Where to store the sensitive data in vb.net securely

Question

I have a vb.net application that uses my gmail smtp server settings and my password to send me the users feedback through the email, (I don't want to show my email to the users)

The problem is I want to store these data securely in the vb.net application so that It's hard for any hackers/crackers through (reverse engineering or programs like cheat engine) to get my gmail account data.

Any ideas are welcome.

Answer 1

You cannot be 100% secure, you could store the email in a resource file and use an obsficator to make it much harder to get at the string but it is possible to break it (encrypted resource files and strings). However Even if you used a different email address and setup a forwarding rule the password for that account could still be comprimised. Anything you have access to in code a hacker could potentially break into as the key will be in clear text at some point.

You have a number of secure options:

1. Setup a webservice to receive your messages and email them onto you/log them to a database

2. Log your messages to a 3rd Party system (irc? news? some p2p network, IM system), and pick um the messages later.

3. Setup a Source Control/issue site for your system, google code/bitbucket/something else that has the ability to receive issues via an api.