Chilkat VB.NET Crypt2 Class Reference

Crypt2

Chilkat encryption component.

Object Creation

(C#)
Chilkat.Crypt2 obj = new Chilkat.Crypt2();
(VB.NET)
Dim obj As New Chilkat.Crypt2()

Properties

BlockSize As Integer (ReadOnly)

The block-size (in bytes) of the selected encryption algorithm. For example, if the CryptAlgorithm property is set to "aes", the BlockSize property is automatically set to 16. The block-size for the ARC4 streaming encryption algorithm is 1.

CadesEnabled As Boolean

To be documented soon...

CadesSigPolicyHash As String

To be documented soon...

CadesSigPolicyId As String

To be documented soon...

CadesSigPolicyUri As String

To be documented soon...

Charset As String

Controls the character encoding of the text encrypted, signed, hashed or compressed. This property is relevant wherever strings are used as inputs or outputs.

When working with strings, it is important to know the exact bytes that are being encrypted/hashed/signed/compressed. This is critical when interoperating with other systems. If your application is sending an encrypted string to another system that will decrypt it, you will need to know the encoding of the string that is expected on the receiving end (after decryption). If you pass Unicode data (2 byte per character) to the encryptor, subsequent decryption will reproduce the original Unicode. However, it may be that your program works with Unicode strings, but the recipient of the encrypted data works with iso-8859-1 strings. In such a case, setting the Charset property to "iso-8859-1" causes the character data to be automatically converted to the Charset before being encrypted (or compressed, or hashed, or signed). The set of valid charsets is listed below: 


ANSI
us-ascii
unicode
unicodefffe
iso-8859-1
iso-8859-2
iso-8859-3
iso-8859-4
iso-8859-5
iso-8859-6
iso-8859-7
iso-8859-8
iso-8859-9
iso-8859-13
iso-8859-15
windows-874
windows-1250
windows-1251
windows-1252
windows-1253
windows-1254
windows-1255
windows-1256
windows-1257
windows-1258
utf-7
utf-8
utf-32
utf-32be
shift_jis
gb2312
ks_c_5601-1987
big5
iso-2022-jp
iso-2022-kr
euc-jp
euc-kr
macintosh
x-mac-japanese
x-mac-chinesetrad
x-mac-korean
x-mac-arabic
x-mac-hebrew
x-mac-greek
x-mac-cyrillic
x-mac-chinesesimp
x-mac-romanian
x-mac-ukrainian
x-mac-thai
x-mac-ce
x-mac-icelandic
x-mac-turkish
x-mac-croatian
asmo-708
dos-720
dos-862
ibm037
ibm437
ibm500
ibm737
ibm775
ibm850
ibm852
ibm855
ibm857
ibm00858
ibm860
ibm861
ibm863
ibm864
ibm865
cp866
ibm869
ibm870
cp875
koi8-r
koi8-u

CipherMode As String

Controls the cipher mode for Rijndael and Twofish encryption. Possible values are "CBC" (the default) and "ECB".

CBC is an acronym for Cipher Block Chaining, ECB is an acronym for Electronic CookBook.

CompressionAlgorithm As String

Selects the compression algorithm to be used for the various compress and inflate methods. Currently, the only valid setting is "BZIP2".

CryptAlgorithm As String

Selects the encryption algorithm for encrypting and decrypting. Possible values are: "pki", "aes", "rijndael", "blowfish", "blowfish2", "des", "3des", "rc2", "arc4", "twofish", "pbes1" and "pbes2". The "pki" encryption algorithm isn't a specific algorithm, but instead tells the component to encrypt/decrypt using public-key encryption with digital certificates. The other choices, rijndael, blowfish, and twofish, are symmetric encryption algorithms that do not involve digital certificates and public/private keys.

The original Chilkat implementation of Blowfish has a 4321 byte-swapping issue (the results are 4321 byte-swapped). The new implementation ("blowfish2") does not byte swap. This should be used for compatibility with other Blowfish software.

Password-based encryption (PBE) is selected by setting this property to "pbes1" or "pbes2". Password-based encryption is defined in the PKCS5 Password-Based Cryptography Standard at http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2127. If PBE is used, the underlying encryption algorithm is specified by the PbesAlgorithm property. The underlying encryption (PbesAlgorithm) for PBES1 is limited to 56-bit DES or 64-bit RC2.

EnableEvents As Boolean

This property must be set to True to enable progress monitoring events. By default, it is False.

EncodingMode As String

Controls the encoding of binary data to a printable string for many methods. The valid modes are "Base64", "Base32", "UU", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), and "Hex".

FirstChunk As Boolean

Chilkat Crypt2 provides the ability to feed the encryption/decryption methods with chunks of data. This allows a large amount of data, or a data stream, to be fed piecemeal for encrypting or decrypting. It applies to all symmetric algorithms currently supported (AES, Blowfish, Twofish, 3DES, RC2, DES, ARC4), and all algorithms supported in the future.

The default value for both FirstChunk and LastChunk is True — meaning that when you call an Encrypt* or Decrypt* method, it is both the first and last chunk (i.e. it’s the entire amount of data to be encrypted or decrypted).

