Data Encryption

O

otherside

Centurion
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Mar 16, 2003
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Data Encryption (Urgent)

Hello guys, i have some questions for the experts :)
I'm building a couple of aplications that deal with databases and lots of data for academic and comercial use. I need some of the data to be encrypted and lots of other texts too(passwords etc.)
Here is what i need your expertise at:
What is the best way to store passwords and the big question WHERE ? (file, registry, system variables, system files ? )
What is the most secure way to encrypt some text and store it to a file ?
(My only experience is with the very very simple DES system of .NET, which as of what i understand can be decrypted by anyone as it doesn't use keys)
Please refer to some examples or whatever if possible.

The mdb file, as a database i'm using the Oledb driver with simple MS access file.
How can i lock this file , or encrypt it or something, that will make it unreadable by someone besides the program.
(Note it's quite big 5-20 MB.)

Thanks guys.
 
Databases like access already have security built into them. Check up your access help file for that one.
 
i know, but this can be easily broken. I even found an article in a computer magazine how to do it.
I need something stong :)
Anyone else ?
thanks
 
What is the best way to store passwords and the big question WHERE ?
Click to expand...
The best way to store a password is not to store it at all. Store its hash value which can be used to compare user input with.

See the attached file below for a Visual Basic .NET example of hashing a string value.
 

Attachments

Thanks Derek, and also for the code many thanks
I have a question
lets say that i store the hash,
how easy this hash can be decoded to the original text.
And how can i increase it's security ?
 
otherside said:
how easy this hash can be decoded to the original text.
Click to expand...

It's impossible, or nearly so; that's the point. Hashes cannot be
decrypted. They only go one way, so when the user enters a
password, a hash is created, then compared to the hash that's
stored.

This quote comes from an MD5 hash page:
It is conjectured that it is computationally infeasible to produce two messages having the same message digest, or to produce any message having a given prespecified target message digest.
Click to expand...

From another page:
The functions are thought to be secure, in the sense that it would require an enormous amount of computing power to find a string which hashes to a chosen value. In others words, there's no way to decrypt a secure hash. The uses of secure hashes include digital signatures and challenge hash authentication.
Click to expand...
 
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