How to convert SID to String in .net

Question

I would like to convert the SID's System.Byte[] type to a String.

My code:

string path = "LDAP://DC=abc,DC=contoso,DC=com";
DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(path);
DirectorySearcher mySearcher = new DirectorySearcher(entry);

mySearcher.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user)(samaccountname=user1))";
results = mySearcher.FindAll();
foreach (SearchResult searchResult in results)
{
    Console.WriteLine(searchResult.Properties["ObjectSID"][0].ToString());
}

I tried with this but it gets the values from the domain I'm currently logged in, and i need from a given domain.

System.Security.Principal.NTAccount(user1)
    .Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]).value

Answer 1

Take a look at the SecurityIdentifier class. You can then do simple things like,

var sidInBytes = (byte[]) *somestuff*
var sid = new SecurityIdentifier(sidInBytes, 0);
// This gives you what you want
sid.ToString();

Answer 2

After load the property in directoryEntry ....

var usrId = (byte[])directoryEntry.Properties["objectSid"][0];
var objectID = (new SecurityIdentifier(usrId,0)).ToString();

Answer 3

This is what I've done, after some reading it seemed safer to store the value in oct.

If you don't know which servers is on the other side.

The code below shows how to do it to get your desired result:

private static string ExtractSinglePropertyValueFromByteArray(object value)
{
    //all if checks etc has been omitted
    string propertyValue = string.Empty;
    var bytes = (byte[])value;
    var propertyValueOct = BuildOctString(bytes); // 010500....etc
    var propertyValueSec = BuildSecString(bytes); // S-1-5-...etc
    propertyValue = propertyValueSec;
    return propertyValue;
}

private static string BuildSecString(byte[] bytes)
{
    return new SecurityIdentifier(bytes,0).Value.ToString();
}

private static string BuildOctString(byte[] bytes)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
    {
        sb.Append(bytes[i].ToString("X2"));
    }
    return sb.ToString();
}