If you wish to feed the data piecemeal, do this:

  1. Set FirstChunk = True, LastChunk = False for the first chunk of data.
  2. For all “middle” chunks (i.e. all chunks except for the final chunk) set FirstChunk = False and LastChunk = False.
  3. For the final chunk, set FirstChunk = False and LastChunk = True

You don’t need to worry about feeding data according to the block size of the encryption algorithm. For example, AES has a block size of 16 bytes. You may feed data in chunks of any size. The Chilkat Crypt2 component will buffer the data. When the final chunk is passed, the output is padded to the algorithm’s block size according to the PaddingScheme.

more info about FirstChunk/LastChunk

HashAlgorithm As String

Selects the hash algorithm used by methods that create hashes. The valid choices are "sha1", "sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "md2", "md5", "haval", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320".

HavalRounds As Integer

Applies to the HAVAL hash algorithm only and must be set to the integer value 3, 4, or 5. The default value is 3.

IV As Byte()

The initialization vector to be used with symmetric encryption algorithms (Rijndael, Blowfish, Twofish). If left unset, no initialization vector is used.

IncludeCertChain As Boolean

Only applies when creating digital signatures. If True (the default), then additional certificates (if any) in the chain of authentication are included in the PKCS7 digital signature.

IterationCount As Integer

Iteration count to be used with password-based encryption (PBE). Password-based encryption is defined in the PKCS5 Password-Based Cryptography Standard at http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2127

The purpose of the iteration count is to increase the computation required to encrypt and decrypt. A larger iteration count makes cracking via exhaustive search more difficult. The default value is 1024.

KeyLength As Integer

The key length in bits for symmetric encryption algorithms. The default value is 128.

LastChunk As Boolean

(See the description for the FirstChunk property.)

LastErrorHtml As String (ReadOnly)

Error information in HTML format for the last method called.

LastErrorText As String (ReadOnly)

Error information in plain-text format for the last method called.

LastErrorXml As String (ReadOnly)

Error information in XML format for the last method called.

NumSignerCerts As Integer (ReadOnly)

This property is set when a digital signature is verified. It contains the number of signer certificates. Each signing certificate can be retrieved by calling the GetSignerCert method, passing an index from 0 to NumSignerCerts-1.

PaddingScheme As Integer

The padding scheme used by block encryption algorithms such as AES (Rijndael), Blowfish, Twofish, RC2, DES, 3DES, etc. Block encryption algorithms pad encrypted data to a multiple of algorithm's block size. The default value of this property is 0.

Possible values are:

0 = RFC 1423 padding scheme: Each padding byte is set to the number of padding bytes. If the data is already a multiple of algorithm's block size bytes, an extra block is appended each having a value equal to the block size. (for example, if the algorithm's block size is 16, then 16 bytes having the value 0x10 are added.). (This is also known as PKCS5 padding: PKCS #5 padding string consists of a sequence of bytes, each of which is equal to the total number of padding bytes added. )

1 = FIPS81 (Federal Information Processing Standards 81) where the last byte contains the number of padding bytes, including itself, and the other padding bytes are set to random values.

2 = Each padding byte is set to a random value. The decryptor must know how many bytes are in the original unencrypted data.

3 = Pad with NULLs. (If already a multiple of the algorithm's block size, no padding is added).

4 = Pad with SPACE chars(0x20). (If already a multiple of algorithm's block size, no padding is added).

PbesAlgorithm As String

If the CryptAlgorithm property is set to "pbes1" or "pbes2", this property specifies the underlying encryption algorithm to be used with password-based encryption (PBE). Password-based encryption is defined in the PKCS5 Password-Based Cryptography Standard at http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2127

PbesPassword As String

The password to be used with password-based encryption (PBE). Password-based encryption is defined in the PKCS5 Password-Based Cryptography Standard at http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2127

Pkcs7CryptAlg As String

When the CryptAlgorithm property is "PKI" to select PKCS7 public-key encryption, this selects the underlying symmetric encryption algorithm. Possible values are: "aes", "des", "3des", and "rc2".

Rc2EffectiveKeyLength As Integer

The effective key length (in bits) for the RC2 encryption algorithm. When RC2 is used, both the KeyLength and Rc2EffectiveKeyLength properties should be set. For RC2, both should be between 8 and 1024 (inclusive).

Salt As Byte()

The salt to be used with password-based encryption (PBE). Password-based encryption is defined in the PKCS5 Password-Based Cryptography Standard at http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2127

SecretKey As Byte()

The binary secret key used for symmetric encryption (Rijndael, Blowfish, Twofish). The secret key must be identical for decryption to succeed. The length in bytes of the SecretKey must equal the KeyLength/8.

UuFilename As String

When UU encoding, this is the filename to be embedded in UU encoded output. The default is "file.dat". When UU decoding, this is the filename found in the UU encoded input.

(VB.NET) UU Encoding and Decoding

(PowerShell) UU Encoding and Decoding

UuMode As String

When UU encoding, this is the file permissions mode to be embedded in UU encoded output. The default is "644". When UU decoding, this property is set to the mode found in the UU encoded input.

VerboseLogging As Boolean

Set to True to make the contents of the LastErrorText, LastErrorHtml, and LastErrorXml properties more verbose. The default value is False. Make sure to turn off verbose logging when not debugging, as verbose logging can affect performance.

Version As String (ReadOnly)

The version of the component, such as "4.0.0".

Methods

Sub AddEncryptCert(ByVal cert As Cert)

Adds a certificate to be used for public-key encryption. (To use public-key encryption with digital certificates, set the CryptAlgorithm property = "pki".) To encrypt with more than one certificate, call AddEncryptCert once per certificate.

