Using ASPNet_Regiis to encrypt custom configuration section - can you do it?

Question

I have a web application with a custom configuration section. That section contains information I\'ld like to encrypt (was hoping to use ASPNet_RegIIS rather than do it mys

Answer 1

For the record, I ended up with a little maintenance page to do this for me.

var currentConfig = System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration("~/");
// Unprotect
ConfigurationSection section = currentConfig.GetSection("MyCustomSection");
if (section.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
{
   section.SectionInformation.UnprotectSection();
   currentConfig.Save();
}

// Protect
if (!section.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
{
     section.SectionInformation.ProtectSection("DataProtectionConfigurationProvider");
     currentConfig.Save();
}

Caveats: Your process will need write access to the config files being modified. You'll want some way to authorize who can run this. You'll generally restart the website when you Save.