Tip: Encrypting and Decrypting a Database Connection String

You can encrypt your connection string to a database. Let me rephrase that: you should encrypt data connections. Here is an example of encrypting a connection string and decryprting a connection string.

Create the Connection String in your App.Config:

connectionString="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source???;DatabaseName;"
            providerName="System.Data.OleDb" /

Form Code:

private void EncryptConnectionString()
        {
            System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
            string provider = "DataProtectionConfigurationProvider";
            ConfigurationSection connstrings = config.ConnectionStrings;
            connstrings.SectionInformation.ProtectSection(provider);
            connstrings.SectionInformation.ForceSave = true;
            config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Full);
        }
        private void DecryptConnectionString()
        {
            System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
            ConfigurationSection connstrings = config.ConnectionStrings;
            connstrings.SectionInformation.UnprotectSection();
            connstrings.SectionInformation.ForceSave = true;
            config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Full);
        }
        private void EncryptButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            EncryptConnectionString();
        }
        private void DecryptButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            DecryptConnectionString();
        }

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