Function AddPfxSourceData(ByVal pfxBytes As Byte(), ByVal pfxPassword As String) As Boolean

Adds a PFX to the object's internal list of sources to be searched for certificates and private keys when decrypting. Multiple PFX sources can be added by calling this method once for each. (On the Windows operating system, the registry-based certificate stores are also automatically searched, so it is commonly not required to explicitly add PFX sources.)

The pfxBytes contains the bytes of a PFX file (also known as PKCS12 or .p12).

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Function AddPfxSourceFile(ByVal pfxFilePath As String, ByVal pfxPassword As String) As Boolean

Adds a PFX file to the object's internal list of sources to be searched for certificates and private keys when decrypting. Multiple PFX files can be added by calling this method once for each. (On the Windows operating system, the registry-based certificate stores are also automatically searched, so it is commonly not required to explicitly add PFX sources.)

The pfxFilePath contains the bytes of a PFX file (also known as PKCS12 or .p12).

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Function ByteSwap4321(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

Convenience method for byte swapping between little-endian byte ordering and big-endian byte ordering.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function BytesToString(ByVal inData As Byte(), ByVal charset As String) As String

Utility method to convert bytes to a string -- interpreting the bytes according to the charset specified.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function CkDecryptFile(ByVal inFile As String, ByVal outFile As String) As Boolean

File-to-file decryption. There is no limit to the size of the file that can be decrypted because the component will operate in streaming mode internally.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Function CkEncryptFile(ByVal inFile As String, ByVal outFile As String) As Boolean

File-to-file encryption. There is no limit to the size of the file that can be encrypted because the component will operate in streaming mode internally.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Sub ClearEncryptCerts()

Clears the internal list of digital certificates to be used for public-key encryption.

Function CompressBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

Memory-to-memory compression. Compresses a byte array and returns a byte array of compressed data. The compression algorithm specified by the CompressionAlgorithm property is used. Currently, the only choice is "BZIP2".

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function CompressBytesENC(ByVal data As Byte()) As String

Same as CompressBytes, except an encoded string is returned. The encoding is controlled by the EncodingMode property, which can be set to "Base64", "QP" (for quoted-printable), or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function CompressString(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

Compresses a string and returns a byte array of the compressed data. For languages such as C#, VB.NET, Visual Basic 6, etc. the string input argument is Unicode. The Charset property controls the conversion of the Unicode string to a multibyte string before compression is applied. For example, if Charset is set to "iso-8859-1", then the input string argument is first converted from Unicode (2 bytes per char) to iso-8859-1 (1 byte per char) before compressing according to the CompressionAlgorithm property ("BZIP2"). If the Charset property is set to "unicode", then no character encoding conversion will happen, and the full Unicode string is compressed.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function CompressStringENC(ByVal str As String) As String

Compresses a string and returns an encoded string of the compressed data. For languages such as C#, VB.NET, Visual Basic 6, etc. the string input argument is Unicode. The Charset property controls the conversion of the Unicode string to a multibyte string before compression is applied. For example, if Charset is set to "iso-8859-1", then the input string argument is first converted from Unicode (2 bytes per char) to iso-8859-1 (1 byte per char) before compressing according to the CompressionAlgorithm property ("BZIP2"). If the Charset property is set to "unicode", then no character encoding conversion will happen, and the full Unicode string is compressed.

Compressed data is typically binary data which is not a printable string. This method encodes the output compressed data to a printable string according to the EncodingMode property, which can be set to "Base64", "QP" (for quoted-printable), or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function CreateDetachedSignature(ByVal inFilePath As String, ByVal outSigFilePath As String) As Boolean

Digitally signs a file and writes the digital signature to a separate output file (a PKCS#7 signature file). The input file (inFilePath) is unmodified. A certificate for signing must be specified by calling SetSigningCert or SetSigningCert2 prior to calling this method.

This method is equivalent to CreateP7S. The CreateP7S method was added to clarify the format of the signature file that is created.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Function CreateP7M(ByVal inFilename As String, ByVal p7mFilename As String) As Boolean

Digitally signs a file and creates a .p7m (PKCS #7 Message) file that contains both the signature and original file content. The input file (ARG1) is unmodified. A certificate for signing must be specified by calling SetSigningCert or SetSigningCert2 prior to calling this method.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Function CreateP7S(ByVal inFilename As String, ByVal outP7sFilename As String) As Boolean

Digitally signs a file and creates a .p7s (PKCS #7 Signature) signature file. The input file (inFilename) is unmodified. The output file ( outP7sFilename) contains only the signature and not the original data. A certificate for signing must be specified by calling SetSigningCert or SetSigningCert2 prior to calling this method.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Function Decode(ByVal str As String, ByVal encoding As String) As Byte()

Decode binary data from an encoded string. The ARG3 can be any of the following: "base64", "base32", "hex", "url", "html", "uu", "modbase64", or "quoted-printable".

