Use a dedicated, cryptographically secure —specifically one built on RNGCryptoServiceProvider or RandomNumberGenerator . Whether you are generating an AES-256 key for a database column or an HMAC secret for a JWT, the entropy source is the only thing that stands between your data and a breach.
// The ONLY way to generate a secure key in .NET using System.Security.Cryptography; public static string GenerateSecureKey(int byteLength, bool urlSafe = false) { // RandomNumberGenerator is the successor to RNGCryptoServiceProvider using (var rng = RandomNumberGenerator.Create()) { byte[] bytes = new byte[byteLength]; rng.GetBytes(bytes); // This pulls from Windows CryptGenRandom They have dictionaries full of "human-random" guesses
URL Slug: /tools/all-keys-generator-random-security-encryption-key-generator You need a key
Attackers know this. They have dictionaries full of "human-random" guesses. You need a key. So
We’ve all been there. You’re setting up a new SSL certificate, configuring a database connection string, or initializing an API authentication handler. You need a key. So, you type a few random characters on your keyboard: password123 . Done.