ChilkatCrypt2 ActiveX Reference

ChilkatCrypt2

Chilkat encryption component.

Object Creation

(Visual Basic 6.0)
Dim obj As New ChilkatCrypt2
(ASP)
set obj = Server.CreateObject("Chilkat.Crypt2")
(VBScript)
set obj = CreateObject("Chilkat.Crypt2")
(Delphi)
obj := TChilkatCrypt2.Create(Self);
(FoxPro)
loObject = CreateObject('Chilkat.Crypt2')
(SQL Server)
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.Crypt2', @obj OUT
(Javascript)
var obj = new ActiveXObject("Chilkat.Crypt2");

Properties

BlockSize As Long (read-only)

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.

ByteSwapOnDecrypt As Long

Controls whether bytes are 4321 swapped on decryption. This helps in handling byte-ordering issues with cross-platform applications.

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. 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.

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 Long

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 1 — 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 = 1, LastChunk = 0 for the first chunk of data.
  2. For all “middle” chunks (i.e. all chunks except for the final chunk) set FirstChunk = 0 and LastChunk = 0.
  3. For the final chunk, set FirstChunk = 0 and LastChunk = 1

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", and "haval".

HavalRounds As Long

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 Variant

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

IncludeCertChain As Long

To be documented soon.

IterationCount As Long

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 Long

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

LastChunk As Long

(See the description for the FirstChunk property.)

LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

Error information in HTML format for the last method called.

LastErrorText As String (read-only)

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

LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

Error information in XML format for the last method called.

PaddingScheme As Long

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 PKCS7 padding: PKCS #7 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 Long

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 Variant

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 Variant

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

To be documented soon...

UuMode As String

To be documented soon...

VerboseLogging As Long

To be documented soon...

Version As String (read-only)

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

Methods

AddEncryptCert(cert As ChilkatCert)

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.

AddPfxSourceData(pfxData As Variant, password As String) As Long

Adds a PFX to the object's internal list of sources to be searched for certificates and private keys when decrypting. The component will search PFX source, as well as Windows registry-based certificate stores.

The ARG1 contains the bytes of a PFX file (also known as PKCS12 or .p12).

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

AddPfxSourceFile(pfxFilePath As String, password As String) As Long

Adds a PFX file to the object's internal list of sources to be searched for certificates and private keys when decrypting. The component will search PFX source, as well as Windows registry-based certificate stores.

Note: A .pfx file is also known as PKCS12, or .p12.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

ByteSwap4321(bData As Variant) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

BytesToString(inData As Variant, charset As String) As String

Convert a VARIANT containing a byte array to a String.

Returns a null on failure

CkDecryptFile(inFilename As String, outFilename As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

CkEncryptFile(inFilename As String, outFilename As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

ClearEncryptCerts()

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

CompressBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

CompressBytesENC(data As Variant) 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 a null on failure

CompressString(str As String) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

CompressStringENC(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 a null on failure

CreateDetachedSignature(inFilePath As String, outSigFilePath As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

CreateP7M(inFilename As String, p7mFilename As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

CreateP7S(inFilename As String, outP7sFilename As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

Decode(encodedStr As String, encoding As String) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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

To be documented soon...

DecryptBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

DecryptBytesENC(str As String) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

DecryptEncoded(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 a null on failure

DecryptString(data As Variant) 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 a null on failure

DecryptStringENC(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 a null on failure

Encode(byteData As Variant, 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 a null on failure

EncodeString(inStr As String, charset As String, encoding As String) As String

To be documented soon...

EncryptBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

EncryptBytesENC(data As Variant) 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 a null on failure

EncryptEncoded(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 a null on failure

EncryptString(str As String) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

EncryptStringENC(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 a null on failure

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

To be documented soon.

Returns a null on failure

GenRandomBytesENC(numBytes As Long) 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 a null on failure

GenerateSecretKey(str As String) As Variant

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.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

GetEncodedIV(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 a null on failure

GetEncodedKey(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 a null on failure

GetEncodedSalt(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 a null on failure

GetLastCert() As ChilkatCert

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.

HashBeginBytes(data As Variant) As Long

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.

HashBeginString(strData As String) As Long

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.

HashBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

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", or "haval".

