SymmetricAlgorithm.Key Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Security.Cryptography

Assembly:

System.Security.Cryptography.dll

Source:

SymmetricAlgorithm.cs

Gets or sets the secret key for the symmetric algorithm.

public:
 virtual property cli::array <System::Byte> ^ Key { cli::array <System::Byte> ^ get(); void set(cli::array <System::Byte> ^ value); };

public virtual byte[] Key { get; set; }

member this.Key : byte[] with get, set

Public Overridable Property Key As Byte()

Property Value

Byte[]

The secret key to use for the symmetric algorithm.

Exceptions

ArgumentNullException

An attempt was made to set the key to null.

CryptographicException

The key size is invalid.

Remarks

The secret key is used both for encryption and for decryption. For a symmetric algorithm to be successful, the secret key must be known only to the sender and the receiver. The valid key sizes are specified by the particular symmetric algorithm implementation and are listed in the LegalKeySizes property.

If this property is null when it is used, the GenerateKey method is called to create a new random value.

See also

• Cryptographic Services