Use the System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal
class:
String SecureStringToString(SecureString value) {
IntPtr valuePtr = IntPtr.Zero;
try {
valuePtr = Marshal.SecureStringToGlobalAllocUnicode(value);
return Marshal.PtrToStringUni(valuePtr);
} finally {
Marshal.ZeroFreeGlobalAllocUnicode(valuePtr);
}
}
If you want to avoid creating a managed string object, you can access the raw data using Marshal.ReadInt16(IntPtr, Int32)
:
void HandleSecureString(SecureString value) {
IntPtr valuePtr = IntPtr.Zero;
try {
valuePtr = Marshal.SecureStringToGlobalAllocUnicode(value);
for (int i=0; i < value.Length; i++) {
short unicodeChar = Marshal.ReadInt16(valuePtr, i*2);
// handle unicodeChar
}
} finally {
Marshal.ZeroFreeGlobalAllocUnicode(valuePtr);
}
}