I find myself wanting to get the ASP.NET machine key for the current application. This is, of course, easy if a machine key is specified in the configuration file, but if it's set to auto generate then there doesn't seem to be a public method anywhere to get it.
Basically I want at it so I can write an encrypted/MACed cookie for myself, just like the ASP.NET Forms Authentication provider does.
Does anyone have any pointers or ideas?
I came up with this as a combination of the answers above for post-4.5 .NET. Drop the code below in a file named mk.aspx, then browse to it to get the key. Be sure to delete it immediately after, because this is evil.
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Reflection" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Web" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Web.Configuration" %>
<%@ Page Language="C#"%>
<%
byte[] autogenKeys = (byte[])typeof(HttpRuntime).GetField("s_autogenKeys", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Static).GetValue(null);
Type t = typeof(System.Web.Security.DefaultAuthenticationEventArgs).Assembly.GetType("System.Web.Security.Cryptography.MachineKeyMasterKeyProvider");
ConstructorInfo ctor = t.GetConstructors(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic)[0];
Type ckey = typeof(System.Web.Security.DefaultAuthenticationEventArgs).Assembly.GetType("System.Web.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicKey");
ConstructorInfo ckeyCtor = ckey.GetConstructors(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)[0];
Object ckeyobj = ckeyCtor.Invoke(new object[] { autogenKeys });
object o = ctor.Invoke(new object[] { new MachineKeySection(), null, null, ckeyobj, null });
var encKey = t.GetMethod("GetEncryptionKey").Invoke(o, null);
byte[] encBytes = ckey.GetMethod("GetKeyMaterial").Invoke(encKey, null) as byte[];
var vldKey = t.GetMethod("GetValidationKey").Invoke(o, null);
byte[] vldBytes = ckey.GetMethod("GetKeyMaterial").Invoke(vldKey, null) as byte[];
string decryptionKey = BitConverter.ToString(encBytes);
decryptionKey = decryptionKey.Replace("-", "");
string validationKey = BitConverter.ToString(vldBytes);
validationKey = validationKey.Replace("-", "");
%>
<machineKey
validationKey="<%=validationKey%>"
decryptionKey="<%=decryptionKey%>"
/>