how to encode string in serialization

[Green Fuze]

hey everybody! I'm serializing some strings in an application, but one of the string is a password. the thing is that when I go to the file that I'm serializing to, I can see with notepad the password clearly. is there anyway to encode and decode this string before serializing it ?

[Stefan Prodan]

Well here it is a function that i use to encode strings in XML files: /// /// Convert To Base64 /// /// clean text /// 1(Unicode) 2(ASCII) 3(UTF7) 4(UTF8) /// Base64 string public static string ToB64(string text, Int16 type) { string rez = null; switch (type) { case 1: //Unicode rez = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(text)); break; case 2: //ASCII rez = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(text)); break; ase 3: //UTF7 rez = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF7.GetBytes(text)); break; case 4: //UTF8 rez = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text)); break; } eturn rez; } and to decode: /// /// Convert From Base64 /// /// encrypted text /// 1(Unicode) 2(ASCII) 3(UTF7) 4(UTF8) /// clean text public static string FromB64(string text, Int16 type) { string rez = null; switch (type) { case 1: //Unicode rez = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(text)); break; case 2: //ASCII rez = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(text)); break; case 3: //UTF7 rez = Encoding.UTF7.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(text)); break; case 4: //UTF8 rez = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(text)); break; } return rez; }

[StealthyMark]

I'm assuming you want to serialize your class with the XmlSerializer. The simplest trick is to mark your cleartext Password field/property with XMLIgnore and add another property providing an encrypted password.

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

[Serializable]
public class UserData
{
[XmlIgnore]
public string Password;

\[XmlElement("Password", DataType = "base64Binary")\]
\[EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never)\]
public byte\[\] EncryptedPassword
{
    get
    {
        // use the classes in the System.Cryptography
        // namespace to return the encrypted password
        return YourEncryptMethod(Password);
    }
    set
    {
        // use the classes in the System.Cryptography
        // namespace to decrypt the encrypted password
        Password = YourDecryptMethod(value);
    }
}

}

Another possibility is to implement the IXmlSerializable interface and serialize your class manually. HTH, Mark