Hmac For Mac
Start quickly with the most recent versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and OneDrive —combining the familiarity of Office and the unique Mac features you love. Work online or offline, on your own or with others in real time—whatever works for what you’re doing. HMAC is a keyed-hash type of message authentication code (MAC), involving a hash function and a secret key. It can simultaneously provide the data integrity and the authentication of a message. According to the different underlying hash functions MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, etc., the algorithm is termed HMAC-MD5, HMAC-SHA1, HMAC-SHA256, etc.
HMACs and MACs are authentication codes and are often the backbone of JWT authentication systems. Let’s take a look at how they work.
Download Trans Mac For Mac
MAC – Message Authentication Code
MACs are exactly what they sound like; small codes that allow receivers of messages to know who the sender was (authentication). A MAC code is calculated by using a message and a secret key as inputs. Anyone who has a copy of that secret key can then verify that that code and message were created by someone with the same key.
One way this is accomplished is by using a hash function, for instance, SHA-256. Simply put, a hash function takes an input and then returns an output, where:
- The output is very unlikely to be the same for different inputs
- The output is always the same for the same inputs
- The output is not predictable – changing the input even slightly results in a seemingly random and large change to the output
Given this, a naive example of MAC generation by the sender could be:
Hmac Mac Difference
Then the verification by the receiver would be:
Note that MACs don’t necessarily need to use a hash function, but a hash can be used as the “signing” mechanism.
HMAC – Hash-Based Message Authentication Code
An HMAC is a kind of MAC. All HMACs are MACs but not all MACs are HMACs. The main difference is that an HMAC uses two rounds of hashing instead of one (or none). Each round of hashing uses a section of the secret key. As a naive example:
Which is a simplified version of the function given in RFC-2104.
Why use HMAC? Why do we need to hash twice?
With many hash functions, it is possible to change the message (without knowing the key) and obtain another valid MAC. We call this a length extension attack. No known extension attacks are known against the current HMAC specification.
HMACs with JWTs
If you’ve ever implemented JWTs for authentication schemes within a web app, then you know that JWTs are wonderful for keeping track of who is who. A JWT (when using HMAC as the signing scheme) is basically just an HMAC message where the message data is a JSON object.
The interesting thing about the JWT system is that the sender and the receiver of the JWT are typically the same entity, that is, the webserver. Look at the following example:
- User gives the server an username and password
- Server verifies the username and password are correct
- Server generates a JWT using HMAC:
- The server responds with the following (decoded) JWT:
- User decides to update his/her profile picture by sending the following request:
- The server parses the JWT. The JWT says the user is “lane@qvault.io”
- The server verifies that the user really is Lane by validating the HMAC code. Only someone with access to the secret key ‘thisIsASecretKey1234’ could have made the HMAC code that corresponds to the ‘lane@qvault.io’ message
- If verification is successful, then the server updates Lane’s profile picture
If you feel that I missed anything important, or have any questions, feel free to contact me!
Thanks For Reading!
Follow us on Twitter @q_vault if you have any questions or comments
Take some coding courses on our new platform
Subscribe to our Newsletter for more programming articles
Related Articles
Parking for H·MAC events is available via metered street parking (free after 7:00 PM M‑Sat, all day Sunday) along 3rd St. Parking on side streets is free anytime after 5:00 PM.
There is also free parking available at the Broad St. Market, which is 1-1/2 blocks north of H·MAC, at 3rd and Verbeke Sts.
Capitol Room events will feature attendants and flaggers indicating available parking for H·MAC patrons.
H·MAC is located at 1110 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg, PA 17102, at the corner of 3rd and Herr Sts., in Midtown Harrisburg.
From I-81 (coming from either the North or South): Take the Front St. South exit (Exit 66), toward downtown Harrisburg. Travel south on Front St. for 3.5 miles. Turn left onto Herr St. Travel 4 block east on Herr St. H·MAC is located 1/2 block north of the intersection of 3rd and Herr Sts.
From I-83 (coming from either the North or South): Take the 2nd St. exit (Exit 43), toward downtown Harrisburg. Travel approximately 1.5 miles north on 2nd St. Turn right onto Forster St., then turn left onto 3rd St. Travel 3 blocks north on 3rd St. H·MAC is located 1/2 block north of the intersection of 3rd and Herr Sts.
From the PA Turnpike (East): Take the Harrisburg East exit (Exit 247). Merge onto I‑283 West. Travel 2.5 miles west on I-283, taking exit 3A for I‑83 South (toward Harrisburg). Travel 5 miles on I-83 south. Take the 2nd St. exit (Exit 43), toward downtown Harrisburg. Travel approximately 1.5 miles north on 2nd St. Turn right onto Forster St., then turn left onto 3rd St. Travel 3 blocks north on 3rd St. H·MAC is located 1/2 block north of the intersection of 3rd and Herr Sts.
From the PA Turnpike (West): Take the Harrisburg West exit (Exit 242). Merge onto I‑83 North. Travel 6 miles north on I-83. Take the 2nd St. exit (Exit 43), toward downtown Harrisburg. Travel approximately 1.5 miles north on 2nd St. Turn right onto Forster St., then turn left onto 3rd St. Travel 3 blocks north on 3rd St. H·MAC is located 1/2 block north of the intersection of 3rd and Herr Sts.