Generating hash with Argon2 on Botan results in garbage data and 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x0000000100000000

Question

I'm trying to hash passwords using the C++ cryptography library Botan. I've tried testing out the library using the code below:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <botan/argon2.h>
#include <botan/system_rng.h>

int main() {
    Botan::System_RNG rng;
    std::string password = "cool_password";

    std::string generated_hash = Botan::argon2_generate_pwhash(password.c_str(), 
    password.length(), rng, 1, 4000, 1); // crash occurs here

    std::cout << generated_hash << "\n";
}

but the code either printed garbage data, or gave me a runtime error: Unhandled exception at 0x00007FFEF11825E0 (ucrtbased.dll) in app.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x0000000100000000.

What should I do? Using other hashing methods such as Botan::generate_bcrypt() also resulted in the same error.

Was everything built with the exactly the same tool-chain and version ? — Richard Critten
Yup, built everything with nmake following the tutorial on botan.randombit.net/handbook/building.html#on-windows — emredesu
If you compile your own program with -fsanitize=address you may get more info about where it crashes. — Ted Lyngmo
I just downloaded, compiled and installed botan and then compiled your program (with -fsanitize=address and more) - no problem. It prints lines like $argon2id$v=19$m=4000,t=1,p=1$OAeT30yqV111xsvTjN43Rg$k5uwQIc2mNREuXRCTVZ4VuWdEbR4dumvDfHCkm0Bl2s every time I run it. — Ted Lyngmo
Must be a problem with my build then. I'll try re-building it, thank you very much for the effort! — emredesu

emredesu emredesu · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-08T18:14:53

After 4 hours of painful troubleshooting and rebuilding the library with different compilers over and over, I have found out that Botan does not work properly if "solution configuration" is not set to "Release" rather than "Debug" in Visual Studio.

Generating hash with Argon2 on Botan results in garbage data and 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x0000000100000000

1 Answers