We have an application server, which needs to access passwords to login to other services etc. In our current implementation the passwords are saved in a plaintext file, which obviously isn't the best solution. What are "the got to" approaches in these scenarios? I'm fairly new to this so open to suggestions.
What I was thinking of was somehow encrypting the file itself, so it can't be opened normally but can be read by a c# programm - this level of security would suffice - but I wouldn't know how to achieve this.
Side info: I don't need any reset features and aren't storing user passwords or anything. Just "constant" passwords for services to login to.
Edit: We have a sql database and are managing it with SQL management studio
What I found: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/store-passwords-using-reversible-encryption As i understand it, this is a windows feature which encrypts and stores passwords but makes them decryptable also. Any experience with this?
Related questions but no real answers there: How should I ethically approach user password storage for later plaintext retrieval?
