.NET Core now uses the cryptography API for the following operating systems:
- Apple Security Framework on macOS
- OpenSSL on Linux
- Cryptography API: Next Generation (CNG) on Windows
There are two kinds of mechanisms for securing data: hashing and encrypting.
Hashing is a one-way mechanism, and there is no way to return hashed data to its original state.
On the other hand, encryption is a two-way mechanism, and you can return encrypted data to its original state through decryption.
There are a lot of algorithms you can use with ASP.NET Core, such as Hash, SHA256, SHA512, AES, RSA, MD5, and so on. For more information, visit: https://www.nuget.org/packages/System.Security.Cryptography.Algorithms/.
Note
An example project can be found at: https://github.com/polatengin/B05277/tree/master/Chapter17/4-HashingData.
There is nothing special to get ready for hashing in ASP.NET Core. Just create an empty project and some NuGet packages; that's it.