Cryptography for Visual Basic(r) : A Programmer's Guide to the Microsoft(r) CryptoAPI - Softcover

Bondi, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0471381896 ISBN 13: 9780471381891

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2000

Synopsis

"This is essential reading for anyone who needs to understand Microsoft's CryptoAPI,its strengths and its limitations."-Bruce Schneier, author of Applied Cryptography and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.

With billions of dollars at stake,e-businesses must take the necessary steps to ensure privacy and protection for customer data. Microsoft's CryptoAPI provides Visual Basic programmers with strong cryptography to keep this data safe, but its internals have been a mystery until now. This book guides you through the process of accessing the powerful but tricky routines of Microsoft's cryptographic libraries. You'll find an in-depth introduction to modern cryptography and learn how to build cryptographic "modules" (COM objects) that can be used by any Visual Basic program. Best of all, the source code is included under an Open Source license so that you are free to use, modify, and distribute it, even commercially, without paying any fees. You can help enhance the code as part of the Open Source community. Providing much-needed insight on Microsoft's cryptography, this book will help you:
* Learn how modern cryptography works
* Find out how the Base Functions of the CryptoAPI work
* Discover how to call the API from Visual Basic
* Uncover deep Visual Basic tricks to write a powerful error handler
* Learn how to write the WCCO (Wiley CryptoAPI COM Objects) COM wrappers for the CryptoAPI
* Utilize several quality assurance tests for the WCCO

The CD-ROM includes:
* WCCO 1.0 Source Code and its Wiley Open Source License
* WCCO 1.0 Interface Guide and its Open Publication License
* WCCO Test Code
* CryptoAPI Container Manager
* Regasaurus program

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

About this title

Review

The Microsoft CryptoAPI can provide "strong," unbreakable encryption on the Windows platform. If you're a Visual Basic (VB) programmer, Richard Bondi's Cryptography for Visual Basic can put this powerful set of APIs within your reach. This title will serve as both an introduction to cryptography and a how-to with CryptoAPI by using the author's prebuilt library of COM objects.

The early part of this book tries hard to put the elements of today's public key encryption standards (like RSA) within the grasp of the VB programmer. You'll learn the basics of random-number generation, ciphers, keys, and the "protocols" behind today's encryption standards. Inevitably, these are written by using shorthand, such as, "Alice wants to send Bob a message." The author manages to make essential concepts in cryptography rather clear.

The next section here lays the foundation for working with the Microsoft CryptoAPI by presenting a number of useful strategies for passing (and returning) values to and from C from within VB, along with techniques for error handling and improved performance.

The heart of this text is the author's custom library of COM objects that "wrap" the underlying Microsoft CryptoAPI C calls for use from within VB. Subsequent chapters look at various areas of the CryptoAPI and the resulting COM objects. The author covers not only the assumptions and strategies of working with the CryptoAPI, but also the design choices that are made in his library. For those who are in a rush, the book provides sample code on how to use this library in your own VB applications in an appendix.

Today, security is a concern in any enterprise, so Cryptography for Visual Basic fills a useful niche. It explains the basics of encryption technologies, shows off how it's done on the Windows platform with the Microsoft CryptoAPI, and also makes it possible to call these APIs from within VB. If you have wondered how cryptography works, or how it's implemented in Windows, this tutorial can put you on the right track. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

Introduction to cryptography Ciphers Random-number generators (RNGs) One-pad ciphers Public-key cryptography Symmetric and asymmetric ciphers Overview of the Microsoft CryptoAPI Techniques for parameter passing from VB to Win32 C APIs VB string handling tips Bitwise logic Performance tips Error handling Wiley CryptoAPI COM Objects (WCCO) (the author's custom VB COM object library for the CryptoAPI) CryptoAPI providers and containers Key and key-pair objects Hashing and signing Encryption and message texts Key management and data security Public law and cryptography Sample code for using the WCCO library

About the Author

RICHARD BONDI is a senior developer at a bioinformatics company. He has worked as a Web developer since 1996, moved into e-commerce and enterprise programming in 1998, and has consulted leading Internet companies on programming cryptography.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0471381896
• ISBN 13: 9780471381891
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 480