Convert String to SecureString

Question

How to convert String to SecureString?

Answer 1

below method helps to convert string to secure string

private SecureString ConvertToSecureString(string password)
{
    if (password == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("password");

    var securePassword = new SecureString();

    foreach (char c in password)
        securePassword.AppendChar(c);

    securePassword.MakeReadOnly();
    return securePassword;
}

Answer 2

you can use this simple script

private SecureString SecureStringConverter(string pass)
{
    SecureString ret = new SecureString();

    foreach (char chr in pass.ToCharArray())
        ret.AppendChar(chr);

    return ret;
}

Answer 3

You don't. The whole reason for using the SecureString object is to avoid creating a string object (which is loaded into memory and kept there in plaintext until garbage collection). However, you can add characters to a SecureString by appending them.

var s = new SecureString();
s.AppendChar('d');
s.AppendChar('u');
s.AppendChar('m');
s.AppendChar('b');
s.AppendChar('p');
s.AppendChar('a');
s.AppendChar('s');
s.AppendChar('s');
s.AppendChar('w');
s.AppendChar('d');

Answer 4

I just want to point out to all the people saying, "That's not the point of SecureString", that many of the people asking this question might be in an application where, for whatever reason, justified or not, they are not particularly concerned about having a temporary copy of the password sit on the heap as a GC-able string, but they have to use an API that only accepts SecureString objects. So, you have an app where you don't care whether the password is on the heap, maybe it's internal-use only and the password is only there because it's required by the underlying network protocols, and you find that that string where the password is stored cannot be used to e.g. set up a remote PowerShell Runspace -- but there is no easy, straight-forward one-liner to create that SecureString that you need. It's a minor inconvenience -- but probably worth it to ensure that the applications that really do need SecureString don't tempt the authors to use System.String or System.Char[] intermediaries. :-)

Answer 5

I'll throw this out there. Why?

You can't just change all your strings to secure strings and suddenly your application is "secure". Secure string is designed to keep the string encrypted for as long as possible, and only decrypted for a very short period of time, wiping the memory after an operation has been performed upon it.

I would hazard saying that you may have some design level issues to deal with before worrying about securing your application strings. Give us some more information on what your trying to do and we may be able to help better.

Answer 6

no fancy linq, not adding all the chars by hand, just plain and simple:

var str = "foo";
var sc = new SecureString();
foreach(char c in str) sc.appendChar(c);