Cryptography for Visual Basic(r) : A Programmer's Guide to the Microsoft(r) CryptoAPI [Paperback]

Richard Bondi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471381896 | ISBN-13: 978-0471381891 | Publication Date: September 1, 2000

"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/

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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

From the Back Cover

"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/

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471381896
• ISBN-13: 978-0471381891
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,130,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book if you need rapid results, February 5, 2001

By 

robd (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cryptography for Visual Basic(r) : A Programmer's Guide to the Microsoft(r) CryptoAPI (Paperback)

Credit where it's due - this is a great book for those who need to use cryptography in their VB programs. I started off reading the only other book available on the subject, and got bogged down in loads and loads of details very quickly. The other book focuses too much on the rather cryptic (!) Win32 Crypto API too early and in too great a detail. The Win32 Crypto API is large, messy and counter-intuitive to put it mildly. On the plus side, the other book does seem to cover a bit more, and in some areas in quite a bit more depth, but I would say that Bondi's book is definitely the easier to read and understand of the two. Also, rather than having to build up an object model as you read through the book (and having to type the relevant parts that you need as you go), Bondi's book comes with a very complete - and understandable - object model on CD that shields you from the horrible Crypto API underneath. The idea of cryptography seems quite straightforward at first, but if you need convincing about the need to abstract away all this mess into a nice clean object hierarchy, then take a look at the one that comes with Bondi's book - there's a ton of code in there and most of it is the kind of stuff you couldn't write without a really in-depth knowledge of the Win32 Crypto API. This is what wrappers are for, and Bondi's makes a great job of making the whole mess useable!!! Microsoft could have made the API much easier, especially for those who only want to use a fraction of the services it provides. Unfortunately, Microsoft made the API as something that you can only realistically use via a decent object model, like the one that comes with Bondi's book. The other book stands as a great reference for those who need to go further, but for those who want to understand what the hell's going on and do things quickly without spending ages becoming a guru before you can do anything, Bondi's book is the book of choice. In short, the Win32 Crypto API is a nasty mess. If you are in a position to do so then buy both and read Bondi's book first. But if you are looking to buy just one book, defininitely get this one.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crypto for the Masses! Great!, November 17, 2000

By 

"stanfran" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cryptography for Visual Basic(r) : A Programmer's Guide to the Microsoft(r) CryptoAPI (Paperback)

I've read both this book (Bondi's) and the only other VB crypto book currently in print, Davis Chapman's "Developing Secure Applications with VB." In my opinion, you'll want to buy both books. Chapman's covers more, but it is hard to really understand the underlying cryptography because it is introduced as you go along, in small pieces. And while Chapman shows you how to call all of the CryptoAPI, the CryptoAPI itself comes across as bizarre and illogical. Bondi's first two chapters fix all that, describing cryptography and the CryptoAPI in depth and really clearly. You could read them and then just start using Bondi's COM objects on the CD if you wanted to; they are much more full-featured than Chapman's example code. The rest of Bondi's book describes the guts of his objects, with a lot of vb tricks. The Open Source license the objects come with is a standard one from..., the Ricoh license, so I have no problem with it. There's also a site www.cryptovb.com that has extra examples for Bondi's code. One problem that Bondi highlights in the introduction is that his code doesn't include certificates; but from Chapman's chapter on them, that would be pretty easy to add.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No samples, no CRL info, and a bad License agreement..., November 1, 2000

By 

Daniel L Jones (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cryptography for Visual Basic(r) : A Programmer's Guide to the Microsoft(r) CryptoAPI (Paperback)

I received my copy of this book about two weeks ago. With only limited knowledge of the Crypto API, I started right in chapter one. Two weeks later I still haven't really gotten to any working sample code as this book covers a *lot* of background info on cryptogrphy.

The wrapper that's included in this book is decent, but most of the functions assume you have the high encryption pack installed on your PC (128-bit IE will do) and the samples just won't work without it. By samples I mean two test apps (!) - there's not a lot of sample code in this book...

Fortunately, the wrapper objects are fairly easy to use and the code is pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, there's not a single bit of information about CRL (certificate revoke lists) in this book, a piece that I needed more than anything.

I'd strongly suggest getting the Sams book "Developing Secure Applications with Visual Basic" and using their wrapper code. Luckily the Sams book includes samples with each chapter, delving into each topic separately (hashes, certs, etc.) so you can understand why you're learning about each subject.

A big limitation of this book is the "Wiley Open Source License" that you must abide by to use the wrapper COM objects - and of course, the entire book is based on these objects. Sections 3.2 and 3.3 of their license states that if you distribute a compiled version of their code, with or without changes, you must also provide two things: the source code (with the executable or a free way to get the source code for your version) and a document describing the changes you made, including dates of the changes. While they may have implied that this source is only necessary for people contributing to the Open Source project, it never says this in the license.

Easy summary: buy the Sams book, you'll thank me.