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Protecting static data (XAML)

  • Article

The following example shows how to use the ProtectAsync and UnprotectAsync methods to asynchronously protect static data to the current user's SID.

using Windows.Security.Cryptography;
using Windows.Security.Cryptography.DataProtection;
using Windows.Storage.Streams;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace SampleProtectAsync
{
    sealed partial class StaticDataProtectionApp : Application
    {
        public StaticDataProtectionApp()
        {
            // Initialize the application.
            this.InitializeComponent();

            // Protect data asynchronously.
            this.Protect();
        }

        public async void Protect()
        {
            // Initialize function arguments.
            String strMsg = "This is a message to be protected.";
            String strDescriptor = "LOCAL=user";
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding = BinaryStringEncoding.Utf8;

            // Protect a message to the local user.
            IBuffer buffProtected = await this.SampleProtectAsync(
                strMsg,
                strDescriptor,
                encoding);

            // Decrypt the previously protected message.
            String strDecrypted = await this.SampleUnprotectData(
                buffProtected,
                encoding);
        }

        public async Task<IBuffer> SampleProtectAsync(
            String strMsg,
            String strDescriptor,
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding)
        {
            // Create a DataProtectionProvider object for the specified descriptor.
            DataProtectionProvider Provider = new DataProtectionProvider(strDescriptor);

            // Encode the plaintext input message to a buffer.
            encoding = BinaryStringEncoding.Utf8;
            IBuffer buffMsg = CryptographicBuffer.ConvertStringToBinary(strMsg, encoding);

            // Encrypt the message.
            IBuffer buffProtected = await Provider.ProtectAsync(buffMsg);

            // Execution of the SampleProtectAsync function resumes here
            // after the awaited task (Provider.ProtectAsync) completes.
            return buffProtected;
        }

        public async Task<String> SampleUnprotectData(
            IBuffer buffProtected,
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding)
        {
            // Create a DataProtectionProvider object.
            DataProtectionProvider Provider = new DataProtectionProvider();

            // Decrypt the protected message specified on input.
            IBuffer buffUnprotected = await Provider.UnprotectAsync(buffProtected);

            // Execution of the SampleUnprotectData method resumes here
            // after the awaited task (Provider.UnprotectAsync) completes
            // Convert the unprotected message from an IBuffer object to a string.
            String strClearText = CryptographicBuffer.ConvertBinaryToString(encoding, buffUnprotected);

            // Return the plaintext string.
            return strClearText;
        }
    }
}

DataProtectionProvider

Using the data protection API