CredProtectA function (wincred.h)

Article
11/20/2024

The CredProtect function encrypts the specified credentials so that only the current security context can decrypt them.

Syntax

BOOL CredProtectA(
  [in]      BOOL                 fAsSelf,
  [in]      LPSTR                pszCredentials,
  [in]      DWORD                cchCredentials,
  [out]     LPSTR                pszProtectedCredentials,
  [in, out] DWORD                *pcchMaxChars,
  [out]     CRED_PROTECTION_TYPE *ProtectionType
);

Parameters

[in] fAsSelf

Set to TRUE to specify that the credentials are encrypted in the security context of the current process. Set to FALSE to specify that credentials are encrypted in the security context of the calling thread security context.

[in] pszCredentials

A pointer to a string that specifies the credentials to encrypt. The function encrypts the number of characters provided in the cchCredentials parameter.

[in] cchCredentials

The size, in characters, of the pszCredentials buffer.

[out] pszProtectedCredentials

A pointer to a string that, on output, receives the encrypted credentials.

[in, out] pcchMaxChars

The size, in characters of the pszProtectedCredentials buffer. On output, if the pszProtectedCredentials is not of sufficient size to receive the encrypted credentials, this parameter specifies the required size, in characters, of the pszProtectedCredentials buffer.

[out] ProtectionType

A pointer to a CRED_PROTECTION_TYPE enumeration type that, on output, specifies the type of protection provided.

Return value

TRUE if the function succeeds; otherwise, FALSE.

For extended error information, call the GetLastError function.

Remarks

Note that the output of the CredProtect function is not integrity protected, so if the output is modified, the CredUnprotect function is not updated and may produce incorrect results.

Note

The wincred.h header defines CredProtect as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows Vista [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2008 [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	wincred.h
Library	Advapi32.lib
DLL	Advapi32.dll

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