Can another application access a private key stored in a key container using RSACryptoServiceProvider?

Question

I am using RSACryptoServiceProvider to generate public/private key pair and using cspParameters object to store it in a key container.

My problem is that after i store the private key in a key container, can another application access the key container and retrieve the private key i generated?

If yes, the security of the key is compromised isn't it?

How do i avoid this? Should i encrypt the generated private key with a symmetric encryption algorithm?

Answer 1

Without using a Hardware Security Module, your only protection is to set the CspParameters.Flags field:

CspParameters.Flags = CspProviderFlags.UseNonExportableKey |  CspProviderFlags.UseUserProtectedKey;

The first flag prevents software from "honestly" exporting the private key. The second requires user interaction with the GUI to perform any private key operations.