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CA5388: Ensure sufficient iteration count when using weak key derivation function

  • Article
Property Value
Rule ID CA5388
Title Ensure sufficient iteration count when using weak key derivation function
Category Security
Fix is breaking or non-breaking Non-breaking
Enabled by default in .NET 8 No

Cause

Iteration count may be smaller than 100,000 when deriving cryptographic key by System.Security.Cryptography.Rfc2898DeriveBytes.GetBytes.

By default, this rule analyzes the entire codebase, but this is configurable.

Rule description

This rule checks if a cryptographic key was generated by Rfc2898DeriveBytes with an iteration count that may be less than 100,000. A higher iteration count can help mitigate against dictionary attacks that try to guess the generated cryptographic key.

This rule is similar to CA5387, but analysis can't determine if the iteration count is less than 100,000.

How to fix violations

Set the iteration count greater than or equal with 100k before calling GetBytes explicitly.

When to suppress warnings

It's safe to suppress warnings from this rule if:

  • You need to use a smaller iteration count for compatibility with existing data.
  • You're sure that the iteration count is set above 100,000.

Suppress a warning

If you just want to suppress a single violation, add preprocessor directives to your source file to disable and then re-enable the rule.

#pragma warning disable CA5388
// The code that's violating the rule is on this line.
#pragma warning restore CA5388

To disable the rule for a file, folder, or project, set its severity to none in the configuration file.

[*.{cs,vb}]
dotnet_diagnostic.CA5388.severity = none

For more information, see How to suppress code analysis warnings.

Configure code to analyze

Use the following options to configure which parts of your codebase to run this rule on.

You can configure these options for just this rule, for all rules it applies to, or for all rules in this category (Security) that it applies to. For more information, see Code quality rule configuration options.

Exclude specific symbols

You can exclude specific symbols, such as types and methods, from analysis. For example, to specify that the rule should not run on any code within types named MyType, add the following key-value pair to an .editorconfig file in your project:

dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = MyType

Allowed symbol name formats in the option value (separated by |):

  • Symbol name only (includes all symbols with the name, regardless of the containing type or namespace).
  • Fully qualified names in the symbol's documentation ID format. Each symbol name requires a symbol-kind prefix, such as M: for methods, T: for types, and N: for namespaces.
  • .ctor for constructors and .cctor for static constructors.

Examples:

Option Value Summary
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = MyType Matches all symbols named MyType.
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = MyType1|MyType2 Matches all symbols named either MyType1 or MyType2.
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = M:NS.MyType.MyMethod(ParamType) Matches specific method MyMethod with the specified fully qualified signature.
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = M:NS1.MyType1.MyMethod1(ParamType)|M:NS2.MyType2.MyMethod2(ParamType) Matches specific methods MyMethod1 and MyMethod2 with the respective fully qualified signatures.

Exclude specific types and their derived types

You can exclude specific types and their derived types from analysis. For example, to specify that the rule should not run on any methods within types named MyType and their derived types, add the following key-value pair to an .editorconfig file in your project:

dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = MyType

Allowed symbol name formats in the option value (separated by |):

  • Type name only (includes all types with the name, regardless of the containing type or namespace).
  • Fully qualified names in the symbol's documentation ID format, with an optional T: prefix.

Examples:

Option Value Summary
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = MyType Matches all types named MyType and all of their derived types.
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = MyType1|MyType2 Matches all types named either MyType1 or MyType2 and all of their derived types.
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = M:NS.MyType Matches specific type MyType with given fully qualified name and all of its derived types.
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = M:NS1.MyType1|M:NS2.MyType2 Matches specific types MyType1 and MyType2 with the respective fully qualified names, and all of their derived types.

Pseudo-code examples

Violation

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

class ExampleClass
{
    public void ExampleMethod(string password, byte[] salt, int cb)
    {
        var iterations = 100;
        Random r = new Random();

        if (r.Next(6) == 4)
        {
            iterations = 100000;
        }

        var rfc2898DeriveBytes = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(password, salt, iterations);
        rfc2898DeriveBytes.GetBytes(cb);
    }
}

Solution

using System.Security.Cryptography;

class ExampleClass
{
    public void ExampleMethod(string password, byte[] salt, int cb)
    {
        var rfc2898DeriveBytes = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(password, salt);
        rfc2898DeriveBytes.IterationCount = 100000;
        rfc2898DeriveBytes.GetBytes(cb);
    }
}