Membership item encryption issue in web.config

Question

I am trying to encrypt the "system.web.membership" element in the Web.Config of our .Net application to protect the username and password in Active Directory. I use the aspnet_regiis command for encryption and have tried several different lines for the value of the "pe" parameter without success. I have successfully encrypted the "connectstrings" element on my web.config.

Cmd

  C: \ Windows \ Microsoft.NET \ Framework \ v2.0.50727> aspnet_regiis -pe "connectionStrings" -site MySite -app / MyApp
 Encrypting configuration section ...
 Succeeded!

 C: \ Windows \ Microsoft.NET \ Framework \ v2.0.50727> aspnet_regiis -pe "membership" -site MySite -app / MyApp
 Encrypting configuration section ...
 The configuration section 'membership' was not found.
 Failed!

 C: \ Windows \ Microsoft.NET \ Framework \ v2.0.50727> aspnet_regiis -pe "system.web.membership" -site MySite -app / MyApp
 Encrypting configuration section ...
 The configuration section 'system.web.membership' was not found.
 Failed! 

Web.config

<configuration> ... <system.web> ... <authentication mode="Forms"> <forms name=".ADAuthCookie" timeout="30"/> </authentication> <authorization> <deny users="?"/> <allow users="*"/> </authorization> <membership defaultProvider="MyADMembershipProvider"> <providers> <add name="MyADMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="ADConnectionString" connectionUsername="MyUserName" connectionPassword="MyPassowrd"/> </providers> </membership> ... </system.web> ... </configuration> 

So what gives? What am I missing?

Answer 1

The configuration section is identified as " system.web/membership ", not " membership " or " system.web.membership ".

Answer 2

I know that your problem has already been solved, but for other people receiving this error message, it seems that only certain sections of web.config can be encrypted. I tried to encrypt SMTP settings in my web configuration:

 <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <system.net> <mailSettings> <smtp> <network host="myhost" port="25" userName="myusername" password="mypassword" /> </smtp> </mailSettings> </system.net> </configuration> 

This worked:

 aspnet_regiis.exe -pef "system.net/mailSettings/smtp" "path_to_site" -prov "DataProtectionConfigurationProvider" 

but this is not so:

 aspnet_regiis.exe -pef "system.net/mailSettings" "path_to_site" -prov "DataProtectionConfigurationProvider" aspnet_regiis.exe -pef "system.net" "path_to_site" -prov "DataProtectionConfigurationProvider"