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

HashBytesENC(data As Variant) 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 a null on failure

HashFile(filename As String) As Variant

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 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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

HashFileENC(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 a null on failure

HashFinal() As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

HashFinalENC() As String

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

Returns a null on failure

HashMoreBytes(data As Variant) As Long

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

HashMoreString(strData As String) As Long

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

HashString(str As String) As Variant

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", or "haval". 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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

HashStringENC(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", or "haval". 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 a null on failure

HmacBytes(inBytes As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

HmacBytesENC(inBytes As Variant) 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 a null on failure

HmacString(inText As String) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

HmacStringENC(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 a null on failure

InflateBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

The opposite of CompressBytes.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

InflateBytesENC(str As String) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

InflateString(data As Variant) As String

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

Returns a null on failure

InflateStringENC(str As String) As String

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

Returns a null on failure

IsUnlocked() As Long

Returns true if the component is unlocked.

MySqlAesDecrypt(strEncryptedHex As String, 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 a null on failure

MySqlAesEncrypt(strData As String, 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 a null on failure

(ASP) Match MySQL AES_ENCRYPT Function

(VB6) Match MySQL AES_ENCRYPT Function

(Delphi) Match MySQL AES_ENCRYPT Function

(FoxPro) Match MySQL AES_ENCRYPT Function

(VBScript) Match MySQL AES_ENCRYPT Function

OpaqueSignBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

OpaqueSignBytesENC(data As Variant) 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 a null on failure

OpaqueSignString(str As String) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

OpaqueSignStringENC(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 a null on failure

OpaqueVerifyBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

OpaqueVerifyBytesENC(str As String) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

OpaqueVerifyString(data As Variant) 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 a null on failure

OpaqueVerifyStringENC(str 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 a null on failure

Pbkdf1(password As String, charset As String, hashAlg As String, salt As String, iterationCount As Long, outputKeyBitLen As Long, 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 a null on failure

Pbkdf2(password As String, charset As String, hashAlg As String, salt As String, iterationCount As Long, outputKeyBitLen As Long, 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 a null on failure

RandomizeIV()

Sets the initialization vector to a random value.

RandomizeKey()

Sets the secret key to a random value.

ReEncode(encodedData As String, fromEncoding As String, 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 a null on failure

ReadFile(filename As String) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

SaveLastError(b1 As String) As Long

Saves the last error information to an XML formatted file.

SetCSP(iCSP As ChilkatCSP)

Allows for any Cryptographic Service Provider to be used with public-key encryption.

SetDecryptCert(cert As ChilkatCert) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

SetDecryptCert2(cert As ChilkatCert, key As PrivateKey) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

SetEncodedIV(ivStr As String, 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".

SetEncodedKey(keyStr As String, 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".

SetEncodedSalt(saltStr As String, 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".

SetEncryptCert(iCert As ChilkatCert)

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.)

SetHmacKeyBytes(keyBytes As Variant)

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

SetHmacKeyEncoded(key As String, 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".

SetHmacKeyString(key As String)

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

SetSecretKeyViaPassword(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.

SetSigningCert(iCert As ChilkatCert)

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

SetSigningCert2(cert As ChilkatCert, key As PrivateKey) As Long

To be documented soon.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

SetVerifyCert(iCert As ChilkatCert)

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

Shorten(inData As Variant, numBytes As Long) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

SignBytes(data As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

SignBytesENC(data As Variant) 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 a null on failure

SignString(str As String) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

SignStringENC(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 a null on failure

StringToBytes(inStr As String, charset As String) As Variant

Convert a String to a VARIANT containing a byte array where the characters are encoded according to the charset specified.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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

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

Returns a null on failure

UnlockComponent(b1 As String) As Long

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

VerifyBytes(data As Variant, signature As Variant) As Long

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

VerifyBytesENC(data As Variant, encodedSig As String) As Long

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").

VerifyDetachedSignature(inFilename As String, p7sFilename As String) As Long

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 1, otherwise it is 0. This method is equivalent to VerifyP7S.

VerifyP7M(p7mFilename As String, outFilename As String) As Long

Verifies a .p7m file and extracts the original file from the .p7m. Returns 1 if the signature is valid and the contents are unchanged. Otherwise returns 0.

VerifyP7S(inFilename As String, p7sFilename As String) As Long

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 1, otherwise it is 0.

VerifyString(str As String, signature As Variant) As Long

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.

VerifyStringENC(str As String, encodedSig As String) As Long

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.

WriteFile(filename As String, binaryData As Variant) As Long

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