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How do I use SecureString type in SharePoint 2007?

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SecureString is the type that's used for passwords in SharePoint 2007.  You might find its use when you are automating some "higher level" administration operation (like creating a web application for example).  How do you use it is shown below:

    1: private static SecureString ConvertString(string strPwd)

    2: {

    3:     if (strPwd == null)

    4:         return null;

    5:     SecureString strSecurePassword = new SecureString();

    6:     foreach (char ch in strPwd)

    7:         strSecurePassword.AppendChar(ch);

    8:     strSecurePassword.MakeReadOnly();

    9:     return strSecurePassword;

   10: }

The above method will return the type SecureString that we can pass to the calling application like below:

    1: SPWebApplicationBuilder oBuilder = new SPWebApplicationBuilder(SPFarm.Local);

    2: oBuilder.ApplicationPoolPassword = ConvertString("test");

SecureString finds its place when you deal with the following APIs:

SPFarm.Create

SPFarm.Open

SPSecurity.SetApplicationCredentialKey

SPEncryptedString.UpdateSecureStringValue

SPPeoplePickerSearchActiveDirectoryDomain.SetPassword

SPEncryptedString.SecureStringValue

SPProcessIdentity.SecurePassword

SPWebApplicationBuilder.ApplicationPoolPassword

SPRestoreSettings.FarmAdminPassword

SPMetabaseManager.ProvisionIisApplicationPool

PasswordTextBox.SecurePassword - this is a control.

These are the APIs that I could see uses SecureString, there might be others as well.  Just came across an automation scenario lately where I had to create multiple web applications and wondered how to I set the password of type SecureString.

Invested around 20-30 minutes of time figuring it out, so thought if I post this, it might as well be helpful to others :)

Keep hacking!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2008
    PingBack from http://stevepietrek.com/2008/10/19/links-10192008/

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2008
    It's sad that the SetApplicationCedentialKey API has been misspelled in the MSDN documentation for several months now.

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2009
    Hi Sridhar, I had a problem of adding Multiple choices to the Drop Down to a custom field in a list. But i have looked at your way of adding them through the StringCollection Class. It really solved my problem. Thanks a lot.