Read connection string from Secure store service application

Question

I have some application pages which connect to a DAL done in Entity Framework and connects to sql.

However, the developers of this used property bags to store the username, db, password and dbname.

I want to use the secure store service application. I created a target application, and I created 4 keys. Username (generic username) DB Name (Generic) Server (Generic) password (password), masked.

How can I read those settings from my Entity Framework layer to get the values ?

  public static void Invoke<TConnection>(Action<TConnection> action)
            where TConnection : DbConnection, IDisposable, new()
        {
            var connection = new TConnection();

            try
            {
                //connection.Open();

                action(connection);

                connection.Close();
                connection.Dispose();
            }
            catch (SqlException)
            {
                connection.Close();
                connection.Dispose();
                throw;
            }
            catch (TimeoutException)
            {
                connection.Close();
                connection.Dispose();
                throw;
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                connection.Close();
                connection.Dispose();
                throw;
            }
        }

        public static void CreateEntityConnection(EntityConnection connection, bool openConnection)
        {
            connection.ConnectionString = GetDMSConnectionString();

            if (openConnection)
                connection.Open();
        }

        public static string GetDMSConnectionString()
        {
            // Specify the provider name, server and database.
            string providerName = "System.Data.SqlClient";
            string serverName =
            string databaseName = 
            string userName = 
            SecureString password = 
            password.MakeReadOnly();

            // Initialize the connection string builder for the
            // underlying provider.
            SqlConnectionStringBuilder sqlBuilder =
            new SqlConnectionStringBuilder();

            sqlBuilder.DataSource = serverName;
            sqlBuilder.InitialCatalog = databaseName;
            sqlBuilder.UserID = userName;
            sqlBuilder.Password = 

            // Build the SqlConnection connection string.
            string providerString = sqlBuilder.ToString();

            // Initialize the EntityConnectionStringBuilder.
            EntityConnectionStringBuilder entityBuilder =
            new EntityConnectionStringBuilder();

            //Set the provider name.
            entityBuilder.Provider = providerName;

            // Set the provider-specific connection string.
            entityBuilder.ProviderConnectionString = providerString;

            // Set the Metadata location.
            entityBuilder.Metadata = @"res://*/DMSModel.csdl|
                                        res://*/DMSModel.ssdl|
                                        res://*/DMSModel.msl";


            return entityBuilder.ToString();
        }

Answer 1

You can Access to the secure store service programmatically

Retrieve the Central Administration Site

public static SPSite GetCentralAdminSite()
{
    SPAdministrationWebApplication adminWebApp = SPAdministrationWebApplication.Local;
    if (adminWebApp == null)
    {
        throw new InvalidProgramException("Unable to get the admin web app");
    }

    SPSite adminSite = null;
    Uri adminSiteUri = adminWebApp.GetResponseUri(SPUrlZone.Default);
    if (adminSiteUri != null)
    {
        adminSite = adminWebApp.Sites[adminSiteUri.AbsoluteUri];
    }
    else
    {
        throw new InvalidProgramException("Unable to get Central Admin Site.");
    }

    return adminSite;
}

Decrypt the secure string

private static string GetStringFromSecureString(SecureString secStr)
{
    if (secStr != null)
    {
        IntPtr pPlainText = IntPtr.Zero;
        try
        {
            pPlainText = Marshal.SecureStringToBSTR(secStr);
            return Marshal.PtrToStringBSTR(pPlainText);
        }
        finally
        {
            if (pPlainText != IntPtr.Zero)
            {
                Marshal.FreeBSTR(pPlainText);
            }
        }
    }

    return null;
}

Now we can retrieve all credentials stored in the Secure Store Application

public static Dictionary<string, string> GetCredentialsFromSecureApp(string applicationId)
{

    var credentialMap = new Dictionary<string, string>();

    // Get the default Secure Store Service provider.
    ISecureStoreProvider provider = SecureStoreProviderFactory.Create();
    if (provider == null)
    {
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Unable to get an ISecureStoreProvider");
    }

    var providerContext = provider as ISecureStoreServiceContext;
    if (providerContext != null)
        providerContext.Context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(GetCentralAdminSite());

    var secureStoreProvider = new SecureStoreProvider
                              {
                                  Context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(GetCentralAdminSite())
                              };

    using (var credentials = secureStoreProvider.GetCredentials(applicationId))
    {
        var fields = secureStoreProvider.GetTargetApplicationFields(applicationId);
        for (int i = 0; i < fields.Count; i++)
        {
            var field = fields[i];
            var credential = credentials[i];

            var decryptedCredential = GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential);

            credentialMap.Add(field.Name, decryptedCredential);
        }

    }

    return credentialMap;
}

---

Add this references to your project :

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using Microsoft.BusinessData.Infrastructure.SecureStore;
using Microsoft.Office.SecureStoreService.Server;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

---

To do a simple test, I created a console application with this code:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Dictionary<string, string> dic = GetCredentialsFromSecureApp("Secure App ID");

    foreach (var VARIABLE in dic)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(VARIABLE.Key +" : "+ VARIABLE.Value);
    }
    Console.ReadKey();
}