.NET 4.0 application on network share causes SecurityException

Question

Today I experienced a weird problem while trying to remotely debug an application built for the .NET 4.0 runtime.

The application resides on a network share and exec

Answer 1

If you add your own class to map the section like this:

[XmlRoot("Interface")]
public class MySectionClass
{
    [XmlAttribute()]
    public string MyAttr1
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    public string MyAttr2
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

You can use this code:

ConfigurationSection configSection = 
ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None).
GetSection("MySection");

XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MySectionClass));

XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
xdoc.LoadXml(configSection.SectionInformation.GetRawXml());

XmlNodeReader xnr = new XmlNodeReader(xdoc.DocumentElement);

MySectionClass section = (MySectionClass)xs.Deserialize(xnr);

Answer 2

I'm speculating here, but I suspect it's your configuration file that's not trusted.

In your case, your configuration file is referencing a type ConsoleApplication1.AssetsSection that does not have a strong name that could be used as evidence.

Can you provide more details and the exact error message.

Answer 3

This is due to a known bug in .NET 4.0 when running the application from a network share.

The follow code fails with a SecurityException. Note that it only fails when you have defined a custom type for the section like in this example AssetsSection:

ConfigurationManager.GetSection("test/assets");

One fix is the solution suggestion by Timo to use a different API. Another solution is to apply the patch provided by Microsoft.

The bug and the related hotfix is filed under KB2580188.

Answer 4

Try loading the configuration first and open your section on that:

Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
AssetsSection configSection = (AssetsSection)config.GetSection("test/assets");

I ran into the same issue with .NET 4 and this works for me.