Simple Encryption in C#

Encrypt Function

string passPhrase = "Pas5pr@se";        // can be any string
        string saltValue = "s@1tValue";        // can be any string
        string hashAlgorithm = "SHA1";             // can be "MD5"
        int passwordIterations = 2;                  // can be any number
        string initVector = "@1B2c3D4e5F6g7H8"; // must be 16 bytes
        int keySize = 256;                // can be 192 or 128

public string Encrypt(string plainText,
                                     string passPhrase,
                                     string saltValue,
                                     string hashAlgorithm,
                                     int passwordIterations,
                                     string initVector,
                                     int keySize)
        {
            // Convert strings into byte arrays.
            // Let us assume that strings only contain ASCII codes.
            // If strings include Unicode characters, use Unicode, UTF7, or UTF8 
            // encoding.
            byte[] initVectorBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(initVector);
            byte[] saltValueBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(saltValue);

            // Convert our plaintext into a byte array.
            // Let us assume that plaintext contains UTF8-encoded characters.
            byte[] plainTextBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);

            // First, we must create a password, from which the key will be derived.
            // This password will be generated from the specified passphrase and 
            // salt value. The password will be created using the specified hash 
            // algorithm. Password creation can be done in several iterations.
            PasswordDeriveBytes password = new PasswordDeriveBytes(
                                                            passPhrase,
                                                            saltValueBytes,
                                                            hashAlgorithm,
                                                            passwordIterations);

            // Use the password to generate pseudo-random bytes for the encryption
            // key. Specify the size of the key in bytes (instead of bits).
            byte[] keyBytes = password.GetBytes(keySize / 8);

            // Create uninitialized Rijndael encryption object.
            RijndaelManaged symmetricKey = new RijndaelManaged();

            // It is reasonable to set encryption mode to Cipher Block Chaining
            // (CBC). Use default options for other symmetric key parameters.
            symmetricKey.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;

            // Generate encryptor from the existing key bytes and initialization 
            // vector. Key size will be defined based on the number of the key 
            // bytes.
            ICryptoTransform encryptor = symmetricKey.CreateEncryptor(
                                                             keyBytes,
                                                             initVectorBytes);

            // Define memory stream which will be used to hold encrypted data.
            MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

            // Define cryptographic stream (always use Write mode for encryption).
            CryptoStream cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream,
                                                         encryptor,
                                                         CryptoStreamMode.Write);
            // Start encrypting.
            cryptoStream.Write(plainTextBytes, 0, plainTextBytes.Length);

            // Finish encrypting.
            cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();

            // Convert our encrypted data from a memory stream into a byte array.
            byte[] cipherTextBytes = memoryStream.ToArray();

            // Close both streams.
            memoryStream.Close();
            cryptoStream.Close();

            // Convert encrypted data into a base64-encoded string.
            string cipherText = Convert.ToBase64String(cipherTextBytes);

            // Return encrypted string.
            return cipherText;
        }