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function DecodeString(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal encoding As String) As String

Decodes from an encoding back to the original string. The encoding can be any of the following: "base64", "base32", "hex", "url", "html", "uu", "modbase64", or "quoted-printable".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function DecryptBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

Decrypts a byte array and returns the unencrypted byte array. The property settings used when encrypting the data must match the settings when decrypting. Specifically, the CryptAlgorithm, CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV, and SecretKey properties must match.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function DecryptBytesENC(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

Decrypts string-encoded encrypted data and returns the unencrypted byte array. Data encrypted with EncryptBytesENC can be decrypted with this method. The property settings used when encrypting the data must match the settings when decrypting. Specifically, the EncodingMode, CryptAlgorithm, CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV, and SecretKey properties must match.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function DecryptEncoded(ByVal encodedEncryptedData As String) As String

Encrypted data is passed to this method as an encoded string (base64, hex, etc.). This method first decodes the input data according to the EncodingMode property setting. It then decrypts and re-encodes using the EncodingMode setting, and returns the decrypted data in encoded string form.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function DecryptString(ByVal data As Byte()) As String

The reverse of EncryptString.

Decrypts encrypted byte data and returns the original string. The property settings used when encrypting the string must match the settings when decrypting. Specifically, the Charset, CryptAlgorithm, CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV, and SecretKey properties must match.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function DecryptStringENC(ByVal str As String) As String

The reverse of EncryptStringENC.

Decrypts string-encoded encrypted data and returns the original string. The property settings used when encrypting the string must match the settings when decrypting. Specifically, the Charset, EncodingMode, CryptAlgorithm, CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV, and SecretKey properties must match.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function Encode(ByVal data As Byte(), ByVal encoding As String) As String

Encode binary data to base64, hex, quoted-printable, or URL-encoding. The encoding argument can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", or "url".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function EncodeString(ByVal strToEncode As String, ByVal charsetName As String, ByVal toEncodingName As String) As String

Encode a string to base64, hex, quoted-printable, or URL-encoding. charsetName may be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", or "url". The toEncodingName is important, and usually you'll want to specify "ansi". For example, if the string "ABC" is to be encoded to "hex" using ANSI, the result will be "414243". However, if "unicode" is used, the result is "410042004300".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function EncryptBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

Encrypts a byte array. The minimal set of properties that should be set before encrypting are: CryptAlgorithm, SecretKey. Other properties that control encryption are: CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV. When decrypting, all property settings must match otherwise garbled data is returned.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function EncryptBytesENC(ByVal data As Byte()) As String

Encrypts a byte array and returns the encrypted data as an encoded (printable) string. The minimal set of properties that should be set before encrypting are: CryptAlgorithm, SecretKey, EncodingMode. Other properties that control encryption are: CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV. When decrypting, all property settings must match otherwise garbled data is returned. The encoding of the string that is returned is controlled by the EncodingMode property, which can be set to "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function EncryptEncoded(ByVal str As String) As String

The input string is first decoded according to the encoding algorithm specified by the EncodingMode property (such as base64, hex, etc.) It is then encrypted according to the encryption algorithm specified by CryptAlgorithm. The resulting encrypted data is encoded (using EncodingMode) and returned.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function EncryptString(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

Encrypts a string and returns the encrypted data as a byte array. The minimal set of properties that should be set before encrypting are: CryptAlgorithm, SecretKey, Charset. Other properties that control encryption are: CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV. When decrypting, all property settings must match otherwise garbled data is returned. The Charset property controls the exact bytes that get encrypted. Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings, thus the input string is Unicode. If Unicode is to be encrypted (i.e. 2 bytes per character) then set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert the string to another charset before the encryption is applied, set the Charset property to something else, such as "iso-8859-1", "Shift_JIS", "big5", "windows-1252", etc. The complete list of possible charsets is listed here: 


us-ascii
unicode
unicodefffe
iso-8859-1
iso-8859-2
iso-8859-3
iso-8859-4
iso-8859-5
iso-8859-6
iso-8859-7
iso-8859-8
iso-8859-9
iso-8859-13
iso-8859-15
windows-874
windows-1250
windows-1251
windows-1252
windows-1253
windows-1254
windows-1255
windows-1256
windows-1257
windows-1258
utf-7
utf-8
utf-32
utf-32be
shift_jis
gb2312
ks_c_5601-1987
big5
iso-2022-jp
iso-2022-kr
euc-jp
euc-kr
macintosh
x-mac-japanese
x-mac-chinesetrad
x-mac-korean
x-mac-arabic
x-mac-hebrew
x-mac-greek
x-mac-cyrillic
x-mac-chinesesimp
x-mac-romanian
x-mac-ukrainian
x-mac-thai
x-mac-ce
x-mac-icelandic
x-mac-turkish
x-mac-croatian
asmo-708
dos-720
dos-862
ibm037
ibm437
ibm500
ibm737
ibm775
ibm850
ibm852
ibm855
ibm857
ibm00858
ibm860
ibm861
ibm863
ibm864
ibm865
cp866
ibm869
ibm870
cp875
koi8-r
koi8-u

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function EncryptStringENC(ByVal str As String) As String

Encrypts a string and returns the encrypted data as an encoded (printable) string. The minimal set of properties that should be set before encrypting are: CryptAlgorithm, SecretKey, Charset, and EncodingMode. Other properties that control encryption are: CipherMode, PaddingScheme, KeyLength, IV. When decrypting (with DecryptStringENC), all property settings must match otherwise garbled data is returned. The Charset property controls the exact bytes that get encrypted. Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings, thus the input string is Unicode. If Unicode is to be encrypted (i.e. 2 bytes per character) then set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert the string to another charset before the encryption is applied, set the Charset property to something else, such as "iso-8859-1", "Shift_JIS", "big5", "windows-1252", etc. (Refer to EncryptString for the complete list of charsets.)

