AspNetCore.Docs/aspnetcore/security/data-protection/extensibility/misc-apis.md

---
title: Miscellaneous ASP.NET Core Data Protection APIs
author: rick-anderson
description: Learn about the ASP.NET Core Data Protection ISecret interface.
ms.author: riande
ms.date: 10/14/2016
no-loc: [Home, Privacy, Kestrel, appsettings.json, "ASP.NET Core Identity", cookie, Cookie, Blazor, "Blazor Server", "Blazor WebAssembly", "Identity", "Let's Encrypt", Razor, SignalR]
uid: security/data-protection/extensibility/misc-apis
---
# Miscellaneous ASP.NET Core Data Protection APIs

<a name="data-protection-extensibility-mics-apis"></a>

>[!WARNING]
> Types that implement any of the following interfaces should be thread-safe for multiple callers.

## ISecret

The `ISecret` interface represents a secret value, such as cryptographic key material. It contains the following API surface:

* `Length`: `int`

* `Dispose()`: `void`

* `WriteSecretIntoBuffer(ArraySegment<byte> buffer)`: `void`

The `WriteSecretIntoBuffer` method populates the supplied buffer with the raw secret value. The reason this API takes the buffer as a parameter rather than returning a `byte[]` directly is that this gives the caller the opportunity to pin the buffer object, limiting secret exposure to the managed garbage collector.

The `Secret` type is a concrete implementation of `ISecret` where the secret value is stored in in-process memory. On Windows platforms, the secret value is encrypted via [CryptProtectMemory](/windows/win32/api/dpapi/nf-dpapi-cryptprotectmemory).