Encrypting/Decrypting large files (.NET)

Question

I have to encrypt, store and then later decrypt large files. What is the best way of doing that? I heard RSA encryption is expensive and was advised to use RSA to encrypt an AES key and then use the AES key to encrypt the large files. Any suggestions with example will be great.

Answer 1

One organism's large is another's petite, though we all know expensive when we see it. Wink, wink.

Try benchmarking something like the following in your environment and see where you're at:

EDIT 2/13/2012: The code has been updated as I've become (imperceptibly) smarter and also noticed a few cut'n'paste errors that had crept in. Mea culpa.

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

...

    // Rfc2898DeriveBytes constants:
    public readonly byte[] salt = new byte[] { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 }; // Must be at least eight bytes.  MAKE THIS SALTIER!
    public const int iterations = 1042; // Recommendation is >= 1000.

    /// <summary>Decrypt a file.</summary>
    /// <remarks>NB: "Padding is invalid and cannot be removed." is the Universal CryptoServices error.  Make sure the password, salt and iterations are correct before getting nervous.</remarks>
    /// <param name="sourceFilename">The full path and name of the file to be decrypted.</param>
    /// <param name="destinationFilename">The full path and name of the file to be output.</param>
    /// <param name="password">The password for the decryption.</param>
    /// <param name="salt">The salt to be applied to the password.</param>
    /// <param name="iterations">The number of iterations Rfc2898DeriveBytes should use before generating the key and initialization vector for the decryption.</param>
    public void DecryptFile(string sourceFilename, string destinationFilename, string password, byte[] salt, int iterations)
    {
        AesManaged aes = new AesManaged();
        aes.BlockSize = aes.LegalBlockSizes[0].MaxSize;
        aes.KeySize = aes.LegalKeySizes[0].MaxSize;
        // NB: Rfc2898DeriveBytes initialization and subsequent calls to   GetBytes   must be eactly the same, including order, on both the encryption and decryption sides.
        Rfc2898DeriveBytes key = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(password, salt, iterations);
        aes.Key = key.GetBytes(aes.KeySize / 8);
        aes.IV = key.GetBytes(aes.BlockSize / 8);
        aes.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
        ICryptoTransform transform = aes.CreateDecryptor(aes.Key, aes.IV);

        using (FileStream destination = new FileStream(destinationFilename, FileMode.CreateNew, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
        {
            using (CryptoStream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(destination, transform, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
            {
                try
                {
                    using (FileStream source = new FileStream(sourceFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
                    {
                        source.CopyTo(cryptoStream);
                    }
                }
                catch (CryptographicException exception)
                {
                    if (exception.Message == "Padding is invalid and cannot be removed.")
                        throw new ApplicationException("Universal Microsoft Cryptographic Exception (Not to be believed!)", exception);
                    else
                        throw;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    /// <summary>Encrypt a file.</summary>
    /// <param name="sourceFilename">The full path and name of the file to be encrypted.</param>
    /// <param name="destinationFilename">The full path and name of the file to be output.</param>
    /// <param name="password">The password for the encryption.</param>
    /// <param name="salt">The salt to be applied to the password.</param>
    /// <param name="iterations">The number of iterations Rfc2898DeriveBytes should use before generating the key and initialization vector for the decryption.</param>
    public void EncryptFile(string sourceFilename, string destinationFilename, string password, byte[] salt, int iterations)
    {
        AesManaged aes = new AesManaged();
        aes.BlockSize = aes.LegalBlockSizes[0].MaxSize;
        aes.KeySize = aes.LegalKeySizes[0].MaxSize;
        // NB: Rfc2898DeriveBytes initialization and subsequent calls to   GetBytes   must be eactly the same, including order, on both the encryption and decryption sides.
        Rfc2898DeriveBytes key = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(password, salt, iterations);
        aes.Key = key.GetBytes(aes.KeySize / 8);
        aes.IV = key.GetBytes(aes.BlockSize / 8);
        aes.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
        ICryptoTransform transform = aes.CreateEncryptor(aes.Key, aes.IV);

        using (FileStream destination = new FileStream(destinationFilename, FileMode.CreateNew, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
        {
            using (CryptoStream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(destination, transform, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
            {
                using (FileStream source = new FileStream(sourceFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
                {
                    source.CopyTo(cryptoStream);
                }
            }
        }
    }