Encryption ActiveX Component (Chilkat Crypt ActiveX): Installation & Examples

Encryption ActiveX Component (Chilkat Crypt ActiveX) — Features & Use CasesEncryption libraries are a foundational piece of secure software development. For applications built on Windows where legacy technologies such as COM/ActiveX are still in use, Chilkat Crypt ActiveX (often called the Chilkat Crypt ActiveX component) provides a compact, well-documented toolkit for cryptographic tasks. This article surveys its principal features, typical use cases, integration details, and practical considerations for developers still working in COM/ActiveX environments.

What Chilkat Crypt ActiveX is

Chilkat Crypt ActiveX is a COM/ActiveX component implementing a wide range of cryptographic primitives and utilities. It exposes methods and properties through a standard COM interface so it can be used from languages and environments that support COM: Visual Basic 6, VBScript, VBA (Office macros), classic ASP, Delphi, and even from .NET via COM interop. The component is maintained by Chilkat Software and aims to simplify common cryptographic needs without requiring deep, low-level cryptography expertise.

Key features

• Symmetric encryption: AES (various key sizes/modes), Triple DES, Blowfish, and other symmetric ciphers for encrypting/decrypting data.
• Asymmetric encryption and digital signatures: RSA key generation, encryption/decryption, signing/verification. Support for key formats like PEM and DER.
• Hashing and message digests: MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2 family (SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512), and HMAC variations for data integrity and authentication.
• Key management utilities: Create, import, export, and convert keys between formats. Support for loading keys from files, strings, or byte buffers.
• Certificate handling: Load and use X.509 certificates, extract public keys, verify certificate chains (basic checks).
• Encoding utilities: Base64, hex, and other encodings to prepare binary data for text-based environments.
• Random number generation: Cryptographically secure random bytes for keys, IVs, salts, and nonces.
• File and stream encryption: Encrypt/decrypt files, byte ranges, and streams, with support for streaming operations to avoid loading large files fully into memory.
• Password-based key derivation: PBKDF2 and other KDFs to derive symmetric keys from passwords securely when used with appropriate salt and iteration counts.
• Cross-language COM support: Usable from many legacy Windows languages and platforms that rely on ActiveX/COM.
• Simplicity and documentation: High-level methods that abstract complex steps (e.g., combined functions to sign+encode) and numerous examples in multiple languages.

Typical use cases

• Legacy application maintenance: Modernizing or extending older Windows applications (VB6, classic ASP) that already use COM components and require cryptography without rewriting them in newer frameworks.
• Office automation and macros: Securely encrypting/decrypting data, signing documents, or verifying signatures within VBA in Excel, Word, or Access.
• Interop with non-.NET systems: Systems that must interoperate with legacy clients or servers using COM interfaces.
• Rapid prototyping for Windows-only deployments: Quickly adding encryption, hashing, or signing capabilities to prototypes where using platform-native libraries is acceptable.
• Embedded Windows applications: Small-footprint desktop applications where using a packaged COM component simplifies distribution and deployment.

Integration examples and patterns

Below are concise conceptual examples (pseudocode-style descriptions) showing common tasks. Use the language idiomatic to your environment (VBScript, VB6, Delphi) when implementing.

• Generating an RSA key pair:

  • Create Chilkat Crypt COM object.
  • Call RSA key generation method with desired key length (e.g., 2048 or 4096 bits).
  • Export private key (PEM) and public key (PEM/DER) to files or strings.

• Encrypting with AES:

  • Derive key from password with PBKDF2 (use a random salt and sufficient iterations).
  • Generate random IV.
  • Call Encrypt method with AES mode (CBC/GCM) and appropriate padding.
  • Store salt and IV alongside ciphertext for later decryption.

• Signing data and verifying:

  • Load/generate RSA private key and sign data using a chosen hash algorithm (SHA-256).
  • Base64-encode the signature for safe transport.
  • On the receiver side, load public key and verify signature against the original data.

