Data protection

This article explains how to use the DataProtectionProvider class in the Windows.Security.Cryptography.DataProtection namespace to encrypt and decrypt digital data in a UWP app.

You can use the data protection APIs in multiple ways:

• To protect data to an Active Directory (AD) security principal like an AD group. Any member of the group can decrypt the data.
• To protect data to the public key contained in an X.509 certificate. The owner of the private key can decrypt the data.
• To protect data by using a symmetric key. This works, for example, to protect data to a non-AD principal such as Live ID.
• To protect data to the credentials (password) used during logon to a website.

To protect data, when you create a DataProtectionProvider object you must specify a protection descriptor before calling ProtectAsync or ProtectStreamAsync. The following example shows possible sample protection descriptors.

Protecting static data

The following example shows how to use the ProtectAsync and UnprotectAsync methods to asynchronously protect static data to the current user's SID.

using Windows.Security.Cryptography;
using Windows.Security.Cryptography.DataProtection;
using Windows.Storage.Streams;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace SampleProtectAsync
{
    sealed partial class StaticDataProtectionApp : Application
    {
        public StaticDataProtectionApp()
        {
            // Initialize the application.
            this.InitializeComponent();

            // Protect data asynchronously.
            this.Protect();
        }

        public async void Protect()
        {
            // Initialize function arguments.
            String strMsg = "This is a message to be protected.";
            String strDescriptor = "LOCAL=user";
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding = BinaryStringEncoding.Utf8;

            // Protect a message to the local user.
            IBuffer buffProtected = await this.SampleProtectAsync(
                strMsg,
                strDescriptor,
                encoding);

            // Decrypt the previously protected message.
            String strDecrypted = await this.SampleUnprotectData(
                buffProtected,
                encoding);
        }

        public async Task<IBuffer> SampleProtectAsync(
            String strMsg,
            String strDescriptor,
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding)
        {
            // Create a DataProtectionProvider object for the specified descriptor.
            DataProtectionProvider Provider = new DataProtectionProvider(strDescriptor);

            // Encode the plaintext input message to a buffer.
            encoding = BinaryStringEncoding.Utf8;
            IBuffer buffMsg = CryptographicBuffer.ConvertStringToBinary(strMsg, encoding);

            // Encrypt the message.
            IBuffer buffProtected = await Provider.ProtectAsync(buffMsg);

            // Execution of the SampleProtectAsync function resumes here
            // after the awaited task (Provider.ProtectAsync) completes.
            return buffProtected;
        }

        public async Task<String> SampleUnprotectData(
            IBuffer buffProtected,
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding)
        {
            // Create a DataProtectionProvider object.
            DataProtectionProvider Provider = new DataProtectionProvider();

            // Decrypt the protected message specified on input.
            IBuffer buffUnprotected = await Provider.UnprotectAsync(buffProtected);

            // Execution of the SampleUnprotectData method resumes here
            // after the awaited task (Provider.UnprotectAsync) completes
            // Convert the unprotected message from an IBuffer object to a string.
            String strClearText = CryptographicBuffer.ConvertBinaryToString(encoding, buffUnprotected);

            // Return the plaintext string.
            return strClearText;
        }
    }
}

Protecting stream data

The following example shows how to use the ProtectStreamAsync and UnprotectStreamAsync methods to asynchronously protect stream data to the current user's SID.

using Windows.Security.Cryptography;
using Windows.Security.Cryptography.DataProtection;
using Windows.Storage.Streams;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace SampleProtectStreamAsync
{

    sealed partial class StreamDataProtectionApp : Application
    {
        public StreamDataProtectionApp()
        {
            // Initialize the application.
            this.InitializeComponent();

            // Protect a stream synchronously
            this.ProtectData();
         }

        public async void ProtectData()
        {
            // Initialize function arguments.
            String strDescriptor = "LOCAL=user";
            String strLoremIpsum = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse elementum "
                + "ullamcorper eros, vitae gravida nunc consequat sollicitudin. Vivamus lacinia, "
                + "diam a molestie porttitor, sapien neque volutpat est, non suscipit leo dolor "
                + "sit amet nisl. Praesent tincidunt tincidunt quam ut pharetra. Sed tincidunt "
                + "sit amet nisl. Praesent tincidunt tincidunt quam ut pharetra. Sed tincidunt "
                + "porttitor massa, at convallis dolor dictum suscipit. Nullam vitae lectus in "
                + "lorem scelerisque convallis sed scelerisque orci. Praesent sed ligula vel erat "
                + "eleifend tempus. Nullam dignissim aliquet mauris a aliquet. Nulla augue justo, "
                + "posuere a consectetur ut, suscipit et sem. Proin eu libero ut felis tincidunt "
                + "interdum. Curabitur vulputate eros nec sapien elementum ut dapibus eros "
                + "dapibus. Suspendisse quis dui dolor, non imperdiet leo. In consequat, odio nec "
                + "aliquam tincidunt, magna enim ultrices massa, ac pharetra est urna at arcu. "
                + "Nunc suscipit, velit non interdum suscipit, lectus lectus auctor tortor, quis "
                + "ultrices orci felis in dolor. Etiam congue pretium libero eu vestibulum. "
                + "Mauris bibendum erat eleifend nibh consequat eu pharetra metus convallis. "
                + "Morbi sem eros, venenatis vel vestibulum consequat, hendrerit rhoncus purus.";
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding = BinaryStringEncoding.Utf16BE;

