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Prof's Crypto Components make it easy to implement sophisticated cryptography in your applications.
The crypto components found in the Prof's Components™ Crypto Suite expose the cryptography functionality built into the Microsoft Windows operating system. The CryptoAPI can be a challenge to use directly, but with Prof's Components it couldn't be easier:
- Getting started is as easy as dropping a few components onto a form. Little to no familiarity with the CryptoAPI is necessary.
- You have full control over all algorithms used, right from the object inspector. You don't have to worry about low-level implementation details.
- The modular architecture allows you to combine and extend components at will if you should choose to write your own. Your investment will result in increased productivity.
The components can be grouped into four categories:
The core components expose the encryption, hashing and digital signature functionality of the Microsoft CryptoAPI, giving you the ability to implement encryption at a fairly low-level. The following cryptographic primitives are each represented by a separate component:
- Key exchange key pairs (TPCExchangeKeyPair)
- Digital signature key pairs (TPCSignatureKeyPair)
- Session keys (TPCSessionKey) (also known as symmetric keys)
- Cryptographic hashes (TPCHash) (also known as message digests)
- Keyed hashes (TPCKeyedHash) (also known as message authentication codes, MACs)
- Public keys (TPCPublicKey)
Due to the architecture of the CryptoAPI, all of the above components must be associated with a cryptographic context, of which there are two types:
- "key pair container" contexts (TPCContainer) (containing an exchange key pair and a signature key pair)
- "containerless" provider contexts (TPCProvider) (containing no key pairs)
Finally, the crypto info component (TPCCryptoInfo) can be used to obtain runtime information about all the cryptographic service providers (CSPs) installed on the computer, which algorithms they support etc.
The encoding components provide string encoding and decoding. The two most widely used data encoding schemes are supported, namely:
- Base-64 encoding (TPCBase64Encoder)
- Hex encoding (TPCHexEncoder)
The extra components were created for two reasons – to make your life easier by simplifying a few very common tasks, and to illustrate how easily you can build your own components by combining the core components. They simplify the following tasks:
- Password-based encryption (TPCSimpleEncryptor)
- Secure message exchange (TPCMessageEncryptor)
- Secure key backup and retrieval (TPCKeySafe)
The certificate components allow you to work with digital certificates, certificate stores and certificate chains. The following certificate primitives are each represented by a separate component:
- System certificate stores (TPCSystemCertStore)
- File-based certificate stores (TPCFileNameCertStore)
- Memory-based certificate stores (TPCMemoryCertStore)
- Digital certificates (TPCCertificate)
- Certificate verification chains (TPCCertChain)
Finally, the certificate info component (TPCCertInfo) can be used to obtain runtime information about all the system certificate stores on the computer.
- TPCProvider
- TPCContainer
- TPCExchangeKeyPair
- TPCSignatureKeyPair
- TPCSessionKey
- TPCHash
- TPCKeyedHash
- TPCPublicKey
- TPCCryptoInfo
- TPCHexEncoder
- TPCBase64Encoder
- TPCSimpleEncryptor
- TPCMessageEncryptor
- TPCKeySafe
- TPCSystemCertStore
- TPCFileNameCertStore
- TPCMemoryCertStore
- TPCCertificate
- TPCCertChain
- TPCCertInfo
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