Question

I am building a custom shopping cart where CC numbers and Exp date will be stored in a database until processing (then deleted). I need to encrypt this data (obviously).

I want to use the RSACryptoServiceProvider class.

Here is my code to create my keys.

public static void AssignNewKey(){
    const int PROVIDER_RSA_FULL = 1;
    const string CONTAINER_NAME = "KeyContainer";
    CspParameters cspParams;
    cspParams = new CspParameters(PROVIDER_RSA_FULL);
    cspParams.KeyContainerName = CONTAINER_NAME;
    cspParams.Flags = CspProviderFlags.UseMachineKeyStore;
    cspParams.ProviderName = "Microsoft Strong Cryptographic Provider";
    rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cspParams);

    string publicPrivateKeyXML = rsa.ToXmlString(true);
    string publicOnlyKeyXML = rsa.ToXmlString(false);
    // do stuff with keys...
}

Now the plan is to store the private key xml on a USB drive attached to the managers key chain.

Whenever a manager leaves the company I want to be able to generate new public and private keys (and re-encrypt all currently stored CC numbers with the new public key).

My problem is that the keys generated by this code are always the same. How would I generate a unique set of keys every time?

UPDATE. My test code is below.:
note: the “privatekey” parameter here is the original private key. In order for the keys to be changed I need to verify that the private key is valid.

In Default.aspx.cs

public void DownloadNewPrivateKey_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(fileUpload.FileContent);
    string privateKey = reader.ReadToEnd();
    Response.Clear();
    Response.ContentType = "text/xml";
    Response.End();
    Response.Write(ChangeKeysAndReturnNewPrivateKey(privateKey));
}

In Crytpography.cs:

public static privateKey;
public static publicKey;
public static RSACryptoServiceProvider rsa;

public static string ChangeKeysAndReturnNewPrivateKey(string _privatekey)
{

    string testData = "TestData";
    string testSalt = "salt";
    // encrypt the test data using the exisiting public key...
    string encryptedTestData = EncryptData(testData, testSalt);
    try
    {
        // try to decrypt the test data using the _privatekey provided by user...
        string decryptTestData = DecryptData(encryptedTestData, _privatekey, testSalt);
        // if the data is successfully decrypted assign new keys...
        if (decryptTestData == testData)
        {
            AssignNewKey();
            // "AssignNewKey()" should set "privateKey" to the newly created private key...
            return privateKey;
        }
        else
        {
            return string.Empty;
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return string.Empty;
    }
}
public static void AssignParameter(){
    const int PROVIDER_RSA_FULL = 1;
    const string CONTAINER_NAME = "KeyContainer";
    CspParameters cspParams;
    cspParams = new CspParameters(PROVIDER_RSA_FULL);
    cspParams.KeyContainerName = CONTAINER_NAME;
    cspParams.Flags = CspProviderFlags.UseMachineKeyStore;
    cspParams.ProviderName = "Microsoft Strong Cryptographic Provider";
    rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cspParams);
}
public static void AssignNewKey()
{
    AssignParameter();

    using (SqlConnection myConn = new SqlConnection(Utilities.ConnectionString))
    {
        SqlCommand myCmd = myConn.CreateCommand();

        string publicPrivateKeyXML = rsa.ToXmlString(true);
        privateKey = publicPrivateKeyXML; // sets the public variable privateKey to the new private key.

        string publicOnlyKeyXML = rsa.ToXmlString(false);
        publicKey = publicOnlyKeyXML; // sets the public variable publicKey to the new public key.

        myCmd.CommandText = "UPDATE Settings SET PublicKey = @PublicKey";
        myCmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@PublicKey", publicOnlyKeyXML);
        myConn.Open();

        myComm.ExecuteScalar();
    }
}
public static string EncryptData(string data2Encrypt, string salt)
{
    AssignParameter();

    using (SqlConnection myConn = new SqlConnection(Utilities.ConnectionString))
    {
        SqlCommand myCmd = myConn.CreateCommand();

        myCmd.CommandText = "SELECT TOP 1 PublicKey FROM Settings";

        myConn.Open();

        using (SqlDataReader sdr = myCmd.ExecuteReader())
        {
            if (sdr.HasRows)
            {
                DataTable dt = new DataTable();
                dt.Load(sdr);
                rsa.FromXmlString(dt.Rows[0]["PublicKey"].ToString());
            }
        }
    }

    //read plaintext, encrypt it to ciphertext
    byte[] plainbytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data2Encrypt + salt);
    byte[] cipherbytes = rsa.Encrypt(plainbytes, false);
    return Convert.ToBase64String(cipherbytes);
}
public static string DecryptData(string data2Decrypt, string privatekey, string salt)
{
    AssignParameter();

    byte[] getpassword = Convert.FromBase64String(data2Decrypt);

    string publicPrivateKeyXML = privatekey;
    rsa.FromXmlString(publicPrivateKeyXML);

    //read ciphertext, decrypt it to plaintext
    byte[] plain = rsa.Decrypt(getpassword, false);
    string dataAndSalt = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(plain);
    return dataAndSalt.Substring(0, dataAndSalt.Length - salt.Length);
}

Answer 1

What I ended up doing is create a new KeyContainer name based off of the current DateTime (DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString()) whenever I need to create a new key and save the container name and public key to the database. Also, whenever I create a new key I would do the following:

public static string ConvertToNewKey(string oldPrivateKey)
{

    // get the current container name from the database...

    rsa.PersistKeyInCsp = false;
    rsa.Clear();
    rsa = null;

    string privateKey = AssignNewKey(true); // create the new public key and container name and write them to the database...

       // re-encrypt existing data to use the new keys and write to database...

    return privateKey;
}
public static string AssignNewKey(bool ReturnPrivateKey){
     string containerName = DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString();
     // create the new key...
     // saves container name and public key to database...
     // and returns Private Key XML.
}

before creating the new key.