Encrypted Data in Adobe AIR

We all know that apps often store user information on our hard drives, especially to remember login credentials and customized settings. Adobe AIR allows storing this information in encrypted format (AES-CBC 128-bit encryption) for any AIR app.

In Windows, they can be stored in (and deleted from) $APPDATA\Adobe\AIR\ELS\<AIRAPP NAME> (local store), for example C:\Documents and Settings\sravan\Application Data\Adobe\AIR\ELS\<AIRAPP NAME>.

The setItem(), getItem() and removeItem() static methods of the EncryptedLocalStore class are used to store, retrieve, and remove data from the local store. setItem() has an optional parameter called ‘stronglyBound’ which when set to ‘true’ provides a higher level of security. All encrypted data stored can be deleted using reset() method in the same class.

Adobe Help has a document “Storing Encrypted Data” with a very simple how-to that covers all these aspects in greater detail. I was able to discover this thanks to Cesare Rocchi (the one behind Posty). SpreadingFunkyness is his interesting blog that he updates once in a while