.NET Secure Memory Structures

Question

I know the .NET library offers a way of storing a string in a protected/secure manner = SecureString.

My question is, if I would like to store a byte array, what wou

Answer 1

as of .Net 2.0 use the ProtectedData.Protect Method, looks like setting the scope to DataProtectionScope.CurrentUser should give the same desired effect as secure string

example usage taken from here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.security.cryptography.protecteddata.protect.aspx

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

public class DataProtectionSample
{
// Create byte array for additional entropy when using Protect method. 
    static byte [] s_aditionalEntropy = { 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 };

    public static void Main()
    {
// Create a simple byte array containing data to be encrypted. 

byte [] secret = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 };

//Encrypt the data. 
        byte [] encryptedSecret = Protect( secret );
        Console.WriteLine("The encrypted byte array is:");
        PrintValues(encryptedSecret);

// Decrypt the data and store in a byte array. 
        byte [] originalData = Unprotect( encryptedSecret );
        Console.WriteLine("{0}The original data is:", Environment.NewLine);
        PrintValues(originalData);

    }

    public static byte [] Protect( byte [] data )
    {
        try
        {
            // Encrypt the data using DataProtectionScope.CurrentUser. The result can be decrypted 
            //  only by the same current user. 
            return ProtectedData.Protect( data, s_aditionalEntropy, DataProtectionScope.CurrentUser );
        } 
        catch (CryptographicException e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Data was not encrypted. An error occurred.");
            Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
            return null;
        }
    }

    public static byte [] Unprotect( byte [] data )
    {
        try
        {
            //Decrypt the data using DataProtectionScope.CurrentUser. 
            return ProtectedData.Unprotect( data, s_aditionalEntropy, DataProtectionScope.CurrentUser );
        } 
        catch (CryptographicException e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Data was not decrypted. An error occurred.");
            Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
            return null;
        }
    }

    public static void PrintValues( Byte[] myArr )  
    {
          foreach ( Byte i in myArr )  
            {
                 Console.Write( "\t{0}", i );
             }
      Console.WriteLine();
     }

}