The EncodingMode property controls the encoding of the string that is returned. It can be set to "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function GenEncodedSecretKey(ByVal password As String, ByVal encoding As String) As String

Identical to the GenerateSecretKey method, except it returns the binary secret key as a string encoded according to encoding, which may be "base64", "hex", "url", etc. Please see the documentation for GenerateSecretKey for more information.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function GenRandomBytesENC(ByVal numBytes As Integer) As String

Generates numBytes random bytes and returns them as an encoded string. The encoding, such as base64, hex, etc. is controlled by the EncodingMode property.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function GenerateSecretKey(ByVal password As String) As Byte()

Hashes a string to a byte array that has the same number of bits as the current value of the KeyLength property. For example, if KeyLength is equal to 128 bits, then a 16-byte array is returned. This can be used to set the SecretKey property. In order to decrypt, the SecretKey must match exactly. To use "password-based" encryption, the password is passed to this method to generate a binary secret key that can then be assigned to the SecretKey property.

IMPORTANT: If you are trying to decrypt something encrypted by another party such that the other party provided you with the secret key, DO NOT use this method. This method is for transforming an arbitrary-length password into a binary secret key of the proper length. Please see this Chilkat blog post: Getting Started with AES Decryption

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function GetEncodedIV(ByVal encoding As String) As String

Returns the initialization vector as an encoded string. The encoding argument can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", or "url".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function GetEncodedKey(ByVal encoding As String) As String

Returns the secret key as an encoded string. The encoding argument can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", or "url".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function GetEncodedSalt(ByVal encoding As String) As String

Returns the password-based encryption (PBE) salt bytes as an encoded string. The encoding argument can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", or "url".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function GetLastCert() As Cert

Returns the last certificate used when decrypting data or verifying a signature. This is only valid when public-key encryption is used, and does not apply to symmetric algorithms such as Rijndael, Blowfish, or Twofish.

Function GetSignatureSigningTime(ByVal index As Integer) As Date

To be documented soon...

Function GetSignerCert(ByVal index As Integer) As Cert

This method can be called after a digital signature is verified to retrieve the certificate(s) used for signing. The 1st certificate is at index 0. The NumSignerCerts property contains the total number of signing certificates. (Typically, a single certificate is used in creating a digital signature.)

Function HasSignatureSigningTime(ByVal index As Integer) As Boolean

To be documented soon...

Function HashBeginBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Boolean

Begin hashing a byte stream. Call this method to hash the 1st chunk. Additional chunks are hashed by calling HashMoreBytes 0 or more times followed by a final call to HashFinal (or HashFinalENC) to retrieve the result. The hash algorithm is selected by the HashAlgorithm property setting.

Function HashBeginString(ByVal strData As String) As Boolean

Begin hashing a text stream. Call this method to hash the 1st chunk. Additional chunks are hashed by calling HashMoreString 0 or more times followed by a final call to HashFinal (or HashFinalENC) to retrieve the result. The hash algorithm is selected by the HashAlgorithm property setting.

Function HashBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

Hashes a byte array. The hash algorithm to be used is controlled by the HashAlgorithm property, which can be set to "sha1", "sha384", "sha512", "md2", "md5", "haval", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320".

The HAVAL hash algorithm is affected by two other properties: HavalRounds and KeyLength. The HavalRounds may have values of 3, 4, or 5. The KeyLength may have values of 128, 160, 192, 224, or 256.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function HashBytesENC(ByVal data As Byte()) As String

Hashes a byte array and returns an encoded (printable) string of the binary hash. The hash algorithm to be used is controlled by the HashAlgorithm property, which can be set to "sha1", "sha384", "sha512", "md2", "md5", or "haval". The encoding is controlled by the EncodingMode property, which can be set to "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function HashFile(ByVal filename As String) As Byte()

Hashes a file. The hash algorithm to be used is controlled by the HashAlgorithm property, which can be set to "sha1", "sha384", "sha512", "md2", "md5", "haval", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320". The function returns the hash bytes. Any size file is supported because the file is hashed internally in streaming mode.

The HAVAL hash algorithm is affected by two other properties: HavalRounds and KeyLength. The HavalRounds may have values of 3, 4, or 5. The KeyLength may have values of 128, 160, 192, 224, or 256.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function HashFileENC(ByVal filename As String) As String

Hashes a file. The hash algorithm to be used is controlled by the HashAlgorithm property, which can be set to "sha1", "sha384", "sha512", "md2", "md5", or "haval". The function returns the hash as a string encoded according to the EncodingMode property. Any size file is supported because the file is hashed internally in streaming mode.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function HashFinal() As Byte()

Finalizes a multi-step hash computation and returns the hash bytes.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function HashFinalENC() As String

Finalizes a multi-step hash computation and returns the hash bytes encoded according to the EncodingMode property setting.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function HashMoreBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Boolean

Adds more bytes to the hash currently under computation. (See HashBeginBytes)

Function HashMoreString(ByVal strData As String) As Boolean

Adds more text to the hash currently under computation. (See HashBeginString)

Function HashString(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

Hashes a string and returns a binary hash. The hash algorithm to be used is controlled by the HashAlgorithm property, which can be set to "sha1", "sha384", "sha512", "md2", "md5", "haval", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320".