• File encryption streaming:

  • Open input and output file streams.
  • Initialize the cipher with key and IV.
  • Read and encrypt chunks, writing each encrypted chunk to output to avoid high memory usage.

Security considerations and best practices

• Prefer modern algorithms and adequate parameters:
  • Use AES (128/192/256) rather than legacy ciphers.
  • Use SHA-256 or stronger for hashing and signing (avoid MD5 and SHA-1 for security-sensitive tasks).
  • Use RSA keys of at least 2048 bits; prefer 3072+ for long-term protection or consider moving to elliptic-curve algorithms where supported.
• Use authenticated encryption modes when possible:
  • Prefer AES-GCM or another AEAD mode to provide confidentiality and integrity in one operation.
• Properly manage keys and secrets:
  • Never hard-code private keys or passwords into source code.
  • Store keys securely (Windows DPAPI, hardware security modules, or at least protected files with restricted permissions).
• Use secure random sources and unique IVs/nonces:
  • Always use the component’s cryptographically secure RNG for key and IV generation.
  • Never reuse IVs with the same key in non-AEAD modes.
• Protect iteration counts and salts:
  • Use adequate PBKDF2 iteration counts (tune upward over time as hardware gets faster) and unique salts per password.
• Keep the component and platform updated:
  • Track Chilkat updates and patch for security fixes.
  • Be cautious with legacy platforms (e.g., VB6) that may lack modern runtime protections.

Deployment and compatibility notes

• Registration: As an ActiveX/COM DLL, Chilkat Crypt must be registered on target machines (regsvr32 or installer doing registration). Ensure installer elevates appropriately to register the COM objects.
• 32-bit vs 64-bit: Use the appropriate Chilkat build matching your process bitness. A 32-bit process cannot load a 64-bit COM DLL and vice versa.
• Licensing: Chilkat components are commercial software. Confirm licensing terms for development and distribution; development evaluations are usually available but production use needs appropriate licensing.
• Interop with .NET: Use COM interop (tlbexp/interop assemblies) or call via late-binding; consider migrating to Chilkat .NET assemblies if moving an application to managed code.
• Threading: Understand COM apartment models. If your application is multi-threaded, ensure you initialize COM properly for each thread (STA vs MTA) and use the component in a thread-safe manner consistent with Chilkat documentation.

Comparison with alternatives

Troubleshooting common issues

• “Class not registered” error: Ensure the Chilkat COM DLL is registered (run regsvr32 with admin rights) and that the process bitness matches the DLL.
• Encoding/format mismatch: Confirm keys and signatures are exported/imported using the expected formats (PEM vs DER, base64 vs hex).
• Performance concerns: Use streaming APIs for large files and avoid loading entire files into memory.
• Licensing/legal: If evaluation keys or messages appear, confirm proper license files or registration keys are installed per Chilkat’s instructions.

When to choose Chilkat Crypt ActiveX

• You are maintaining or extending Windows applications that natively rely on COM/ActiveX and need a ready-made cryptography component.
• You want a higher-level, well-documented component that abstracts many tedious cryptographic details for legacy languages.
• You require multi-language examples and a commercial vendor for support.

If you are starting a new project, especially cross-platform or cloud-native, prefer modern libraries and frameworks (native OS cryptography APIs, platform-specific SDKs, or cross-platform libraries with active community support). Consider migrating away from ActiveX/COM where feasible.

Further resources

• Chilkat official documentation and examples (use the appropriate language examples for VB6, VBScript, Delphi, or others).
• Cryptography best practices guides (for algorithm choices, key sizes, and PBKDF2 parameters).
• Platform-specific deployment guides for COM registration and bitness matching.

Chilkat Crypt ActiveX remains a practical choice for bringing modern cryptographic operations into legacy COM-based Windows environments, offering an accessible API, broad language support, and utilities that speed development while leaving security best practices to the developer’s proper implementation.