How to encrypt connection string in WinForms 1.1 app.config?

Question

Just looking for the first step basic solution here that keeps the honest people out.

Thanks, Mike

Answer 1

This might help you along the way:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302403.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302406.aspx

The articles are aimed at ASP.NET but the principles are the same.

Answer 2

The second piece of the puzzle is detecting an unencrypted connection string, encrypting it, and writing it back out to the config file. Writing to config files located in your exe dir is generally a very bad idea, but can be very useful during development. The pros and cons are very well described here. Be sure to read all the comments.