The Charset property controls the character encoding of the string that is hashed. Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings. If it is desired to hash Unicode directly (2 bytes/char) then set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert to another charset before hashing, set the Charset property to the desired charset. For example, if Charset is set to "iso-8859-1", the input string is first implicitly converted to iso-8859-1 (1 byte per character) before hashing. The full list fo supported charsets is listed in the EncryptString method description.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function HashStringENC(ByVal str As String) As String

Hashes a string and returns an encoded (printable) string of the binary hash. The hash algorithm to be used is controlled by the HashAlgorithm property, which can be set to "sha1", "sha384", "sha512", "md2", "md5", "haval", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320".

The Charset property controls the character encoding of the string that is hashed. Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings. If it is desired to hash Unicode directly (2 bytes/char) then set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert to another charset before hashing, set the Charset property to the desired charset. For example, if Charset is set to "iso-8859-1", the input string is first implicitly converted to iso-8859-1 (1 byte per character) before hashing. The full list of supported charsets is listed in the EncryptString method description.
The encoding of the output string is controlled by the EncodingMode property, which can be set to "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

The HAVAL hash algorithm is affected by two other properties: HavalRounds and KeyLength. The HavalRounds may have values of 3, 4, or 5. The KeyLength may have values of 128, 160, 192, 224, or 256.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function HmacBytes(ByVal inBytes As Byte()) As Byte()

Computes a keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC or KHMAC), which is a type of message authentication code (MAC) calculated using a specific algorithm involving a cryptographic hash function in combination with a secret key. As with any MAC, it may be used to simultaneously verify both the data integrity and the authenticity of a message. Any iterative cryptographic hash function, such as MD5 or SHA-1, may be used in the calculation of an HMAC; the resulting MAC algorithm is termed HMAC-MD5 or HMAC-SHA-1 accordingly. The cryptographic strength of the HMAC depends upon the cryptographic strength of the underlying hash function, on the size and quality of the key and the size of the hash output length in bits.

The secret key is set by calling one of these methods prior to calling this method: SetHmacKeyBytes, SetHmacKeyEncoded, or SetHmacKeyString.

The hash algorithm is specified by the HashAlgorithm property.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function HmacBytesENC(ByVal inBytes As Byte()) As String

Computes an HMAC using a secret key and hash algorithm. The result is encoded to a string using the encoding (base64, hex, etc.) specified by the EncodingMode property.

The secret key is set by calling one of these methods prior to calling this method: SetHmacKeyBytes, SetHmacKeyEncoded, or SetHmacKeyString.

The hash algorithm is specified by the HashAlgorithm property.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function HmacString(ByVal inText As String) As Byte()

Computes an HMAC using a secret key and hash algorithm.

The secret key is set by calling one of these methods prior to calling this method: SetHmacKeyBytes, SetHmacKeyEncoded, or SetHmacKeyString.

The hash algorithm is specified by the HashAlgorithm property.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function HmacStringENC(ByVal inText As String) As String

Computes an HMAC using a secret key and hash algorithm. The result is encoded to a string using the encoding (base64, hex, etc.) specified by the EncodingMode property.

The secret key is set by calling one of these methods prior to calling this method: SetHmacKeyBytes, SetHmacKeyEncoded, or SetHmacKeyString.

The hash algorithm is specified by the HashAlgorithm property.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function InflateBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

The opposite of CompressBytes.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function InflateBytesENC(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

The opposite of CompressBytesENC. The EncodingMode and CompressionAlgorithm properties should match what was used when compressing.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function InflateString(ByVal data As Byte()) As String

The opposite of CompressString. The Charset and CompressionAlgorithm properties should match what was used when compressing.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function InflateStringENC(ByVal str As String) As String

The opposite of CompressStringENC. The Charset, EncodingMode, and CompressionAlgorithm properties should match what was used when compressing.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function IsUnlocked() As Boolean

Returns true if the component is unlocked.

Function MySqlAesDecrypt(ByVal strEncryptedHex As String, ByVal strPassword As String) As String

Matches MySQL's AES_DECRYPT function. strEncryptedHex is a hex-encoded string of the AES encrypted data. The return value is the original unencrypted string.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function MySqlAesEncrypt(ByVal strData As String, ByVal strPassword As String) As String

Matches MySQL's AES_ENCRYPT function. The return value is a hex-encoded string of the encrypted data. The equivalent call in MySQL would look like this: HEX(AES_ENCRYPT('The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog','password'))

Returns Nothing on failure

(VB.NET) Match MySQL AES_ENCRYPT Function

(PowerShell) Match MySQL AES_ENCRYPT Function

Function OpaqueSignBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

Digitally signs a byte array and returns the opaque digital signature. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function OpaqueSignBytesENC(ByVal data As Byte()) As String

Digitally signs a byte array and returns the opaque digital signature encoded as a printable string. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method. The EncodingMode property controls the output encoding, which can be "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function OpaqueSignString(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

Digitally signs a string and returns the opaque digital signature. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method. The Charset property controls the character encoding of the string that is signed. (Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings.) To sign Unicode data (2 bytes per char), set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert the string to a mutlibyte charset such as "iso-8859-1", "Shift_JIS", "utf-8", or something else, then set the Charset property to the name of the charset before signing. The complete list of charsets is listed in the EncryptString method description.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function OpaqueSignStringENC(ByVal str As String) As String

Digitally signs a string and returns the opaque digital signature as an encoded string. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method. The Charset property controls the character encoding of the string that is signed. (Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings.) To sign Unicode data (2 bytes per char), set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert the string to a mutlibyte charset such as "iso-8859-1", "Shift_JIS", "utf-8", or something else, then set the Charset property to the name of the charset before signing. The complete list of charsets is listed in the EncryptString method description.

