VB.Net and phpMyAdmin: How to connect to phpMyAdmin SQL server without needing a Username or Password? - vb.net

Question

I'm setting up a Login Form on Visual Basic .Net. I would like to have this database hosted over the internet, so people can connect wherever they are.
The trouble is, security. If I have a username and password in my code, I can easily be hacked, and my program will be cracked.
Is there any way to have a token that I can use instead of a password, that can only be accessed in through the program itself?
This is my code:
Dim connection As New MySqlConnection("datasource=localhost;port-3306;username;whatever;password=whatever;database=whatever")
And this is something like what I'm looking for:
Dim connection As New MySqlConnection("token=aFjiwqMF93JmHSazhH")
If so, how would I do this, and where would I get the database token and link from?

Answer 1

Anyone able to crack your program, will more likely have the knowledge to crack into MySQL too... I know, it's not an answer, I spent many weeks trying to secure my programs against similar, however, I then thought 'Why...?'
That being said, If you really need to keep your source code under wraps and passwords removed, how about loading the connection string from a text file somewhere?
Simple encryption see system.security.cryptography
I have just looked up my old code for encrypting strings simply, you can have a look at this
Imports System.Security.Cryptography
Imports System.Net
Public NotInheritable Class Encryptorr
Public TDS As New TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider
Private Function EncHash(ByVal key As String, ByVal length As Integer) As Byte()
Dim enc_Sha1 As New SHA1CryptoServiceProvider
Dim keyBytes() As Byte =
System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(key)
Dim hash() As Byte = enc_Sha1.ComputeHash(keyBytes)
ReDim Preserve hash(length - 1)
Return hash
End Function
Sub New(ByVal key As String)
TDS.Key = EncHash(key, TDS.KeySize \ 8)
TDS.IV = EncHash("", TDS.BlockSize \ 8)
End Sub
Public Function EncryptData(ByVal plaintext As String) As String
Dim Strbytes() As Byte = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(plaintext)
Dim memStr As New System.IO.MemoryStream
Dim encStream As New CryptoStream(memStr, TDS.CreateEncryptor(), System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStreamMode.Write)
encStream.Write(Strbytes, 0, Strbytes.Length)
encStream.FlushFinalBlock()
Return Convert.ToBase64String(memStr.ToArray)
End Function
Public Function DecryptData(ByVal encryptedtext As String) As String
Try
Dim enc_Bytes() As Byte = Convert.FromBase64String(encryptedtext)
Dim mem_Str As New System.IO.MemoryStream
Dim decStream As New CryptoStream(mem_Str, TDS.CreateDecryptor(), System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStreamMode.Write)
decStream.Write(enc_Bytes, 0, enc_Bytes.Length)
decStream.FlushFinalBlock()
Return System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetString(mem_Str.ToArray)
Catch ex As Exception
Return "Decryption Failed"
End Try
End Function
End Class
Call with
Public Sub TestMe()
Dim encr As Encryptorr = New Encryptorr("AlovelyLong463728KeytoEncryptwith")
Dim encrytedstr As String = encr.EncryptData(textbox1.text)
Textbox2.text = encrytedstr
Dim decry As Encryptorr = New Encryptorr("AlovelyLong463728KeytoEncryptwith")
Dim decryptedtext As String = decry.DecryptData(Textbox2.text)
Textbox3.text = decryptedtext
End Sub
You can then encrypt and decrypt strings read from text files, although back to my original point. If someone can gain access to the program code, they can also work out the decryption too... :(
Still food for thought! Good luck
Update--
Just to add, you could always create the encrytped string, use that as a global variable and the decryt function to pass directly as your connection string. This means isnstead of saving the username and password in a text file, you just use Public Shared Constr as String = fhdasjifhn32437289cj (or whatever the encrypted string is) and the connection would be Dim Con as MySQLConnection = new MySQLConnection(DecryptMyStr(Constr)) with DecryptMyStr being the decrypt function