HMAC-based one time password in C# (RFC 4226 - HOTP)

Question

I am attempting to wrap my brain around generating a 6 digit/character non case sensitive expiring one-time password.

My source is http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4226#section-5

First the definition of the parameters

C       8-byte counter value, the moving factor.  This counter
       MUST be synchronized between the HOTP generator (client)
       and the HOTP validator (server).

K       shared secret between client and server; each HOTP
       generator has a different and unique secret K.

T       throttling parameter: the server will refuse connections
       from a user after T unsuccessful authentication attempts.

Then we have the algorithm to generate the HOTP

As the output of the HMAC-SHA-1 calculation is 160 bits, we must
   truncate this value to something that can be easily entered by a
   user.

                   HOTP(K,C) = Truncate(HMAC-SHA-1(K,C))

Then, we have Truncate defined as

String = String[0]...String[19]
 Let OffsetBits be the low-order 4 bits of String[19]
 Offset = StToNum(OffsetBits) // 0 <= OffSet <= 15
 Let P = String[OffSet]...String[OffSet+3]
 Return the Last 31 bits of P

And then an example is offered for a 6 digit HOTP

The following code example describes the extraction of a dynamic
binary code given that hmac_result is a byte array with the HMAC-
SHA-1 result:

    int offset   =  hmac_result[19] & 0xf ;
    int bin_code = (hmac_result[offset]  & 0x7f) << 24
       | (hmac_result[offset+1] & 0xff) << 16
       | (hmac_result[offset+2] & 0xff) <<  8
       | (hmac_result[offset+3] & 0xff) ;

I am rather at a loss in attempting to convert this into useful C# code for generating one time passwords. I already have code for creating an expiring HMAC as follows:

byte[] hashBytes = alg.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input));
byte[] result = new byte[8 + hashBytes.Length];

hashBytes.CopyTo(result, 8);
BitConverter.GetBytes(expireDate.Ticks).CopyTo(result, 0);

I'm just not sure how to go from that, to 6 digits as proposed in the above algorithms.

Answer 1

You have two issues here:

1. If you are generating alpha-numeric, you are not conforming to the RFC - at this point, you can simply take any N bytes and turn them to a hex string and get alpha-numeric. Or, convert them to base 36 if you want a-z and 0-9. Section 5.4 of the RFC is giving you the standard HOTP calc for a set Digit parameter (notice that Digit is a parameter along with C, K, and T). If you are choosing to ignore this section, then you don't need to convert the code - just use what you want.

2. Your "result" byte array has the expiration time simply stuffed in the first 8 bytes after hashing. If your truncation to 6-digit alphanumeric does not collect these along with parts of the hash, it may as well not be calculated at all. It is also very easy to "fake" or replay - hash the secret once, then put whatever ticks you want in front of it - not really a one time password. Note that parameter C in the RFC is meant to fulfill the expiring window and should be added to the input prior to computing the hash code.