The encoding of the output string is controlled by the EncodingMode property, which can be set to "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function OpaqueVerifyBytes(ByVal p7s As Byte()) As Byte()

Verifies an opaque signature and returns the original data. If the signature verification fails, the returned data will be 0 bytes in length.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function OpaqueVerifyBytesENC(ByVal p7s As String) As Byte()

Verifies an opaque signature (encoded in string form) and returns the original data. If the signature verification fails, the returned data will be 0 bytes in length.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function OpaqueVerifyString(ByVal p7s As Byte()) As String

Verifies an opaque signature and returns the original string. If the signature verification fails, the returned string will be 0 characters in length.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function OpaqueVerifyStringENC(ByVal p7s As String) As String

Verifies an opaque signature (encoded in string form) and returns the original data string. If the signature verification fails, the returned string will be 0 characters in length.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function Pbkdf1(ByVal password As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal hashAlg As String, ByVal salt As String, ByVal iterationCount As Integer, ByVal outputKeyBitLen As Integer, ByVal encoding As String) As String

Implements the PBKDF1 algorithm (Password Based Key Derivation Function #1). The password is converted to the character encoding represented by charset before being passed (internally) to the key derivation function. The hashAlg may be "md5", "sha1", "md2", etc. The salt should be random data at least 8 bytes (64 bits) in length. (The GenRandomBytesENC method is good for generating a random salt value.) The iterationCount should be no less than 1000. The length (in bits) of the derived key output by this method is controlled by outputKeyBitLen. The encoding argument may be "base64", "hex", etc. It controls the encoding of the output, and the expected encoding of the salt. The derived key is returned.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function Pbkdf2(ByVal password As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal hashAlg As String, ByVal salt As String, ByVal iterationCount As Integer, ByVal outputKeyBitLen As Integer, ByVal encoding As String) As String

Implements the PBKDF2 algorithm (Password Based Key Derivation Function #2). The password is converted to the character encoding represented by charset before being passed (internally) to the key derivation function. The hashAlg may be "md5", "sha1", "md2", etc. The salt should be random data at least 8 bytes (64 bits) in length. (The GenRandomBytesENC method is good for generating a random salt value.) The iterationCount should be no less than 1000. The length (in bits) of the derived key output by this method is controlled by outputKeyBitLen. The encoding argument may be "base64", "hex", etc. It controls the encoding of the output, and the expected encoding of the salt. The derived key is returned.

Returns Nothing on failure

Sub RandomizeIV()

Sets the initialization vector to a random value.

Sub RandomizeKey()

Sets the secret key to a random value.

Function ReEncode(ByVal encodedData As String, ByVal fromEncoding As String, ByVal toEncoding As String) As String

Provides a means for converting from one encoding to another (such as base64 to hex). This is helpful for programming environments where byte arrays are a real pain-in-the-***. The fromEncoding and toEncoding may be "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), or "url".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function ReadFile(ByVal filename As String) As Byte()

Convenience method to read an entire file and return as a byte array.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function SaveLastError(ByVal filename As String) As Boolean

Saves the last error information to an XML formatted file.

Function SetCSP(ByVal csp As Csp) As Boolean

(Only applies to the Microsoft Windows OS) Sets the Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP) to be used for PKI public-key encryption / signing, or public-key decryption / signature verification.

This is not commonly used becaues the default Microsoft CSP is typically appropriate. One instance where SetCSP is necessary is when using the Crypto-Pro CSP for the GOST R 34.10-2001 and GOST R 34.10-94 providers.

Function SetDecryptCert(ByVal cert As Cert) As Boolean

Sets the digital certificate to be used for decryption when the CryptAlgorithm property is set to "PKI". A private key is required for decryption. Because this method only specifies the certificate, a prerequisite is that the certificate w/ private key must have been pre-installed on the computer. Private keys are stored in the Windows Protected Store (either a user account specific store, or the system-wide store). The Chilkat component will automatically locate and find the certificate's corresponding private key from the protected store when decrypting.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Function SetDecryptCert2(ByVal cert As Cert, ByVal key As PrivateKey) As Boolean

Sets the digital certificate to be used for decryption when the CryptAlgorithm property is set to "PKI". The private key is supplied in the 2nd argument to this method, so there is no requirement that the certificate be pre-installed on a computer before decrypting (if this method is called).

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Sub SetEncodedIV(ByVal ivStr As String, ByVal encoding As String)

Sets the initialization vector from an encoded string. The encoding argument can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", "ascii", or "url".

Sub SetEncodedKey(ByVal keyStr As String, ByVal encoding As String)

Sets the secret key from an encoded string. The encoding argument can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", "ascii", or "url".

Sub SetEncodedSalt(ByVal saltStr As String, ByVal encoding As String)

Sets the password-based encryption (PBE) salt bytes from an encoded string. The encoding argument can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", "ascii", or "url".

Sub SetEncryptCert(ByVal cert As Cert)

Tells the encryption library to use a specific digital certificate for public-key encryption. To encrypt with multiple certificates, call AddEncryptCert once for each certificate. (Calling this method is the equivalent of calling ClearEncryptCerts followed by AddEncryptCert.)

