Do any replacements for CryptoAPI exist for Windows?

Question

I am having major problems with cryptoAPI, and was wondering do you get any 3rd party / better solutions for windows?

Main problem I have with CryptoAPI is that its not OS independent enough. I can't find the right balance in my code to get stuff to work on Windows 2003 and Windows 2008+.

What I essentially want to achieve can be read about here. This is my only use for Cryptography at this stage.

Answer 1

CryptoAPI is a pain to use properly, if you are having problems, can I suggest Crypto++ ? The documentation isn't the best, but I've found it to be very powerful.

Without knowing more about what you are trying to achieve I can't be more help I'm afraid.

Answer 2

• Botan library - very nice library
• gnu-tls/libgcrypt

Answer 3

Try Bouncy Castle, it's available in C# & Java: http://www.bouncycastle.org/

Quite a few vendors in our space use it in production.

Answer 4

I could recommend OpenSSL http://www.openssl.org/. It is not only for SSL area, but for cryptography in whole. It has open source code. This fact can be very useful in some sinuations. It can be used also for Windows. Some compiled binaries for Windows you can find on http://www.slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html.

Answer 5

Crypto++ is amazing in power, but suffers from its complexity and a lack of automation/documentation. It also suffers from a lack of debugging I think, when the check does not work, it just does not work, but you're given little hints as to what could cause the failure...

Anyway, since you are using C++, may I suggest Google Keyczar ?

• It's meant to be easy to use, with safe defaults, yet allows customization.
• It comes up with a complete Key Management system, which Crypto++ does not feature and which is complicated enough to code by oneself.
• It's open source too, so the code can be audited.
• It's portable even outside of the Windows environment.

I haven't, unfortunately, used it myself. I am currently stuck with Crypto++. But if I had the opportunity to choose right now, I think I'd invest time to experiment with Keyczar.