Basic Example of On-The-Fly Config Section Encryption

Martin Jarvis

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May 14, 2010

CPOL

13181

Basic Example of On-The-Fly Config Section Encryption

I recently answered a question about how you could securely modify a value within an encrypted configuration website without having to create a duplicate config file. Well, the answer’s pretty simple and straightforward – just use the API!

A quick example page could be:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" 
Inherits="_Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
 <title></title>
</head>
<body>
 <form id="form1" runat="server">
 <div>
     <asp:Button ID="EncryptButton" runat="server" Text="Encrypt" 
	OnClick="EncryptButton_Click" />
     <asp:Button ID="DecryptButton" runat="server" Text="Decrypt" 
	OnClick="DecryptButton_Click" />
     <asp:Button ID="IncrementButton" runat="server" Text="Increment" 
	OnClick="IncrementButton_Click" />
     <asp:Label ID="CountLabel" runat="server" Text="0"></asp:Label>
     <br />
     <asp:Label ID="StatusLabel" runat="server" Text="" 
	EnableViewState="false"></asp:Label>
 </div>
 </form>
</body>
</html>

using System;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web.Configuration;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
 /// <summary>
 /// Handles the PreRender event of the Page control.
 /// </summary>
 /// <param name="sender">The source of the event.</param>
 /// <param name="e">The <see cref="System.EventArgs"/> 
 /// instance containing the event data.</param>
 protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {      
     Configuration confg = WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration
	(Request.ApplicationPath);
     ConfigurationSection confStrSect = confg.GetSection(sectionKey);
     StatusLabel.Text = "No Config Section";
     if (confStrSect != null)
     {
         StatusLabel.Text = "Decrypted";
         if (confStrSect.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
         {
             StatusLabel.Text = "Encrypted";
         }
         int count = 0;
         int.TryParse(confg.AppSettings.Settings[countKey].Value, out count);
         CountLabel.Text = count.ToString();
     }   
 }
 
 string providerKey = "RSAProtectedConfigurationProvider";
 string sectionKey = "appSettings";
 string countKey = "Count";

 /// <summary>
 /// Handles the Click event of the EncryptButton control.
 /// </summary>
 /// <param name="sender">The source of the event.</param>
 /// <param name="e">The <see cref="System.EventArgs"/> 
 /// instance containing the event data.</param>
 protected void EncryptButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
     Configuration confg = WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration
	(Request.ApplicationPath);
     ConfigurationSection confStrSect = confg.GetSection(sectionKey);
     if (confStrSect != null)
     {
         confStrSect.SectionInformation.ProtectSection(providerKey);
         confg.Save();
     }
 }
 /// <summary>
 /// Handles the Click event of the DecryptButton control.
 /// </summary>
 /// <param name="sender">The source of the event.</param>
 /// <param name="e">The <see cref="System.EventArgs"/> 
 /// instance containing the event data.</param>
 protected void DecryptButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
     Configuration confg = WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration
	(Request.ApplicationPath);
     ConfigurationSection confStrSect = confg.GetSection(sectionKey);
     if (confStrSect != null && confStrSect.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
     {
         confStrSect.SectionInformation.UnprotectSection();
         confg.Save();
     }
 }
 /// <summary>
 /// Handles the Click event of the IncrementButton control.
 /// </summary>
 /// <param name="sender">The source of the event.</param>
 /// <param name="e">The <see cref="System.EventArgs"/> 
 /// instance containing the event data.</param>
 protected void IncrementButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
     int count = 0;
     int.TryParse(WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings[countKey], out count);
     count++;
     
     Configuration confg = WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration
	(Request.ApplicationPath);
     ConfigurationSection confStrSect = confg.GetSection(sectionKey);
     {
         if (confg.AppSettings.Settings.AllKeys.Contains(countKey))
         {
             confg.AppSettings.Settings[countKey].Value = count.ToString();
         }
         else
         {
             confg.AppSettings.Settings.Add(countKey, count.ToString());
         }
         confg.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
     }
 }
}

Simple!