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Re: few more basic questions

2002-04-16 13:08:23

Pradeep:

There are several freeware toolkits that contain the necessary building blocks. OpenSSL is one.

Some platforms have support for many of the functions as well.

Russ


At 09:43 AM 4/16/2002 +0530, Pradeep, PK wrote:
Hello Russ/Group,
thanks for your reply.

Are there free APIs available in Java or Vb or both to
1) build S/MIME message
2) build PKCS#7 object to SignedData and Enveloped Data.

If free APIs are not available then:

Is it possible to build one's own component to build S/MIME message and
PKCS#7 objects? As I understand basically speaking S/MIME message and
PKCS#7 objects are nothing but a particular structure of text strings.
if the binary portion is base64 encoded then it is nothing but text
message. Kindly throw some light on this.

Warm Regards,

Pradeep

-----Original Message-----
From: Housley, Russ [mailto:rhousley(_at_)rsasecurity(_dot_)com]
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 11:12 PM
To: Pradeep, PK
Cc: ietf-smime(_at_)imc(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: a basic question


Pradeep:

In response to your beginner questions:

>1. S/MIME message is a ascii (text) message or a binary message?

The protected content is MIME encoded, so it can be anything.

>2. suppose i have a .gif file which i am sending as attachment of
>multipart/related MIME message. the attachment file is base64
>transfer-encoded...the resulting MIME message is a binary message or a
text
>message. can the MIME message be srored as string.

The result of the base64 encoding is a character string.

>3. I have a multipart/signed message which i have signed using my
private
>key...the message is a binary message or text message?

This depends on the encoding that is employed.  If base64 is used, then
(as
before) the output is a character string.  If a binary encoding is used,

then, as expected, a binary message is the result.

Russ

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