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Encrypt/decrypt string data stored within sql server 2008
Hi All,
I am pretty new to encryption, as to date I have only had to hash password data without the threat of it being decrypted.
I have done some top level research and understand that there are different algorithms available including both symmetric and asymmetric, and that the .net framework provide excellent security classes.
Within my current solution I have been asked to encrypt only certain table columns within sql server so that the data can only be decrypted by the end user when requesting the data from the asp.net web forms interface.
Can anyone share with me examples or helper class that will provide a sound encryption method that will stop even the nosey web developer from decrypting an end users data?
Should I be encrypting/decrypting using sql server or is it better to using C#?
Thanks in advance for you help and happy new year to you all!
Rit
I am pretty new to encryption, as to date I have only had to hash password data without the threat of it being decrypted.
I have done some top level research and understand that there are different algorithms available including both symmetric and asymmetric, and that the .net framework provide excellent security classes.
Within my current solution I have been asked to encrypt only certain table columns within sql server so that the data can only be decrypted by the end user when requesting the data from the asp.net web forms interface.
Can anyone share with me examples or helper class that will provide a sound encryption method that will stop even the nosey web developer from decrypting an end users data?
Should I be encrypting/decrypting using sql server or is it better to using C#?
Thanks in advance for you help and happy new year to you all!
Rit
ASP.NETC#Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Last Comment
Robert Schutt
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then you may need encription and decription on application level rather than database level.
ASKER
Thanks IJZ, do you or anyone have examples of encrypting/decrypting using C# with user defined keys that will fulfil my requirements of the developer not setting or knowing the key?
Thanks,
Rit
Thanks,
Rit
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ASKER
Thanks acperkins, I have considered this to a certain degree in my design. The columns are not used within joins or indexes.
What I am struggling to find is a sound solution that would stop anyone including myself from decrypting the users data. It's really important that only the end user can encrypt/decrypt their own data.
Can you share with my any examples of this type of solution?
Thank you
Rit
What I am struggling to find is a sound solution that would stop anyone including myself from decrypting the users data. It's really important that only the end user can encrypt/decrypt their own data.
Can you share with my any examples of this type of solution?
Thank you
Rit
ASKER
... Would it be unusual for the end user to supply a user defined key to encrypt with as part of the save process?... They would then need to supply the same key when retrieving the data too.
I suspect that would be the way to go about it, however I have no experience there, so I am going to leave this to smarter members to help you out.
Sounds to me like you could use AES. I haven't tried to implement it but there is a (rather old but) quite elaborate explanation with C# source code available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc164055.aspx
It may be a bit overwhelming (as the author of the article also states) but skimming the article it seems to me you can just add the Aes class file to your project and then use:
It may be a bit overwhelming (as the author of the article also states) but skimming the article it seems to me you can just add the Aes class file to your project and then use:
Aes a = new Aes(the key size, the seed key);
a.Cipher(plainText, cipherText);
Ah, looking at the source I found a glitch in my story; the cipherText is the output which leaves me wondering how to set a password or if that's even possible the way I thought it would be...
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ASKER
Thanks Robert, I am checking out that article now.
Yours and everyone's help is much appreciate
Rit
Yours and everyone's help is much appreciate
Rit
ASKER
Thanks Robert, this is great. I will implement AES and ask the end user for the password to use.
Ok, great, be aware that as far as I can tell what I did with the text, process per 16 byte block, doesn't work for the password, so that's always going to be max 8 (unicode) characters.
The issue I see with your examples is that the developer would be able to use the keys to decrypt the data as the developer would have created them. In my solution it is vital that the developer would be able to decrypt the data. The data should only be decrypted by the end user it belongs to.
Thanks,
Rit