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GenerateDerivedKey
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GenerateDerivedKey

[Experimental]

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GenerateDerivedKey[password]

generates a DerivedKey object from the password given.

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GenerateDerivedKey[password,salt]

generates a DerivedKey object from the password and salt given.

Details and Options

  • GenerateDerivedKey uses a computation-intensive key derivation function to generate a cryptographically strong key hash.
  • password and salt can be strings, lists of integers representing byte values or ByteArray objects.
  • GenerateDerivedKey[password] is equivalent to GenerateDerivedKey[password,Automatic]. If salt is not provided, it is randomly generated.
  • GenerateDerivedKey takes a Method option, which uses an Association to specify a key derivation function and parameters.
  • Typical settings for Method include:
  • "Function"key derivation function
    "FunctionParameters"key derivation function parameters
  • Supported key derivation functions are: "scrypt", "Argon2d", "Argon2i", "Argon2id".
  • Function parameters for the "scrypt" key derivation function are an Association, which includes:
  • "KeySize"64desired key length in bytes
    "N"2^15computational cost factor
    "r"8block size factor
    "p"1parallelization factor
  • The value of "N" must be an integer power of 2 greater than 1.
  • Function parameters for the "Argon2x" key derivation functions are an Association, which includes:
  • "KeySize"64desired key length in bytes
    "t"2number of iterations
    "m"2^16memory size to use in kibibytes
    "p"1parallelization factor
  • The value of "m" must be an integer power of 2.
  • To generate a cryptographically secure key, parameters of the key derivation function are usually adjusted for the computation on a specific computer to take just below a fraction of a second.

Examples

open allclose all

Basic Examples  (2)Summary of the most common use cases

Generate a derived key:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-dn2wty
Out[1]=1

Generate a derived key using password and salt:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-gcc335
Out[1]=1

Scope  (8)Survey of the scope of standard use cases

Generate a derived key using a list of integers as a password:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-1qf5z
Out[1]=1

Generate a derived key using ByteArray as a password:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-bbcxm6
Out[1]=1

Generate a derived key using a list of integers as a salt:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-ehspm
Out[1]=1

Customize the parameters for the default "scrypt" method:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-jlkct
Out[1]=1

Use an alternate key derivation function to generate a derived key:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-hufcui
Out[1]=1

Specify a key derivation function and parameters:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-kqqkyg
Out[1]=1

Generate string representation of DerivedKey:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-jmssba
Out[1]=1

Reconstruct the key from its string representation using DerivedKey:

In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-r0qv4v
Out[2]=2

The new key is identical to the original:

In[3]:=3
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-6msudi
Out[3]=3

Generate a ByteArray from the password:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-bv3v76
Out[1]=1

Options  (2)Common values & functionality for each option

Method  (2)

If only the key "FunctionParameters" is specified, it customizes the default method "scrypt":

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-ilj09t
Out[1]=1

Use the alternate key derivation function "Argon2id" with default parameters:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-syp1y0
Out[1]=1

Specify the parameters as well:

In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-rv4v1y
Out[2]=2

Applications  (3)Sample problems that can be solved with this function

Generate cryptographically strong password hash from a simple password string:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-h99im4
Out[1]=1

Verify the password:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-eo6mcw
Out[1]=1
In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-gtahr2
Out[2]=2

Verify the password using derived key in the string representation:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-gk9kla
Out[1]=1
In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-ku06mz
Out[2]=2

Properties & Relations  (3)Properties of the function, and connections to other functions

DerivedKey is generated deterministically from the given the same password and salt:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-ga4wdg
Out[1]=1

This also applies to generating keys from their string representation:

In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-5kxnk
Out[3]=3

Computation time increases linearly with "r" in "scrypt":

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-cgpaqg
Out[1]=1

It increases linearly in "p" as well:

In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-fxeg4o
Out[2]=2

Generate SymmetricKey from DerivedKey:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-h6fhib
Out[1]=1
In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-ch5sqz
Out[2]=2

Possible Issues  (4)Common pitfalls and unexpected behavior

For certain parameters, generation of derived key may take significant time:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-h016lc
Out[1]=1
In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-cnnaw
Out[2]=2

Parameters of key derivation function must be machine-size integers:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-ks4kj
Out[1]=1

Some key derivation functions have restrictions on password and salt sizes:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-c4r6cf
Out[1]=1
In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-cyijcs
Out[2]=2

When creating a symmetric key, random data taken from a derived key may be truncated to fit the new key size:

In[1]:=1
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-jvg97t
Out[1]=1
In[2]:=2
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-fzxr7u
Out[2]=2
In[3]:=3
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-fnwue3
Out[3]=3
Out[3]=3

In order to generate a derived key of the desired size, the key size must be specified explicitly:

In[4]:=4
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https://wolfram.com/xid/0tqhjc7gjje4ib-b64ovn
Out[4]=4
Wolfram Research (2019), GenerateDerivedKey, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html (updated 2020).
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Wolfram Research (2019), GenerateDerivedKey, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html (updated 2020).

Text

Wolfram Research (2019), GenerateDerivedKey, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html (updated 2020).

✖
Wolfram Research (2019), GenerateDerivedKey, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html (updated 2020).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2019. "GenerateDerivedKey." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2020. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html.

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Wolfram Language. 2019. "GenerateDerivedKey." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2020. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2019). GenerateDerivedKey. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html

✖
Wolfram Language. (2019). GenerateDerivedKey. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_generatederivedkey, author="Wolfram Research", title="{GenerateDerivedKey}", year="2020", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html}", note=[Accessed: 08-July-2025 ]}

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@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_generatederivedkey, author="Wolfram Research", title="{GenerateDerivedKey}", year="2020", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html}", note=[Accessed: 08-July-2025 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_generatederivedkey, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={GenerateDerivedKey}, year={2020}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html}, note=[Accessed: 08-July-2025 ]}

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@online{reference.wolfram_2025_generatederivedkey, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={GenerateDerivedKey}, year={2020}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GenerateDerivedKey.html}, note=[Accessed: 08-July-2025 ]}