How to generate MD5 using VBScript in classic ASP?

user1270384 picture user1270384 · Apr 17, 2012 · Viewed 37.6k times · Source

I need to generate an MD5 in my application.

I've tried google but only find PHP code for MD5. I need to connect to a client system that validates using MD5 hash but their code is in PHP, mine is in Classic ASP using VBScript.

My server is .Net supported so I cannot use the PHP script. Is there any such MD5 code for VBScript in Classic ASP?

Answer

SgtWilko picture SgtWilko · Jul 16, 2015

Update 2017-02-21 - Now with added HMACSHA256 for JWTs

Update 2016-07-05 - Now with added SHA1 and SHA256

Right, for all of you who have been struggling with this (like myself) and want to know, it is possible!

The following code is split up into several functions so that you can either MD5/sha1/sha256 a string, or a file.

I borrowed the functions GetBytes and BytesToBase64 from another stackexchange, and the code within stringToUTFBytes is based on another stackexchange.

function md5hashBytes(aBytes)
    Dim MD5
    set MD5 = CreateObject("System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider")

    MD5.Initialize()
    'Note you MUST use computehash_2 to get the correct version of this method, and the bytes MUST be double wrapped in brackets to ensure they get passed in correctly.
    md5hashBytes = MD5.ComputeHash_2( (aBytes) )
end function

function sha1hashBytes(aBytes)
    Dim sha1
    set sha1 = CreateObject("System.Security.Cryptography.SHA1Managed")

    sha1.Initialize()
    'Note you MUST use computehash_2 to get the correct version of this method, and the bytes MUST be double wrapped in brackets to ensure they get passed in correctly.
    sha1hashBytes = sha1.ComputeHash_2( (aBytes) )
end function

function sha256hashBytes(aBytes)
    Dim sha256
    set sha256 = CreateObject("System.Security.Cryptography.SHA256Managed")

    sha256.Initialize()
    'Note you MUST use computehash_2 to get the correct version of this method, and the bytes MUST be double wrapped in brackets to ensure they get passed in correctly.
    sha256hashBytes = sha256.ComputeHash_2( (aBytes) )
end function

function sha256HMACBytes(aBytes, aKey)
    Dim sha256
    set sha256 = CreateObject("System.Security.Cryptography.HMACSHA256")

    sha256.Initialize()
    sha256.key=aKey
    'Note you MUST use computehash_2 to get the correct version of this method, and the bytes MUST be double wrapped in brackets to ensure they get passed in correctly.
    sha256HMACBytes = sha256.ComputeHash_2( (aBytes) )
end function

function stringToUTFBytes(aString)
    Dim UTF8
    Set UTF8 = CreateObject("System.Text.UTF8Encoding")
    stringToUTFBytes = UTF8.GetBytes_4(aString)
end function

function bytesToHex(aBytes)
    dim hexStr, x
    for x=1 to lenb(aBytes)
        hexStr= hex(ascb(midb( (aBytes),x,1)))
        if len(hexStr)=1 then hexStr="0" & hexStr
        bytesToHex=bytesToHex & hexStr
    next
end function

Function BytesToBase64(varBytes)
    With CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument").CreateElement("b64")
        .dataType = "bin.base64"
        .nodeTypedValue = varBytes
        BytesToBase64 = .Text
    End With
End Function

'Special version that produces the URLEncoded variant of Base64 used in JWTs.
Function BytesToBase64UrlEncode(varBytes)
    With CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument").CreateElement("b64")
        .dataType = "bin.base64"
        .nodeTypedValue = varBytes
        BytesToBase64UrlEncode = replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(.Text,chr(13),""),chr(10),""),"+", "-"),"/", "_"),"=", "")
    End With
End Function

Function GetBytes(sPath)
    With CreateObject("Adodb.Stream")
        .Type = 1 ' adTypeBinary
        .Open
        .LoadFromFile sPath
        .Position = 0
        GetBytes = .Read
        .Close
    End With
End Function

These can be used as follows:

BytesToBase64(md5hashBytes(stringToUTFBytes("Hello World")))

Produces: sQqNsWTgdUEFt6mb5y4/5Q==

bytesToHex(md5hashBytes(stringToUTFBytes("Hello World")))

Produces: B10A8DB164E0754105B7A99BE72E3FE5

For SHA1:

bytesToHex(sha1hashBytes(stringToUTFBytes("Hello World")))

Produces: 0A4D55A8D778E5022FAB701977C5D840BBC486D0

For SHA256:

bytesToHex(sha256hashBytes(stringToUTFBytes("Hello World")))

Produces: A591A6D40BF420404A011733CFB7B190D62C65BF0BCDA32B57B277D9AD9F146E

To get the MD5 of a file (useful for Amazon S3 MD5 checking):

BytesToBase64(md5hashBytes(GetBytes(sPath)))

Where sPath is the path to the local file.

And finally, to create a JWT:

'define the JWT header, needs to be converted to UTF bytes:
aHead=stringToUTFBytes("{""alg"":""HS256"",""typ"":""JWT""}")

'define the JWT payload, again needs to be converted to UTF Bytes.
aPayload=stringToUTFBytes("{""sub"":""1234567890"",""name"":""John Doe"",""admin"":true}") 

'Your shared key.
theKey="mySuperSecret"

aSigSource=stringToUTFBytes(BytesToBase64UrlEncode(aHead) & "." & BytesToBase64UrlEncode(aPayload))

'The full JWT correctly Base 64 URL encoded.
aJWT=BytesToBase64UrlEncode(aHead) & "." & BytesToBase64UrlEncode(aPayload) & "." & BytesToBase64UrlEncode(sha256HMACBytes(aSigSource,stringToUTFBytes(theKey)))

Which will produce the following valid JWT: eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiYWRtaW4iOnRydWV9.7ofvtkn0z_pTl6WcqRTxw-4eSE3NqcEq9_3ax0YcuIQ