I am trying to store the md5 string as a class instance variable instead of the actual password. I have a static function that will return a md5 string which I'm trying to store in an instance variable instead of the actual password. I have the following setter for my class instance variable: -(void)setPassword:(NSString *)newpass{ if(newpass != password){ password = [utils md5HexDigest:newpass]; } } This will pass back the correct md5 string and save it to the password variable in my init function: [self setPassword:pword];. If I call another instance method and try to access self.password" I will get "EXC_BAD_ACCESS". I understand that the memory is getting released, but I have no clue to make sure it stays. I have tried alloc init with autorelease with no luck. This is the md5HexDigest function getting called during the init (graciously found in another stackoverflow question): + (NSString*)md5HexDigest:(NSString*)input { const char* str = [input UTF8String]; unsigned char result[CC_MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH]; CC_MD5(str, strlen(str), result); NSMutableString *ret = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:CC_MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH*2]; for(int i = 0; i<CC_MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH; i++) { [ret appendFormat:@"%02x",result[i]]; } return ret; } Any help/pointers would be greatly appreciated. I would rather have the md5 string saved in memory than the actual password calling the md5 every time I needed to use the password. Thanks in advance.