            // Encrypt the data as a stream.
            IBuffer buffProtected = await this.SampleDataProtectionStream(
                strDescriptor,
                strLoremIpsum,
                encoding);

            // Decrypt a data stream.
            String strUnprotected = await this.SampleDataUnprotectStream(
                buffProtected,
                encoding);
        }

        public async Task<IBuffer> SampleDataProtectionStream(
            String descriptor,
            String strMsg,
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding)
        {
            // Create a DataProtectionProvider object for the specified descriptor.
            DataProtectionProvider Provider = new DataProtectionProvider(descriptor);

            // Convert the input string to a buffer.
            IBuffer buffMsg = CryptographicBuffer.ConvertStringToBinary(strMsg, encoding);

            // Create a random access stream to contain the plaintext message.
            InMemoryRandomAccessStream inputData = new InMemoryRandomAccessStream();

            // Create a random access stream to contain the encrypted message.
            InMemoryRandomAccessStream protectedData = new InMemoryRandomAccessStream();

            // Retrieve an IOutputStream object and fill it with the input (plaintext) data.
            IOutputStream outputStream = inputData.GetOutputStreamAt(0);
            DataWriter writer = new DataWriter(outputStream);
            writer.WriteBuffer(buffMsg);
            await writer.StoreAsync();
            await outputStream.FlushAsync();

            // Retrieve an IInputStream object from which you can read the input data.
            IInputStream source = inputData.GetInputStreamAt(0);

            // Retrieve an IOutputStream object and fill it with encrypted data.
            IOutputStream dest = protectedData.GetOutputStreamAt(0);
            await Provider.ProtectStreamAsync(source, dest);
            await dest.FlushAsync();

            //Verify that the protected data does not match the original
            DataReader reader1 = new DataReader(inputData.GetInputStreamAt(0));
            DataReader reader2 = new DataReader(protectedData.GetInputStreamAt(0));
            await reader1.LoadAsync((uint)inputData.Size);
            await reader2.LoadAsync((uint)protectedData.Size);
            IBuffer buffOriginalData = reader1.ReadBuffer((uint)inputData.Size);
            IBuffer buffProtectedData = reader2.ReadBuffer((uint)protectedData.Size);

            if (CryptographicBuffer.Compare(buffOriginalData, buffProtectedData))
            {
                throw new Exception("ProtectStreamAsync returned unprotected data");
            }

            // Return the encrypted data.
            return buffProtectedData;
        }

        public async Task<String> SampleDataUnprotectStream(
            IBuffer buffProtected,
            BinaryStringEncoding encoding)
        {
            // Create a DataProtectionProvider object.
            DataProtectionProvider Provider = new DataProtectionProvider();

            // Create a random access stream to contain the encrypted message.
            InMemoryRandomAccessStream inputData = new InMemoryRandomAccessStream();

            // Create a random access stream to contain the decrypted data.
            InMemoryRandomAccessStream unprotectedData = new InMemoryRandomAccessStream();

            // Retrieve an IOutputStream object and fill it with the input (encrypted) data.
            IOutputStream outputStream = inputData.GetOutputStreamAt(0);
            DataWriter writer = new DataWriter(outputStream);
            writer.WriteBuffer(buffProtected);
            await writer.StoreAsync();
            await outputStream.FlushAsync();

            // Retrieve an IInputStream object from which you can read the input (encrypted) data.
            IInputStream source = inputData.GetInputStreamAt(0);

            // Retrieve an IOutputStream object and fill it with decrypted data.
            IOutputStream dest = unprotectedData.GetOutputStreamAt(0);
            await Provider.UnprotectStreamAsync(source, dest);
            await dest.FlushAsync();

            // Write the decrypted data to an IBuffer object.
            DataReader reader2 = new DataReader(unprotectedData.GetInputStreamAt(0));
            await reader2.LoadAsync((uint)unprotectedData.Size);
            IBuffer buffUnprotectedData = reader2.ReadBuffer((uint)unprotectedData.Size);

            // Convert the IBuffer object to a string using the same encoding that was
            // used previously to conver the plaintext string (before encryption) to an
            // IBuffer object.
            String strUnprotected = CryptographicBuffer.ConvertBinaryToString(encoding, buffUnprotectedData);

            // Return the decrypted data.
            return strUnprotected;
        }
    }
}