FileMode.Open))
        {
            using (Stream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(innerStream, GetCryptoProvider().CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Read))
            {
                //BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
                //return (SecurityContextDTO)bf.Deserialize(cryptoStream);
                XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SecurityContextDTO));
                //CryptographicException here
                return (SecurityContextDTO)xs.Deserialize(cryptoStream);
            }
        }

Now I'm getting a cryptographic exception on deserialize: Bad Data

ORIGINAL:

I'm doing this:

public void StoreToFile(SecurityContextDTO securityContext, string applicationName)
    {
        if (securityContext.LoginResult.IsOfflineMode == false)
        {
            Stream stream = null;
            CryptoStream crStream = null;
            try
            {
                TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider cryptic = GetCryptoProvider();

                stream = File.Open(this.GetFullFileNameForUser(securityContext.User, applicationName), FileMode.Create);
                crStream = new CryptoStream(stream,
                   cryptic.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write);

                BinaryFormatter bFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
                bFormatter.Serialize(crStream, securityContext);
            }
            catch(Exception)
            {
                throw;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (crStream != null)
                    crStream.Close();
            }
        }
    }



public SecurityContextDTO RetrieveFromFile(UserDTO user,string applicationName)
    {
        SecurityContextDTO objectToSerialize;
        Stream stream = null;
        CryptoStream crStream=null;
        try
        {
            stream = File.Open(this.GetFullFileNameForUser(user, applicationName), FileMode.Open);
             crStream= new CryptoStream(stream,
                GetCryptoProvider().CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Read);
            BinaryFormatter bFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            //Exception here
            objectToSerialize = (SecurityContextDTO)bFormatter.Deserialize(crStream); 
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            objectToSerialize = null;
        }
        finally
        {
            if (crStream!=null)
                crStream.Close();
        }
        return objectToSerialize;
    }


private static TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider GetCryptoProvider()
    {
        TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider cryptic = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
        try
        {
            cryptic.Key = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(CrypKey);

            Rfc2898DeriveBytes db = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes("sdddsdsd", 8);
            cryptic.IV = db.GetBytes(8);
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            throw;
        }
        finally
        {
            cryptic.Dispose();
        }
        return cryptic;
    }

Encrypting and writing works fine, the file appears on the disk and the content is there (encrypted of course). But when I call the retrieve method I always get a SerializationException

Binary stream '30' does not contain a valid BinaryHeader. Possible causes are invalid stream or object version change between serialization and deserialization.

When I leave the cryptographic methods out everything works fine.

Answer 1

So,

You realize that in this code

private static TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider GetCryptoProvider()
{
    TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider cryptic = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
    try
    {
        cryptic.Key = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(CrypKey);

        Rfc2898DeriveBytes db = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes("sdddsdsd", 8);
        cryptic.IV = db.GetBytes(8);
    }
    catch (Exception)
    {
        throw;
    }
    finally
    {
        cryptic.Dispose(); // <------- Don't do this until you are done decrypting.
    }
    return cryptic;
}

you will ALWAYS dispose of the provider meaning you are always using a random key and iv