jstedfast/MailKit · error · InvalidOperationException
No hash value computed.
Error message
No hash value computed.
What it means
MD4.Hash throws InvalidOperationException('No hash value computed.') when the Hash property is read before any data has been hashed, because hashValue is still null. MailKit's NTLM MD4 lazily stores the digest only after ComputeHash/TransformFinalBlock completes.
Solutions
- Call ComputeHash(...) (or TransformFinalBlock) before reading Hash
- For incremental hashing, always finish with TransformFinalBlock
- Check hashValue availability or wrap Hash access in try-catch for InvalidOperationException
Example fix
// before var md4 = new MD4 (); md4.TransformBlock (data, 0, data.Length, null, 0); byte[] h = md4.Hash; // InvalidOperationException // after var md4 = new MD4 (); md4.TransformBlock (data, 0, data.Length, null, 0); md4.TransformFinalBlock (Array.Empty<byte> (), 0, 0); byte[] h = md4.Hash;
Defensive patterns
Strategy: try-catch
Validate before calling
// only read Hash after a hash operation completed: // md4.ComputeHash(data) or md4.TransformFinalBlock(...) must have been called
Type guard
static bool HasDigest (Func<byte[]?> hashAccessor) => hashAccessor () != null;
Try / catch
byte[] digest;
try {
digest = md4.Hash;
} catch (InvalidOperationException) {
digest = md4.ComputeHash (Array.Empty<byte> ());
} Prevention
- Always call TransformFinalBlock after TransformBlock calls
- Read Hash only inside a completed using scope
- Prefer the one-shot ComputeHash over incremental APIs when data fits in memory
When it happens
Trigger: Accessing md4.Hash immediately after construction, or after TransformBlock-only usage where TransformFinalBlock was never called.
Common situations: Debug/inspection code reading Hash mid-pipeline; incremental hashing that forgot the final TransformFinalBlock call; error paths that abandon hashing then read Hash.
Understand the failure class
Background: "Invalid state transition" errors: "status must be X, actually Y", "already rejected/charging/uninstalled", "cannot ... while running" — what they mean when a library rejects your call — this error's family across 31 libraries.
Related errors
AI-assisted analysis of jstedfast/MailKit@9d3859a785 (2026-09-15).
Data as JSON: /api/errors/3d3dfc65e0bdfe78.
Report an issue: GitHub.
Appendix: source
Thrown at MailKit/Security/Ntlm/MD4.cs:79
state = new uint[4];
count = new uint[2];
// temporary buffer in MD4Transform that we don't want to allocate on each iteration
x = new uint[16];
// the initialize our context
Initialize ();
}
~MD4 ()
{
Dispose (false);
}
public byte[] Hash {
get {
if (hashValue == null)
throw new InvalidOperationException ("No hash value computed.");
return hashValue;
}
}
void HashCore (byte[] block, int offset, int size)
{
// Compute number of bytes mod 64
int index = (int) ((count[0] >> 3) & 0x3F);
// Update number of bits
count[0] += (uint) (size << 3);
if (count[0] < (size << 3))
count[1]++;
count[1] += (uint) (size >> 29);
int partLen = 64 - index;View on GitHub (pinned to 9d3859a785)