Sub SetHmacKeyBytes(ByVal keyBytes As Byte())

Sets the secret key to be used for one of the HMAC methods.

Sub SetHmacKeyEncoded(ByVal key As String, ByVal encoding As String)

Sets the secret key to be used for one of the HMAC methods. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable", or "url".

Sub SetHmacKeyString(ByVal key As String)

Sets the secret key to be used for one of the HMAC methods.

Sub SetSecretKeyViaPassword(ByVal password As String)

Accepts a password string and (internally) generates a binary secret key of the appropriate bit length and sets the SecretKey property. This method should only be used if you are using Chilkat for both encryption and decryption because the password-to-secret-key algorithm would need to be identical for the decryption to match the encryption.

Sub SetSigningCert(ByVal cert As Cert)

Tells the encryption library to use a specific digital certificate for digital signature creation.

Function SetSigningCert2(ByVal cert As Cert, ByVal key As PrivateKey) As Boolean

To be documented soon.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

Sub SetVerifyCert(ByVal cert As Cert)

Sets the digital certificate to be used in verifying a signature.

Function Shorten(ByVal data As Byte(), ByVal numBytes As Integer) As Byte()

Chops N bytes from the end of a byte array. Accepts a Variant, which could be anything (internally) but always returns a Variant containing a byte array.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function SignBytes(ByVal data As Byte()) As Byte()

Digitally signs a byte array and returns the detached digital signature. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function SignBytesENC(ByVal data As Byte()) As String

Digitally signs a byte array and returns the detached digital signature encoded as a printable string. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method. The EncodingMode property controls the output encoding, which can be "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function SignString(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

Digitally signs a string and returns the detached digital signature. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method. The Charset property controls the character encoding of the string that is signed. (Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings.) To sign Unicode data (2 bytes per char), set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert the string to a mutlibyte charset such as "iso-8859-1", "Shift_JIS", "utf-8", or something else, then set the Charset property to the name of the charset before signing. The complete list of charsets is listed in the EncryptString method description.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function SignStringENC(ByVal str As String) As String

Digitally signs a string and returns the PKCS7 detached digital signature as an encoded string. A certificate must be set by calling SetSigningCert prior to calling this method. The Charset property controls the character encoding of the string that is signed. (Languages such as VB.NET, C#, and Visual Basic work with Unicode strings.) To sign Unicode data (2 bytes per char), set the Charset property to "Unicode". To implicitly convert the string to a mutlibyte charset such as "iso-8859-1", "Shift_JIS", "utf-8", or something else, then set the Charset property to the name of the charset before signing. The complete list of charsets is listed in the EncryptString method description.

The encoding of the output string is controlled by the EncodingMode property, which can be set to "Base64", "QP", or "Hex".

Returns Nothing on failure

Function StringToBytes(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal charset As String) As Byte()

Convert a string to a byte array where the characters are encoded according to the charset specified.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

Function TrimEndingWith(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal ending As String) As String

Trim a string ending with a specific substring until the string no longer ends with that substring.

Returns Nothing on failure

Function UnlockComponent(ByVal b1 As String) As Boolean

Unlocks the component. This must be called once prior to calling any other method.

Function VerifyBytes(ByVal data As Byte(), ByVal sig As Byte()) As Boolean

Verifies a byte array against a digital signature and returns true if the byte array is unaltered.

Function VerifyBytesENC(ByVal data As Byte(), ByVal encodedSig As String) As Boolean

Verifies a byte array against a string-encoded digital signature and returns true if the byte array is unaltered. This method can be used to verify a signature produced by SignBytesENC. The EncodingMode property must be set prior to calling to match the encoding of the digital signature string ("Base64", "QP", or "Hex").

Function VerifyDetachedSignature(ByVal inFilename As String, ByVal p7sFilename As String) As Boolean

Verifies a .p7s (PKCS #7 Signature) against the original file (or exact copy of it). If the inFilename has not been modified, the return value is True, otherwise it is False. This method is equivalent to VerifyP7S.

Function VerifyP7M(ByVal p7mFilename As String, ByVal outFilename As String) As Boolean

Verifies a .p7m file and extracts the original file from the .p7m. Returns True if the signature is valid and the contents are unchanged. Otherwise returns False.

(VB.NET) Extract a File from a .p7m (PKCS7 Signed-Data)

(PowerShell) Extract a File from a .p7m (PKCS7 Signed-Data)

Function VerifyP7S(ByVal inFilename As String, ByVal p7sFilename As String) As Boolean

Verifies a .p7s (PKCS #7 Signature) against the original file (or exact copy of it). If the inFilename has not been modified, the return value is True, otherwise it is False.

Function VerifyString(ByVal str As String, ByVal sig As Byte()) As Boolean

Verifies a string against a binary digital signature and returns true if the string is unaltered. This method can be used to verify a signature produced by SignString. The Charset property must be set to the charset that was used when creating the signature.

Function VerifyStringENC(ByVal str As String, ByVal encodedSig As String) As Boolean

Verifies a string against a string-encoded digital signature and returns true if the string is unaltered. This method can be used to verify a signature produced by SignStringENC. The Charset and EncodingMode properties must be set to the same values that were used when creating the signature.

Function WriteFile(ByVal filename As String, ByVal fileData As Byte()) As Boolean

Convenience method to write an entire byte array to a file.