Decrypting the Connection String in App.config

Question

I have a console application in which I have some connection strings which are encrypted as shown below:

<connectionStrings configProtectionProvider="RsaProtectedConfigurationProvider">
    <EncryptedData Type="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#Element"
      xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#">
      <EncryptionMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#tripledes-cbc" />
      <KeyInfo xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
        <EncryptedKey xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#">
          <EncryptionMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#rsa-1_5" />
          <KeyInfo xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
            <KeyName>Rsa Key</KeyName>
          </KeyInfo>
          <CipherData>
            <CipherValue>soemvalue here</CipherValue>
          </CipherData>
        </EncryptedKey>
      </KeyInfo>
      <CipherData>
        <CipherValue>some valye here</CipherValue>
      </CipherData>
    </EncryptedData>
  </connectionStrings>

I try to access the connection string using the console application like this:

var connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyConnectionString"].ConnectionString; 

I get the following error:

Failed to decrypt using provider 'RsaProtectedConfigurationProvider'. Error message from the provider: The RSA key container could not be opened.

When I try to access the same connection string from app.config without decryption then it works fine. Is there any problem with the encryption? I thought that after encryption I just have to fetch the connection string in normal manner and it will decrypt automatically.

Answer 1

You need to encrypt and decrypt on the same machine, or you need to export / import the key.

See this article:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/csharplanguage/thread/d43a4bd7-7cc1-40cf-8269-82c92894df43/