Cryptographic Application Programming Interface

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The Cryptographic Application Programming Interface (also known variously as CryptoAPI, Microsoft Cryptography API, or simply CAPI) is an application programming interface included with Microsoft Windows operating systems that provides services to enable developers to secure Windows-based applications using cryptography. It is a set of dynamically-linked libraries that provides an abstraction layer which isolates programmers from the code used to encrypt the data.

CryptoAPI supports both public-key and symmetric key cryptography. It includes functionality for encrypting and decrypting data and for authentication using digital certificates. It also includes a cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator function CryptGenRandom.

CryptoAPI works with a number of CSPs (Cryptography Service Providers) installed on the machine. CSPs are the modules that do the actual work of encoding and decoding data by performing the cryptographic functions.

Crypto NexGen (CNG), is an update to the Crypto API introduced in Windows Vista, featuring support for plugging in custom cryptographic APIs into the CNG runtime. Also, CNG supports Elliptic Curve Cryptography. The CNG API integrates with the smart-card subsystem by including a Base Smart Card Cryptographic Service Provider (Base CSP) module which encapsulates the smart card API. Smart card manufacturers just have to make their devices compatible with this, rather than provide a from-scratch solution.

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