key container

Example

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The following example demonstrates how to create an asymmetric key, save it in a key container, retrieve the key at a later time, and delete the key from the container.

Notice that that code in the GenKey_SaveInContainer method and the GetKeyFromContainer method is similar. When you specify a key container name for a CspParameters object and pass it to an AsymmetricAlgorithm object with the PersistKeyInCsp property orPersistKeyInCsp property set to true, the following occurs. If a key container with the specified name does not exist, then one is created and the key is persisted. If a key container with the specified name does exist, then the key in the container is automatically loaded into the current AsymmetricAlgorithm object. Therefore, the code in the GenKey_SaveInContainer method persists the key because it is run first, while the code in the GetKeyFromContainer method loads the key because it is run second.

C#

VB

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

public class StoreKey

{
    public static void Main()
    {
        try
        {
            // Create a key and save it in a container.
            GenKey_SaveInContainer("MyKeyContainer");
            
            // Retrieve the key from the container.
            GetKeyFromContainer("MyKeyContainer");
    
            // Delete the key from the container.
            DeleteKeyFromContainer("MyKeyContainer");

            // Create a key and save it in a container.
            GenKey_SaveInContainer("MyKeyContainer");

            // Delete the key from the container.
            DeleteKeyFromContainer("MyKeyContainer");
        }
        catch(CryptographicException e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
        }

    }

    public static void GenKey_SaveInContainer(string ContainerName)
    {
        // Create the CspParameters object and set the key container 
        // name used to store the RSA key pair.
        CspParameters cp = new CspParameters();
        cp.KeyContainerName = ContainerName;

        // Create a new instance of RSACryptoServiceProvider that accesses
        // the key container MyKeyContainerName.
        RSACryptoServiceProvider rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cp);

        // Display the key information to the console.
        Console.WriteLine("Key added to container: \n  {0}", rsa.ToXmlString(true));
    }

    public static void GetKeyFromContainer(string ContainerName)
    {
        // Create the CspParameters object and set the key container 
        // name used to store the RSA key pair.
        CspParameters cp = new CspParameters();
        cp.KeyContainerName = ContainerName;

        // Create a new instance of RSACryptoServiceProvider that accesses
        // the key container MyKeyContainerName.
        RSACryptoServiceProvider rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cp);

        // Display the key information to the console.
        Console.WriteLine("Key retrieved from container : \n {0}", rsa.ToXmlString(true));
    }

    public static void DeleteKeyFromContainer(string ContainerName)
    {
        // Create the CspParameters object and set the key container 
        // name used to store the RSA key pair.
        CspParameters cp = new CspParameters();
        cp.KeyContainerName = ContainerName;

        // Create a new instance of RSACryptoServiceProvider that accesses
        // the key container.
        RSACryptoServiceProvider rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cp);

        // Delete the key entry in the container.
        rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;

        // Call Clear to release resources and delete the key from the container.
        rsa.Clear();

        Console.WriteLine("Key deleted.");
    }
}

Key added to container:
<RSAKeyValue> Key Information A</RSAKeyValue>
Key retrieved from container :
<RSAKeyValue> Key Information A</RSAKeyValue>
Key deleted.
Key added to container:
<RSAKeyValue> Key Information B</RSAKeyValue>
Key deleted.