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Available in: S/MIME
SMIME Component [IP*Works! S/MIME V6]

Properties   Methods   Events   Configuration Settings  

The SMIME component implements the S/MIME standard for encryption and decryption with public key cryptography and X.509 digital certificates.

NOTE: What follows is a very short description of the component interfaces. For more information, please consult the help files that come with the respective package.

Remarks

The SMIME component implements the S/MIME V3 standard for encryption and decryption using Public Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS). In addition the component can be used to both generate and verify RSA digital signatures. Using this component for decrypting or signing requires a valid digital certificate with a private key.

All the component methods except for AddRecipientCert either get or set the value of the Message property.

To sign the current data included in Message with a certificate, first specifying the CertStore and then either the CertSubject and/or CertEncoded for the signing certificate. The IncludeCertificate and DetachedSignature properties allow you to specify additional details about the signing process. By setting IncludeCertificate to true, digital certificates can be encoded and included in message signature when signing the document. Including a certificate is the preferred method of building signed messages. In addition the SMIME component can also generate PKCS #7 formatted detached digital signatures and envelopes by specifying DetachedSignature.

To encrypt a message with the component in a PCKS envelope, you must first specify the RecipientCerts to encrypt the message with. You can easily add these with the AddRecipientCert method. Once you have done this you can call the Encrypt method to encrypt the message with the recipient certificates.

In addition, the component allows you to sign and encrypt simultaneously with the SignAndEncrypt method. You must set all of the properties needed for both Sign and Encrypt

The result of the encrypted or signed data will be replaced in the Message property and the MessageHeaders property will be filled with the appropriate mime headers if applicable.

In addition the SMIME component can be used to verify signatures included in signed messages or documents. The Message property is used to specify the signed message envelope. VerifySignature can then be used to verify the signature. If the message does not have a certificate attached more then likely an exception will be thrown and the component will not be able to verify the signature. If VerifySignature is successful SignerCertSubject, SignerCertIssuer, and SignerCertSerialNumber will be filled with the certificate information of the message signer. This information can be used to verify the signing certificate.

Decrypting PKCS envelopes is handled with the Decrypt method. When this method is called, the component will attempt to find an appropriate certificate in the CertStore that matches the encrypting certificate. If it cannot find an appropriate certificate an exception will be thrown and the message will not be decrypted.

Similar to SignAndEncrypt, DecryptAndVerifySignature can be used to both decrypt and verify the message in Message.

Property List


The following is the full list of the properties of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for complete descriptions.

CertEncoded The contents of the signing certificate (PEM/base64 encoded).
CertStore The certificate store to search for signing and/or decryption certificates.
CertStorePassword The password for the certificate store (if any).
CertStoreType The type of certificate store for CertStore.
CertSubject The subject of the signing certificate.
DetachedSignature Specifies whether to include a detached signature when signing a message.
EncryptingAlgorithm Textual description of the encrypting algorithm.
IncludeCertificate Specifies whether to include the signer's certificate with the signed message.
InternalHeaders The headers of the MIME entity inside the encrypted or signed message.
Message The fully encoded or decoded S/MIME message.
MessageEncrypted Whether or not the current message is encrypted.
MessageHeaders The headers of the SMIME message.
MessageSigned Whether or not the current message is signed.
RecipientCertCount The number of recipients for the encoded message.
RecipientCerts The full text of the encoded certificates used to encrypt Message.
SignerCert Contains the full text of encoded certificate of the message signer.
SignerCertIssuer The issuer of the signing certificate.
SignerCertSerialNumber The serial number of the signing certificate.
SignerCertSubject The subject of the signing certificate.
SigningAlgorithm Textual description of the signature hash algorithm.

Method List


The following is the full list of the methods of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for complete descriptions.

AddRecipientCert Used to add recipient certificates used to encrypt messages.
Config Sets or retrieves a component configuration setting.
Decrypt Decrypts the current Message.
DecryptAndVerifySignature Decrypts and verifies the signature of the current Message.
DecryptFile Decrypts the contents of a file.
Encrypt Encrypts the current Message.
EncryptFile Encrypts the contents of a file.
Reset Reset the component properties.
Sign Sign the current Message.
SignAndEncrypt Signs and encrypts the current Message.
VerifySignature Verify the signature of the current Message.

Event List


The following is the full list of the events fired by the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for complete descriptions.

Error Information about errors during data delivery.

Configuration Settings


The following is a list of configuration settings for the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for complete descriptions.

CSP The Cryptographic Service Provider
CodePage The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations (Windows/COM only).
GenerateSignatureTimestamp Whether to generate timestamps in signatures.

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