C# – compare two SecureStrings for equality

This doesn’t have unsafe blocks and won’t display the password in plaintext:

public static bool IsEqualTo(this SecureString ss1, SecureString ss2)
{
 IntPtr bstr1 = IntPtr.Zero;
 IntPtr bstr2 = IntPtr.Zero;
 try
 {
  bstr1 = Marshal.SecureStringToBSTR(ss1);
  bstr2 = Marshal.SecureStringToBSTR(ss2);
  int length1 = Marshal.ReadInt32(bstr1, -4);
  int length2 = Marshal.ReadInt32(bstr2, -4);
  if (length1 == length2)
  {
   for (int x = 0; x < length1; ++x)
   {
    byte b1 = Marshal.ReadByte(bstr1, x);
    byte b2 = Marshal.ReadByte(bstr2, x);
    if (b1 != b2) return false;
   }
  }
  else return false;
  return true;
 }
 finally
 {
  if (bstr2 != IntPtr.Zero) Marshal.ZeroFreeBSTR(bstr2);
  if (bstr1 != IntPtr.Zero) Marshal.ZeroFreeBSTR(bstr1);
 }
}

Edit: Fixed the leak as recommended by Alex J.

Leave a Comment

Hata!: SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'divattrend_liink'@'localhost' (using password: YES)