PublicKey VB.NET Reference Documentation

PublicKey

Current Version: 10.0.0

Contains an RSA, DSA, or ECC public key. Provides methods for importing and exporting to/from PEM, DER, PKCS8, PKCS1, and XML formats. Public keys can be imported/exported to both memory and files.

Object Creation

Dim obj As New Chilkat.PublicKey()

Properties

DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

  1. a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
  2. the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
  3. there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

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Empty
Empty As Boolean (ReadOnly)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Indicates whether this object is empty or holds a public key.

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KeySize
KeySize As Integer (ReadOnly)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Gets the size (in bits) of the public key. For example: 1024, 2048, etc.

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KeyType
KeyType As String (ReadOnly)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.52

The type of public key. Can be "empty", "rsa", "dsa", or "ecc".

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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (ReadOnly)

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Boolean

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of True indicates success, a value of False indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = True and failure = False.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to True. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Boolean

If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Version As String (ReadOnly)

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

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Methods

GetDer
Function GetDer(ByVal preferPkcs1 As Boolean) As Byte()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the public key in binary DER format. If the key type (such as RSA) supports both PKCS1 and PKCS8 formats, then preferPkcs1 determine which format is returned.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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GetEncoded
Function GetEncoded(ByVal preferPkcs1 As Boolean, ByVal encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the public key in DER format as an encoded string (such as base64 or hex). If the key type (such as RSA) supports both PKCS1 and PKCS8 formats, then preferPkcs1 determine which format is returned. The encoding specifies the encoding, which is typically "base64".

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetJwk
Function GetJwk() As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.66

Gets the public key in JWK (JSON Web Key) format.

RSA public keys have this JWK format:

         {"kty":"RSA",
          "n": "0vx7agoebGcQSuuPiLJXZptN9 ... U8awapJzKnqDKgw",
          "e":"AQAB"}

ECC public keys have this JWK format:

         {"kty":"EC",
          "crv":"P-256",
          "x":"MKBCTNIcKUSDii11ySs3526iDZ8AiTo7Tu6KPAqv7D4",
          "y":"4Etl6SRW2YiLUrN5vfvVHuhp7x8PxltmWWlbbM4IFyM"}

Ed25519 public keys (added in v9.5.0.83) have this JWK format:

         {"kty":"OKP",
          "crv":"Ed25519",
          "x": "SE2Kne5xt51z1eciMH2T2ftDQp96Gl6FhY6zSQujiP0"}

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetJwkThumbprint
Function GetJwkThumbprint(ByVal hashAlg As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.66

Returns the JWK thumbprint for the public key. This is the thumbprint of the JSON Web Key (JWK) as per RFC 7638.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetPem
Function GetPem(ByVal preferPkcs1 As Boolean) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the public key in PEM format. If the key type (such as RSA) supports both PKCS1 and PKCS8 formats, then preferPkcs1 determine which format is returned.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetXml
Function GetXml() As String

Gets the public key in XML format. The format depends on the key type. The key parts indicated by "..." are base64 encoded.

RSA public keys have this XML format:

<RSAPublicKey>
  <Modulus>...</Modulus>
  <Exponent>...</Exponent>
</RSAPublicKey>

DSA public keys have this XML format:

<DSAPublicKey>
    <P>...</P>
    <Q>...</Q>
    <G>...</G>
    <Y>...</Y>
</DSAPublicKey>

ECC public keys have this XML format:

<ECCPublicKey curve="CURVE_NAME" x="HEX_DATA" y="HEX_DATA">...</ECCPublicKey>

Returns Nothing on failure

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LoadBase64
Function LoadBase64(ByVal keyStr As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.47

Loads a public key from base64-encoded DER (can be PKCS1 or PKCS8).

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadBd
Function LoadBd(ByVal bd As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.83

Loads a public key from any binary or string format where the data is contained in bd. Chilkat automatically recognizes the format and key type (RSA, EC, DSA, Ed25519, ..)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadEcdsa
Function LoadEcdsa(ByVal curveName As String, ByVal Qx As String, ByVal Qy As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Loads an ECDSA public key directly from Qx, Qy values specified as a hex strings. The curveName can be one of the following:

  • secp256r1
  • secp384r1
  • secp521r1
  • secp256k1
  • secp192r1
  • secp224r1
  • brainpoolp256r1
  • brainpoolp160r1
  • brainpoolp192r1
  • brainpoolp224r1
  • brainpoolp320r1
  • brainpoolp384r1
  • brainpoolp512r1

Note: ECDSA public keys of various formats, such as PKCS8, PKCS1, JWK, XML, binary DER, PEM, etc., can be loaded using the LoadBd, LoadFromBinary, LoadFromFile, and LoadFromString methods.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadEd25519
Function LoadEd25519(ByVal pubKey As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.83

Loads the public key object from a 32-byte ed25519 key specified as a hex string.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadFromBinary
Function LoadFromBinary(ByVal keyBytes As Byte()) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Loads a public key from binary DER. Auto-recognizes both PKCS1 and PKCS8 formats.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadFromFile
Function LoadFromFile(ByVal path As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Loads a public key from a file. The file can be in any string or binary format such as binary DER (PKCS1 or PKCS8), PEM, XML, or encoded binary DER (such as base64 encoded binary DER). The format of the contents of the file is auto-recognized.

Starting in version 9.5.0.66, this method also supports loading the JWK (JSON Web Key) format.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadFromString
Function LoadFromString(ByVal keyString As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Loads a public key from any string format, such as PEM, XML, or encoded binary DER (such as base64 encoded binary DER). The format of the keyString is auto-recognized.

Starting in version 9.5.0.66, this method also supports loading the JWK (JSON Web Key) format.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SaveDerFile
Function SaveDerFile(ByVal preferPkcs1 As Boolean, ByVal path As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Saves the public key to a file in binary DER format. If the key type (such as RSA) supports both PKCS1 and PKCS8 formats, then preferPkcs1 determine which format is returned.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SavePemFile
Function SavePemFile(ByVal preferPkcs1 As Boolean, ByVal path As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Saves the public key to a file in PEM format. If the key type (such as RSA) supports both PKCS1 and PKCS8 formats, then preferPkcs1 determine which format is returned.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SaveXmlFile
Function SaveXmlFile(ByVal path As String) As Boolean

Saves the public key to an XML file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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