Cryptography

I am working on creating an encryption class for storing passwords in a database. I am considering using the DPAPI outlined in Microsoft?s patterns and practices (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/SecNetHT08.asp).
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I only have a few concerns.
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1) Are the servers clustered? If I understand correctly, by using the machine store, the data can only be decrypted on the same machine it was encrypted on. Therefore, clustering would cause issues.
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2) If I can?t use the machine store, do I have access to the user store? I believe there is some extra set up that needs to done in order to ensure the user profile is properly loaded.
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Are there any other issues with using the DPAPI that I haven?t thought of?

Thanks for your help.

 

There are examples on MSDN that show how to do encryption without having to involve a system dependent entity like the machine store. I've written one based on one of their samples that also runs under Mono on Linux.