Exploring the Features of C# 11: The Modern Capabilities of a Vibrant Language [Webinar]
C# has evolved long since its introduction about 20 years ago. In this live-coding presentation, learn about the fascinating features of the most recent version of the language. We will explore the most interesting features, their power, and how we can benefit from them to create concise, expressive, and maintainable code. 

A new take on the age-old question: Should you rewrite your application from scratch, or is that “the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make”? Turns out there are more than two options for dealing with a mature codebase. 

In this post, I will describe how to port a desktop application from .NET Framework to .NET Core. I picked a WinForms application as an example. Steps for WPF application are similar and I’ll describe what needs to be done different for WPF as we go. I will also show how you can keep using the WinForms designer in Visual Studio even though it is under development and is not yet available for .NET Core projects. 

The main change in this release is a security fix, and it’s possible you will need to change your own code to adapt. Here’s why: jQuery used a regex in its jQuery.htmlPrefilter method to ensure that all closing tags were XHTML-compliant when passed to methods. For example, this prefilter ensured that a call like jQuery("<div class='hot' />") is actually converted to jQuery("<div class='hot'></div>"). Recently, an issue was reported that demonstrated the regex could introduce a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. 

/* 
 * Password Hashing With PBKDF2 (http://crackstation.net/hashing-security.htm).
 * Copyright (c) 2013, Taylor Hornby
 * All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
 *
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, 
 * this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 *
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
 * this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation 
 * and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" 
 * AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 
 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 
 * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE 
 * LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR 
 * CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF 
 * SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS 
 * INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN 
 * CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) 
 * ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 
 * POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 */

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace PasswordHash
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Salted password hashing with PBKDF2-SHA1.
    /// Author: havoc AT defuse.ca
    /// www: http://crackstation.net/hashing-security.htm
    /// Compatibility: .NET 3.0 and later.
    /// </summary>
    public class PasswordHash
    {
        // The following constants may be changed without breaking existing hashes.
        public const int SALT_BYTE_SIZE = 24;
        public const int HASH_BYTE_SIZE = 24;
        public const int PBKDF2_ITERATIONS = 1000;

        public const int ITERATION_INDEX = 0;
        public const int SALT_INDEX = 1;
        public const int PBKDF2_INDEX = 2;

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates a salted PBKDF2 hash of the password.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="password">The password to hash.</param>
        /// <returns>The hash of the password.</returns>
        public static string CreateHash(string password)
        {
            // Generate a random salt
            RNGCryptoServiceProvider csprng = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider();
            byte[] salt = new byte[SALT_BYTE_SIZE];
            csprng.GetBytes(salt);

            // Hash the password and encode the parameters
            byte[] hash = PBKDF2(password, salt, PBKDF2_ITERATIONS, HASH_BYTE_SIZE);
            return PBKDF2_ITERATIONS + ":" +
                Convert.ToBase64String(salt) + ":" +
                Convert.ToBase64String(hash);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Validates a password given a hash of the correct one.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="password">The password to check.</param>
        /// <param name="correctHash">A hash of the correct password.</param>
        /// <returns>True if the password is correct. False otherwise.</returns>
        public static bool ValidatePassword(string password, string correctHash)
        {
            // Extract the parameters from the hash
            char[] delimiter = { ':' };
            string[] split = correctHash.Split(delimiter);
            int iterations = Int32.Parse(split[ITERATION_INDEX]);
            byte[] salt = Convert.FromBase64String(split[SALT_INDEX]);
            byte[] hash = Convert.FromBase64String(split[PBKDF2_INDEX]);

            byte[] testHash = PBKDF2(password, salt, iterations, hash.Length);
            return SlowEquals(hash, testHash);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Compares two byte arrays in length-constant time. This comparison
        /// method is used so that password hashes cannot be extracted from
        /// on-line systems using a timing attack and then attacked off-line.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="a">The first byte array.</param>
        /// <param name="b">The second byte array.</param>
        /// <returns>True if both byte arrays are equal. False otherwise.</returns>
        private static bool SlowEquals(byte[] a, byte[] b)
        {
            uint diff = (uint)a.Length ^ (uint)b.Length;
            for (int i = 0; i < a.Length && i < b.Length; i++)
                diff |= (uint)(a[i] ^ b[i]);
            return diff == 0;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Computes the PBKDF2-SHA1 hash of a password.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="password">The password to hash.</param>
        /// <param name="salt">The salt.</param>
        /// <param name="iterations">The PBKDF2 iteration count.</param>
        /// <param name="outputBytes">The length of the hash to generate, in bytes.</param>
        /// <returns>A hash of the password.</returns>
        private static byte[] PBKDF2(string password, byte[] salt, int iterations, int outputBytes)
        {
            Rfc2898DeriveBytes pbkdf2 = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(password, salt);
            pbkdf2.IterationCount = iterations;
            return pbkdf2.GetBytes(outputBytes);
        }
    }
}

There has never been a better time to be a .NET developer, you can now build Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, and Windows applications with .NET all in Open Source. In this session we will run through some of the new innovations including the .NET Framework updates, .NET Standard, Universal Windows Platform updates, .NET Core, managed languages and more. We will also review the updates to Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code to make you a better developer, come see some of the latest productivity features in these tools including managing code style, searching your source and more.
 

I think you might want to be a software developer for a long time, in the same way that some people are musicians for a long time, or artists for a long time, or roofers for a long time. If not, you can hit “back” in your browser. It’s cool, no harm no foul. But I think maybe you would like to be a twenty-year programmer, or forty-year, or more. 

NDepend reports that there are an additional 141,111 IL instructions. This represents 11.3% of the overall code base. 

Today, we’re releasing .NET 5.0 Preview 2. It contains a set of smaller features and performance improvements. We’re continuing to work on the bigger features that will define the 5.0 release, some of which are starting to show up as initial designs at dotnet/designs.