Nodejs crypto in typescript file

Question

I have created my own hash.js file that requires crypto and exports two functions that use crypto. It works fine in my api.js file when I hash passwords. However Now I am trying to import this file in my user.service.ts file so that I can send the hashed version of the password as a query parameter instead of the password itself. When I try to do so I always get a TypeScript error telling me that the functions crypto uses are not functions. However I can still console log the object I import and it looks legit to me. I looked at other java script files in the node_modules folder and I cannot see anything that should be wrong with my file.

I have also found out that there seems to be some definition file that I need to create but I have also had many attempts at creating such a file but nothing seems to work

A few hours of googling and the lack of knowledge amongst lack of time on this project led me to this post, it is my first stackoverflow post and I hope that it is not to unclear and I am glad to provide any information needed to help me resolve this issue.

Error code from console

LoginComponent.html:18 ERROR TypeError: crypto.randomBytes is not a function
at Object.genRandomString (hash.js:12)
at UserService.loginUser (user.service.ts:82)
at LoginComponent.getUser (login.component.ts:54)
at LoginComponent.onSubmit (login.component.ts:44)
at Object.eval [as handleEvent] (LoginComponent.html:18)
at handleEvent (core.es5.js:12014)
at callWithDebugContext (core.es5.js:13475)
at Object.debugHandleEvent [as handleEvent] (core.es5.js:13063)
at dispatchEvent (core.es5.js:8607)
at core.es5.js:10775

LoginComponent.html:18 ERROR CONTEXT DebugContext_ {view: {…}, nodeIndex: 31, nodeDef: {…}, elDef: {…}, elView: {…}}

the hash.js file

   'use strict';
    var crypto = require('crypto');

    /**
     * generates random string of characters i.e salt
     * @function
     * @param {number} length - Length of the random string.
     */
    function genRandomString (length){
        return crypto.randomBytes(Math.ceil(length/2))
                .toString('hex') /** convert to hexadecimal format */
                .slice(0,length);   /** return required number of characters */
    };

    /**
     * hash password with sha512.
     * @function
     * @param {string} password - List of required fields.
     * @param {string} salt - Data to be validated.
     */
    function sha512(password, salt){
        var hash = crypto.createHmac('sha512', salt); /** Hashing algorithm sha512 */
        hash.update(password);
        var value = hash.digest('hex');
        return {
            salt:salt,
            passwordHash:value
        };
    };

    module.exports = {
        genRandomString: genRandomString,
        sha512: sha512
    };

Answer 1

There seems to be some confusion mixing JavaScript and TypeScript, but since I came across this issue myself, here is how I solved it.

First, your hash.js file should be hash.ts. Then you can import crypto and use it normally. Related code below:

import * as crypto from "crypto";

  public setEncryptionKeyDES(sKey: string) {
    const desIV = Buffer.alloc(8);
    this.encLobby.cipher = crypto.createCipheriv(
      "des-cbc",
      Buffer.from(sKey, "hex"),
      desIV,
    );
    this.encLobby.cipher.setAutoPadding(false);
    this.encLobby.decipher = crypto.createDecipheriv(
      "des-cbc",
      Buffer.from(sKey, "hex"),
      desIV,
    );
    this.encLobby.decipher.setAutoPadding(false);

    this.isSetupComplete = true;
  }

Edit1: Adding @attdona's answer from below, make sure you install @types/node into your project as well, or you will receive many errors related to node modules not being found.

Answer 2

Just hitted this issue (node v13.12.0, tsc v3.8.3). In my case the import:

import * as crypto from "crypto";

gives the error:

error TS2307: Cannot find module 'crypto'

because I have to install types definition for node: it includes crypto ambient declarations.

npm install @types/node

Note: If you have a global install of @types/node then you have to explicitly declare the path where @types are located with --typesRoot option. See here for details.