xcode ios HMAC SHA 256 hashing - ios

Question

So I'm trying to figure out how to do a hmacshad256 hash on ios as that's the hash I did for the wcf service api I made. I've been trying to look for some info about it but would usually just end up getting a SHA-256 hash.
This is the only reference I have:
Need to generate HMAC SHA256 hash in Objective C as in Java
And I'm not sure if that's the only way to do it (importing a java hmac class)
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!

Answer 1

NSString * parameters = #"string to hash"
NSString *salt = #"saltStringHere";
NSData *saltData = [salt dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSData *paramData = [parameters dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSMutableData* hash = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH ];
CCHmac(kCCHmacAlgSHA256, saltData.bytes, saltData.length, paramData.bytes, paramData.length, hash.mutableBytes);
NSString *base64Hash = [hash base64Encoding];
and also
#import <CommonCrypto/CommonHMAC.h>
Since base64Encoding is deprecated from iOS 7.0, the last line should be:
NSString *base64Hash = [hash base64EncodedStringWithOptions:0];

Answer 2

Here is the solution I'm submitting that I put together from other answers on the matter:
This is easily adapted to other hash types by changing CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH and kCCHmacAlgSHA256.
If you're interested in doing that, check out the CommonDigest.h file within the CommonCrypto library.
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <CommonCrypto/CommonCrypto.h>
+ (NSString *)hmac:(NSString *)plaintext withKey:(NSString *)key
{
const char *cKey = [key cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
const char *cData = [plaintext cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
unsigned char cHMAC[CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
CCHmac(kCCHmacAlgSHA256, cKey, strlen(cKey), cData, strlen(cData), cHMAC);
NSData *HMACData = [NSData dataWithBytes:cHMAC length:sizeof(cHMAC)];
const unsigned char *buffer = (const unsigned char *)[HMACData bytes];
NSMutableString *HMAC = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:HMACData.length * 2];
for (int i = 0; i < HMACData.length; ++i){
[HMAC appendFormat:#"%02x", buffer[i]];
}
return HMAC;
}
This has been tested on iOS 8.x and iOS 7.x

Answer 3

+ (NSString *)hmacSHA256EncryptString{
NSString * parameterSecret = #"input secret key";
NSString *plainString = #"input encrypt content string";
const char *secretKey = [parameterSecret cStringUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
const char *plainData = [plainString cStringUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
unsigned char cHMAC[CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
CCHmac(kCCHmacAlgSHA256, secretKey, strlen(secretKey), plainData, strlen(plainData), cHMAC);
NSData *HMACData = [NSData dataWithBytes:cHMAC length:sizeof(cHMAC)];
const unsigned char *bufferChar = (const unsigned char *)[HMACData bytes];
NSMutableString *hmacString = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:HMACData.length * 2];
for (int i = 0; i < HMACData.length; ++i){
[hmacString appendFormat:#"%02x", bufferChar[i]];
}
return hmacString;
}