CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#encryption
Amit
Amit

Reputation: 1057

How to Encrypt a portion of AppConfig file in any win form application?

I am working on a small winform application. Here i am having some configuration settings e.g. User Name and password kinda stuff.

Now my requirement is that i want to encrypt this particular detail. So can somebody tell me as how this can be done in .NET (C#).

Upvotes: 2

Views: 12810

Answers (4)

Daniel Brückner
Daniel Brückner

Reputation: 59705

There is build-in support for encrypting configuration files for ASP.NET applications using Windows Data Protection API but I have never tried if this can be applied to App.config, too. The advantage of this is that the keys are stored in a key store under control of the operating system.

Besides this I am not aware of any other build-in solutions and we usually do decryption ourself after reading the encrypted values. This requires to store a key somewhere - usually included in the code - and is far from optimal. Therefore if possible one should use Windows integrated security (SQL Sever authentication for example is deprecated) or any other advanced infrastructure like Kerberos if available.

Upvotes: 0

this. __curious_geek
this. __curious_geek

Reputation: 43217

You can encrypt sections of your app.config using DPAPI provider. Put your username/pwd pair in appSettings section. Nothing else need to change in your application. you still keep reading appsettings strings as usual. Use this code below to encrypt/decrypt parts of your config file.

//call: ProtectSection("appSettings","DataProtectionConfigurationProvider"); 
private void ProtectSection(string sectionName, string provider) 
{ 
    Configuration config = 
        WebConfigurationManager. 
            OpenWebConfiguration(Request.ApplicationPath); 

    ConfigurationSection section = config.GetSection(sectionName); 

    if (section != null && !section.SectionInformation.IsProtected) 
    { 
        section.SectionInformation.ProtectSection(provider); 
        config.Save(); 
    } 
} 

//call: UnProtectSection("appSettings"); 
private void UnProtectSection(string sectionName) 
{ 
    Configuration config = 
        WebConfigurationManager. 
            OpenWebConfiguration(Request.ApplicationPath); 

    ConfigurationSection section = config.GetSection(sectionName); 

    if (section != null && section.SectionInformation.IsProtected) 
    { 
        section.SectionInformation.UnprotectSection(); 
        config.Save(); 
    } 
}

Upvotes: 1

Max Markov
Max Markov

Reputation: 936

You can use RsaProtectedConfigurationProvider http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.configuration.rsaprotectedconfigurationprovider.aspx

Upvotes: 1

ChrisF
ChrisF

Reputation: 137188

This article on Code Project describes how to encrypt and decrypt strings. It's a class you call, but the source code is provided so you can see how it works.

This article on Sharper Tutorials actually covers the case of encrypting a connection string.

Unfortunately both are too long to quote here.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions