Lesson 5: ethers.js Simple Storage: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'toHexString')

[BentCrypto]

Hello

I am currently on: Better Private key management: LINK
I read all the other threads and I can't seem to find an answer to my error anywhere.
Please help me troubleshoot.

It seems like the error is from reading the .encryptedKey.json file.
I am working with hardhat local blockchain in Visual studio code WSL Ubuntu.

From what I understand the problem is with this line:

  const encryptedJson = fs.readFileSync("./.encryptedKey.json", "utf8");
  let wallet = new ethers.Wallet.fromEncryptedJsonSync(
    encryptedJson,
    process.env.PRIVATE_KEY__PASSWORD
  );

The whole code:

async function main() {
  const provider = new ethers.providers.JsonRpcProvider(process.env.RPC_URL);
  const encryptedJson = fs.readFileSync("./.encryptedKey.json", "utf8");
  let wallet = new ethers.Wallet.fromEncryptedJsonSync(
    encryptedJson,
    process.env.PRIVATE_KEY__PASSWORD
  );
  wallet = await wallet.connect(provider);
  const abi = fs.readFileSync("./SimpleStorage_sol_SimpleStorage.abi", "utf8");
  const binary = fs.readFileSync(
    "./SimpleStorage_sol_SimpleStorage.bin",
    "utf8"
  );

The error:

root@LAPTOP-93FC9UGE:~/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc# PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD=password node deploy.js 
TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'toHexString')
    at isHexable (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/node_modules/@ethersproject/bytes/lib/index.js:9:21)
    at arrayify (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/node_modules/@ethersproject/bytes/lib/index.js:69:9)
    at getPassword (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/node_modules/@ethersproject/json-wallets/lib/utils.js:25:33)
    at _computeKdfKey (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/node_modules/@ethersproject/json-wallets/lib/keystore.js:160:49)
    at decryptSync (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/node_modules/@ethersproject/json-wallets/lib/keystore.js:210:15)
    at decryptJsonWalletSync (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/node_modules/@ethersproject/json-wallets/lib/index.js:36:43)
    at new Wallet.fromEncryptedJsonSync (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/node_modules/@ethersproject/wallet/lib/index.js:229:68)
    at main (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/deploy.js:14:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/root/hh-fcc/ethers-simple-storage-fcc/deploy.js:40:1)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1103:14)

Just in case it is helpful here is the .encryptedKey.json with password=password

{
  "address": "70997970c51812dc3a010c7d01b50e0d17dc79c8",
  "id": "bf720501-6395-4af4-afa0-b91fa90ec48a",
  "version": 3,
  "Crypto": {
    "cipher": "aes-128-ctr",
    "cipherparams": { "iv": "930944180187353cd5bd02234c13ce95" },
    "ciphertext": "1a5043a4ded338b47dedba1c61995f7ee21801be824b03855e263196ff5523a9",
    "kdf": "scrypt",
    "kdfparams": {
      "salt": "eedd3bfd89ae6dbdf9ce0d1cf1ba0e4c07dc7c64918d9319641140e07467a0c0",
      "n": 131072,
      "dklen": 32,
      "p": 1,
      "r": 8
    },
    "mac": "2f5ed0e3539126eb4d164f3f40acf9fb162fa8c221dce76d91f450f6e46a0190"
  }
}

[krakxn]

Use my encryptKey.js: (Refactor variable names but do not change the logic)

const ethers = require("ethers");
const fs = require("fs-extra");
require("dotenv").config(); // To process .env file

async function main() {
  const wallet = new ethers.Wallet(process.env.PRIVATE_KEY);
  const encryptedJsonKey = await wallet.encrypt( // For encryption
    process.env.PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD,
    process.env.PRIVATE_KEY
  );
  fs.writeFileSync("./.encryptedKey.json", encryptedJsonKey); // Stores encrypted key
}

main()
  .then(() => process.exit(0))
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error(error);
    process.exit(1);
  });

Also, make a repo so I can diagnose your deploy file.

[BentCrypto]

Thank you for taking a look,
I tried using your encryptKey.js but I got the same error.

Never posted a repo before but is this correct? https://github.com/BentCrypto/deploy.js/blob/main/deploy.js

[krakxn]

All good! And yes, that is correct.

• I have made a PR, merge it in your GitHub repo.

• Then, pull the changes to your local repo via git pull.

• Try now.

This should fix it.

[BentCrypto]

Thank you again for helping,
I still get the same error with your deploy.js and your encryptKey.js files.

It seems like the error has to do with the variable toHexString and this is not defined in the deploy.js code?
Could it be something I am missing?

[BentCrypto]

If I use my old code line

 let wallet = new ethers.Wallet.fromEncryptedJsonSync(
    encryptedJson,
    process.env.PRIVATE_KEY__PASSWORD
  );

And add PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD=password to the .env file it works.
But then the password is in the env file and is not encrypted anymore.

[krakxn]

Do not worry about it if the encryption is working -- when pushing to a GitHub repo, always make a gitignore for .env and similar files.

[BentCrypto]

From my understanding the issue might be with encrypting using hardhat doesn't work that well, so I have continued with the course using the plain text in .env file.

[Piwo96]

Hi BentCrypto, I might have solved your issue. Are you using zsh for you terminal? If you do so, you need to set your environment variable using the following command:

export PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD=password

That should help you out in the case you use zsh.

If you get an error typing:

printenv PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD

your environment variable hasn't been set.

Hope that's helpful. This method at least helped me out.

[BentCrypto]

Thank you!

I have moved on with the course but will definitely check this out when I return to this section.