Cipher Object

The PKCS #11 API provides a standard method for accessing and managing keys, and performing cryptographic operations. Providing a system-independent layer, however, introduces a considerable amount of overhead.

ProtectToolkit provides an internal API which bypasses the PKCS #11 subsystem to perform high-performance cryptographic functions.

The Cipher Object Access API

Cryptographic operations require that you obtain a pointer to an instance of a cipher object or a hash object. A cipher object may be used to encrypt, decrypt, sign (or MAC), or verify data. A hash object is used to perform a digest operation. There is a function for obtaining an instance of each of these objects.

This chapter provides details on Cipher Objects:

>FmCreateCipherObject

>Cipher Object Functions

>Algorithm-Specific Cipher Information

See Hash Object for information on Hash Objects.