TypeError: The "digest" argument is required and must not be undefined

Question

I am getting subject error while registering a simple Mean Application through http://localhost:3000/auth/register, that I have simply created using mean init command. pbkdf2 or crypto is generating the error and I have no idea where to look for it.

I have done lots of different things like cleared npm cache, reinstalled using npm etc. Please help me out. Following is some more information.

Mean --version: 0.12.15
npm --version: 5.0.3
node --version: v8.1.0
bower --version: 1.8.0
gulp --version: CLI and Local: 3.9.1

Code for model.UserSchema.methods.hashPassword (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio-users\server\models\user.js)

/**
 * Hash password
 *
 * @param {String} password
 * @return {String}
 * @api public
 */
UserSchema.methods.hashPassword = function(password) {
  if (!password || !this.salt) return '';
  var salt = new Buffer(this.salt, 'base64');
  return crypto.pbkdf2Sync(password, salt, 10000, 64).toString('base64');
};

Register page calls http://localhost:3000/api/register and it generates 500 Internal Server Error.

Firefox is showing following response:

TypeError: The "digest" argument is required and must not be undefined
at pbkdf2 (crypto.js:635:11)
at Object.exports.pbkdf2Sync (crypto.js:628:10)
at model.UserSchema.methods.hashPassword (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio-users\server\models\user.js:165:17)
at model.<anonymous> (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio-users\server\models\user.js:94:31)
at VirtualType.applySetters (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\mongoose\lib\virtualtype.js:94:25)
at model.Document.set (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\mongoose\lib\document.js:656:12)
at model._handleIndex (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\mongoose\lib\document.js:587:14)
at model.Document.set (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\mongoose\lib\document.js:547:24)
at model.Document (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\mongoose\lib\document.js:71:12)
at model.Model (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\mongoose\lib\model.js:46:12)
at new model (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\mongoose\lib\model.js:3621:13)
at create (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio-users\server\controllers\users.js:86:24)
at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:95:5)
at next (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\route.js:137:13)
at Route.dispatch (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\route.js:112:3)
at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:95:5)
at D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:281:22
at Function.process_params (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:335:12)
at next (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:275:10)
at loadUser (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio-users\server\controllers\users.js:202:24)
at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:95:5)
at trim_prefix (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:317:13)
at D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:284:7
at Function.process_params (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:335:12)
at next (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:275:10)
at D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\connect-modrewrite\index.js:129:7
at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:95:5)
at trim_prefix (D:\Projects\Mean\CampaignBuilder\node_modules\meanio\lib\core_modules\server\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:317:13)

Answer 1

Per the crypto.pbkdf2Sync method you are missing the final argument which is digest, thus the error being displayed.

crypto.pbkdf2

Also with further investigation you can see that the digest argument was required in Node v6.0.

The previous default seems to have been 'sha1'.

Answer 2

This could also be caused by the wrong version of node / running a version that has calls that are not supported in the version of node that you have active

My Experience: My team has an application that requires Node 6.10.0. Sometimes I forget to switch to this version of node and run the latest code under 8.6.0 and I receive the same error. As soon as I swap back to 6.10.0 the website will allow me to login.

(I can see that the accepted answer also mentions this, but I wanted to add a more obvious answer in case it helps someone out there!)