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MemoryProtectionScope Enumeration

Specifies the scope of memory protection to be applied by the Protect method.

Namespace:  System.Security.Cryptography
Assembly:  System.Security (in System.Security.dll)

'Declaration
Public Enumeration MemoryProtectionScope
'Usage
Dim instance As MemoryProtectionScope

Member nameDescription
SameProcessOnly code running in the same process as the code that called the Protect method can unprotect memory.
CrossProcessAll code in any process can unprotect memory that was protected using the Protect method.
SameLogonOnly code running in the same user context as the code that called the Protect method can unprotect memory.

This enumeration is used with the Protect and Unprotect methods to protect data in memory.

The following code example shows how to use data protection.

Imports System
Imports System.Security.Cryptography



Public Class MemoryProtectionSample

    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' Create the original data to be encrypted (The data length should be a multiple of 16). 
        Dim secret As Byte() = {1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4}

        ' Encrypt the data in memory. The result is stored in the same same array as the original data.
        ProtectedMemory.Protect(secret, MemoryProtectionScope.SameLogon)

        ' Decrypt the data in memory and store in the original array.
        ProtectedMemory.Unprotect(secret, MemoryProtectionScope.SameLogon)

    End Sub 
End Class

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0
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