crypt function in C breaking password string in for loop - c

Question

I am new to C, and I have been going through the CS50 course to learn some basics. I have been trying to solve the challenge which requires you to make a simple password cracker, but I ran into a problem which prevents me from writing a function program: every time I call the crypt function in my for loop, it somehow breaks my password string that I am iterating through.
I have tried making a copy of the password string, and passing that as an argument to crypt; I have also tried moving the crypt call into a separate function and calling that from the loop (as well as the combination of the two)
#define _XOPEN_SOURCE
#include <unistd.h>
#include <cs50.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
string buildLetterDictionary();
int main(int argc, string argv[])
{
if (argc == 2)
{
printf("Two arguments, starting test...\n");
char password[2];
string letters = buildLetterDictionary();
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
password[0] = letters[i];
password[1] = '\0';
printf("Password: %s\n", password);
string hashed = crypt(password, "50");
printf("\n%i\nOriginal: %s\nHashed: %s\n", i, password, hashed);
}
return 0;
}
else
{
printf("Usage: ./crack hash");
return 1;
}
}
string buildLetterDictionary()
{
char letters[27];
for(int i = 65; i < 91; i++)
{
letters[i-65] = i;
}
letters[26] = '\0';
string letter = letters;
return letter;
}
if I comment out the lines:
string hashed = crypt(password, "50");
printf("\n%i\nOriginal: %s\nHashed: %s\n", i, password, hashed);
The code works as expected, and produces the output:
A
B
C
D
E
But if I leave those lines in, the password is printed out as 'A' with the hash "50pe4e2XTIS/g" the first time, but every subsequent time is printed out as "" with the hash "50sXZPq5euCxs"
Please let me know what the underlying problem is, so that I may work towards resolving it! Thanks for any help in advance!

Answer 1

I am guessing here that cs50.h contains some definitions like a type alias from char * to string that the professor is giving you for simplicity.
If that is true, then buildLetterDictionary() cannot work, because you are doing:
char letters[27];
...
char * letter = letters;
return letter;
This means you are returning the address of a local variable, which will be destroyed as soon as you leave the function.