SauceControl.Blake2Fast 2.0.0

Optimized implementations of the BLAKE2b and BLAKE2s cryptographic hashing algorithms. Uses SSE2-SSE4.1 Hardware Intrinsics support on .NET Core 2.1+ and AVX2 on .NET Core 3+

Install-Package SauceControl.Blake2Fast -Version 2.0.0
dotnet add package SauceControl.Blake2Fast --version 2.0.0
<PackageReference Include="SauceControl.Blake2Fast" Version="2.0.0" />
For projects that support PackageReference, copy this XML node into the project file to reference the package. 
paket add SauceControl.Blake2Fast --version 2.0.0
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These RFC 7693-compliant BLAKE2 implementations have been tuned for high speed and low memory usage. The .NET Core builds use the new x86 SIMD Intrinsics for even greater speed. Span{byte} is used throughout for lower memory overhead compared to byte[] based APIs.

On .NET Core 2.1+, Blake2Fast includes SSE4.1 SIMD-accelerated implementations of both BLAKE2b and BLAKE2s.

On .NET Core 3+, a faster AVX2 implementation of BLAKE2b is included in addition to the SSE4.1 implementation.

Usage

All-at-Once Hashing

The simplest and lightest-weight way to calculate a hash is the all-at-once ComputeHash method.

var hash = Blake2b.ComputeHash(data);

BLAKE2 supports variable digest lengths from 1 to 32 bytes for BLAKE2s or 1 to 64 bytes for BLAKE2b.

var hash = Blake2b.ComputeHash(42, data);

BLAKE2 also natively supports keyed hashing.

var hash = Blake2b.ComputeHash(key, data);

Incremental Hashing

BLAKE2 hashes can be incrementally updated if you do not have the data available all at once.

async Task<byte[]> ComputeHashAsync(Stream data)
{
    var hasher = Blake2b.CreateIncrementalHasher();
    var buffer = ArrayPool<byte>.Shared.Rent(4096);

    int bytesRead;
    while ((bytesRead = await data.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
        hasher.Update(new Span<byte>(buffer, 0, bytesRead));

    ArrayPool<byte>.Shared.Return(buffer);
    return hasher.Finish();
}

Allocation-Free Hashing

The output hash digest can be written to an existing buffer to avoid allocating a new array each time.

Span<byte> buffer = stackalloc byte[Blake2b.DefaultDigestLength];
Blake2b.ComputeAndWriteHash(data, buffer);

This is especially useful when performing an iterative hash, as might be used in a key derivation function.

byte[] DeriveBytes(string password, ReadOnlySpan<byte> salt)
{
    // Create key from password, then hash the salt using the key
    var pwkey = Blake2b.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(password));
    var hbuff = Blake2b.ComputeHash(pwkey, salt);

    // Hash the hash lots of times, re-using the same buffer
    for (int i = 0; i < 999_999; i++)
        Blake2b.ComputeAndWriteHash(pwkey, hbuff, hbuff);

    return hbuff;
}

System.Security.Cryptography Interop

For interoperating with code that uses System.Security.Cryptography primitives, Blake2Fast can create a HashAlgorithm wrapper. The wrapper inherits from HMAC in case keyed hashing is required.

HashAlgorithm is less efficient than the above methods, so use it only when necessary for compatibility.

byte[] WriteDataAndCalculateHash(byte[] data, string outFile)
{
    using (var hashAlg = Blake2b.CreateHashAlgorithm())
    using (var fileStream = new FileStream(outFile, FileMode.Create))
    using (var cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(fileStream, hashAlg, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
    {
        cryptoStream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
        cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();
        return hashAlg.Hash;
    }
}

These RFC 7693-compliant BLAKE2 implementations have been tuned for high speed and low memory usage. The .NET Core builds use the new x86 SIMD Intrinsics for even greater speed. Span{byte} is used throughout for lower memory overhead compared to byte[] based APIs.

On .NET Core 2.1+, Blake2Fast includes SSE4.1 SIMD-accelerated implementations of both BLAKE2b and BLAKE2s.

On .NET Core 3+, a faster AVX2 implementation of BLAKE2b is included in addition to the SSE4.1 implementation.

Usage

All-at-Once Hashing

The simplest and lightest-weight way to calculate a hash is the all-at-once ComputeHash method.

var hash = Blake2b.ComputeHash(data);

BLAKE2 supports variable digest lengths from 1 to 32 bytes for BLAKE2s or 1 to 64 bytes for BLAKE2b.

var hash = Blake2b.ComputeHash(42, data);

BLAKE2 also natively supports keyed hashing.

var hash = Blake2b.ComputeHash(key, data);

Incremental Hashing

BLAKE2 hashes can be incrementally updated if you do not have the data available all at once.

async Task<byte[]> ComputeHashAsync(Stream data)
{
    var hasher = Blake2b.CreateIncrementalHasher();
    var buffer = ArrayPool<byte>.Shared.Rent(4096);

    int bytesRead;
    while ((bytesRead = await data.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
        hasher.Update(new Span<byte>(buffer, 0, bytesRead));

    ArrayPool<byte>.Shared.Return(buffer);
    return hasher.Finish();
}

Allocation-Free Hashing

The output hash digest can be written to an existing buffer to avoid allocating a new array each time.

Span<byte> buffer = stackalloc byte[Blake2b.DefaultDigestLength];
Blake2b.ComputeAndWriteHash(data, buffer);

This is especially useful when performing an iterative hash, as might be used in a key derivation function.

byte[] DeriveBytes(string password, ReadOnlySpan<byte> salt)
{
    // Create key from password, then hash the salt using the key
    var pwkey = Blake2b.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(password));
    var hbuff = Blake2b.ComputeHash(pwkey, salt);

    // Hash the hash lots of times, re-using the same buffer
    for (int i = 0; i < 999_999; i++)
        Blake2b.ComputeAndWriteHash(pwkey, hbuff, hbuff);

    return hbuff;
}

System.Security.Cryptography Interop

For interoperating with code that uses System.Security.Cryptography primitives, Blake2Fast can create a HashAlgorithm wrapper. The wrapper inherits from HMAC in case keyed hashing is required.

HashAlgorithm is less efficient than the above methods, so use it only when necessary for compatibility.

byte[] WriteDataAndCalculateHash(byte[] data, string outFile)
{
    using (var hashAlg = Blake2b.CreateHashAlgorithm())
    using (var fileStream = new FileStream(outFile, FileMode.Create))
    using (var cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(fileStream, hashAlg, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
    {
        cryptoStream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
        cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();
        return hashAlg.Hash;
    }
}

Release Notes

See https://github.com/saucecontrol/Blake2Fast/releases for release-specific notes.

NuGet packages

This package is not used by any NuGet packages.

GitHub repositories

This package is not used by any popular GitHub repositories.

Version History

Version Downloads Last updated
2.0.0 2,589 6/13/2020
1.0.0 9,691 7/26/2019
0.2.0 6,334 6/18/2018
0.1.0 423 6/15/2018