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Storing encrypted dataThe EncryptedLocalStore class (ELS) provides an encrypted local storage mechanism that you can be use as a small cache for an application's private data. ELS data cannot be shared between applications. The intent of ELS is to allow an application to store easily recreated items such as login credentials and other private information. ELS data should not be considered as permanent, as outlined in "Limitations of the encrypted local store" and "Best practices," below. Note: In addition to the encrypted local store, AIR also provides
encryption for content stored in SQL databases. For details, see Using encryption with SQL databases.
You may want to use the encrypted local store to cache information that must be secured, such as login credentials for web services. The ELS is appropriate for storing information that must be kept private from other users. It does not, however, protect the data from other processes run under the same user account. It is thus not appropriate for protecting secret application data, such as DRM or encryption keys. AIR uses DPAPI on Windows, KeyChain on Mac OS, and KeyRing or KWallet on Linux to associate the encrypted local store to each application and user. The encrypted local store uses AES-CBC 128-bit encryption. Information in the encrypted local store is only available to AIR application content in the application security sandbox. If you update an AIR application, the updated version retains access to any existing data in the encrypted local store unless:
Limitations of the encrypted local storeThe data in the encrypted local store is protected by the user’s operating system account credentials. Other entities cannot access the data in the store unless they can login as that user. However, the data is not secure against access by other applications run by an authenticated user. Because the user must be authenticated for these attacks to work, the user’s private data is still protected (unless the user account itself is compromised). However, data that your application may want to keep secret from users, such as keys used for licensing or digital rights management, is not secure. Thus the ELS is not an appropriate location for storing such information. It is only an appropriate place for storing a user’s private data, such as passwords. Data in the ELS can be lost for a variety of reasons. For example, the user could uninstall the application and delete the encrypted file. Or, the publisher ID could be changed as a result of an update. Thus the ELS should be treated as a private cache, not a permanent data storage. The stronglyBound parameter is deprecated and should not be set to true. Setting the parameter to true does not provide any additional protection for data. At the same time, access to the data is lost whenever the application is updated — even if the publisher ID stays the same. The encrypted local store may perform more slowly if the stored data exceeds 10MB. When you uninstall an AIR application, the uninstaller does not delete data stored in the encrypted local store. Best practices The best practices for using the ELS include:
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