C# Encrypt an XML File

Question

I need two methods one to encrypt and one to decrypt an xml file with a key= "hello world",the key hello world should be used to encrypt and decrypt the xml file.These methods should work on all machines!!! Any encryption methods will do. XML File contents below:

<root>
    <lic>
        <number>19834209</number>
        <expiry>02/02/2002</expiry>
    </lic>
</root>

Can some give me a sample?The issue is the msdn sample encyptions make a xml file encypted but when I decrypt on another machine it doesn't work.For example

I tried this sample: How to: Encrypt XML Elements with Asymmetric Keys, but here there is some kinda session and on another machine it says bad data phewf!

Answer 1

If you want the same key for encrypting and decrypting you should use a symmetric method (that's the definition, really). Here's the closest one to your sample (same source). http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sb7w85t6.aspx

The posted sample isn't working because they aren't using the same keys. Not only on different machines: running the program on the same machine twice should not work either (didn't work for me), because they use different random keys every time.
try adding this code after creating your key:

key = new RijndaelManaged();

string password = "Password1234"; //password here
byte[] saltBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Salt"); // salt here (another string)
var p = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(password, saltBytes); //TODO: think about number of iterations (third parameter)
// sizes are devided by 8 because [ 1 byte = 8 bits ]
key.IV = p.GetBytes(key.BlockSize / 8);
key.Key = p.GetBytes(key.KeySize / 8);

Now the program is using the same key and initial vector, and Encrypt and Decrypt should work on all machines.
Also, consider renaming key to algorithm, otherwise this is very misleading. I'd say it's a bad, not-working-well example from MSDN.

_{NOTE: PasswordDeriveBytes.GetBytes() has been deprecated because of serious (security) issues within the PasswordDeriveBytes class. The code above has been rewritten to use the safer Rfc2898DeriveBytes class instead (PBKDF2 instead of PBKDF1). Code generated with the above using PasswordDeriveBytes may be compromised.}

See also: Recommended # of iterations when using PKBDF2-SHA256?

Answer 2

First of all, if you want to use the same key for encrypting and decrypting, you should look at symmetric cryptography. Asymmetric cryptography is when the keys for encrypting and decrypting are different. Just so that you know - RSA is asymmetric, TripleDES and Rijndael are symmetric. There are others too, but .NET does not have default implementations for them.

I'd advise studying the System.Security.Cryptography namespace. And learning a bit about all that stuff. It has all you need to encrypt and decrypt files, as well as generate a password. In particular, you might be interested in these classes:

• CryptoStream
• PasswordDeriveBytes
• RijndaelManaged

There are also examples for usage in MSDN for each of them. You can use these classes to encrypt any file, not just XML. If however you want to encrypt just a select few elements, you can take a look at System.Security.Cryptography.Xml namespace. I see you've already found one article about it. Keep following the links on that page and you will learn more about those classes.