CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sqlsql-server-ce
Kalle Klap
Kalle Klap

Reputation: 11

How to encrypt/secure a SQL Compact 3.5 embedded in a desktop application?

How can I make sure that once installed on a client computer, only my WPF desktop application has access to the data in an embedded SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP 2?

I am writing an application with a preloaded set of data that it is quite critical users can't access from outside the application.

It seems to me that using password based encryption and trying to hide that password somewhere in my application is bad design. I'm sure Microsoft has thought about this, but I can't find any info online on this particular problem. What is the right way to do it?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 608

Answers (2)

Spike Gronim
Spike Gronim

Reputation: 6182

You're talking about DRM and it's unlikely that you can easily do this. If you hide an encryption key / password in your application it will stop casual users. Somebody with a debugger can break this. You can look into licensing a DRM toolkit from Microsoft...

Upvotes: 0

Jonas Lincoln
Jonas Lincoln

Reputation: 9767

You could always encrypt all the data in your tables, although taking a performance hit.

Somehow, you need to manage a password/key/authentication no matter what solution you are using.

Upvotes: 1

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