mcDiamond ActiveX control

mcDiamond 1.10 ActiveX control

This control will allow you to encrypt/decrypt a string or a file using the Diamond2 cipher.

DIAMOND2 is a cipher designed to exceed DES in strength. DIAMOND2 uses a variable length key of at least 40 bits. The use of at least a 16 bytes key is recommended for long term protection of very sensitive data, as a hedge against the possibility of computing power increasing by several orders of magnitudes in the coming years.

It is conjectured that DIAMOND2 Lite (Mode 2) and a key length of 16 bytes is at least equivalent in security to the IDEA cipher, and more secure than the ageing DES algorithm.

The Diamond Encryption Algorithm (the immediate predecessor of DIAMOND2) suffered from a form of weak keys. It was possible for a key to result in all of the individual 256-byte substitution arrays to have the same contents if the position of the input key pointer and the key scheduling CRC value were the same at the start of the second substitution array as they were at the beginning of the first one. While the probability of this was low (one in about 240), it is possible that the regular substitution structure that resulted might have allowed a simplified analytical attack. To correct this, Diamond2 uses the contents of the substitution array just completed in filling the current substitution array (except for the first one, of course). This greatly increases the amount of state information in the tiny pseudorandom number generator used in key scheduling, such that this minor weakness is eliminated.

History:

16.02.1999, Version 1.10 released.

Properties:

DecryptedText:(string): returns the decrypted text for the .Decrypt method.
ElapsedTime:(long): returns the elapsed time (in ms) for the lastest operation/method.
EncryptedText:(string): returns the encrypted text for the .Encrypt method.
ErrorCode:(long): returns an error code for the lastest operation/method.

If the value is >= 0, the .ErrorCode returns the file size of the target file.

If the value is <= 0, the .ErrorCode returns the following code :

                Public Enum mcCryptoCode
                    mc_CRYPTO_KEY_TOO_SMALL = -1
                    mc_CRYPTO_CANT_INIT_KEY = -2
                    mc_CRYPTO_CANT_INIT_BUFFER = -11
                    mc_CRYPTO_CANT_OPEN_FILEIN = -21
                    mc_CRYPTO_CANT_CREATE_FILEOUT = -22
                    mc_CRYPTO_ERROR_READING_FILEIN = -31
                    mc_CRYPTO_ERROR1_WRITING_FILEOUT = -41
                    mc_CRYPTO_ERROR2_WRITING_FILEOUT = -42
                    mc_CRYPTO_ERROR1_WRITING_LASTBYTE = -51
                    mc_CRYPTO_ERROR2_WRITING_LASTBYTE = -52
                    mc_CRYPTO_BAD_LASTBYTE = -61
                End Enum

Key:(string): returns/sets the key used to Encrypt/Decrypt a string or a file.
Mode:(enumerated): sets the mode to perform the encryption/decryption.

            Public Enum mcMode
                FULL_MODE1 = 1     ' more strongest (slowest)
                FULL_MODE2 = 3     ' more strong (slow)
                LITE_MODE1 = 2     ' strongest (fast)
                LITE_MODE2 = 4     ' strong (fastest)
            End Enum

SourceFile:(string): returns/sets the source file to be used for the .DecryptFile and .EncryptFile methods.
TargetFile:(string): returns/sets the target file to be used for the .DecryptFile and .EncryptFile methods.
Text:(string): returns/sets the string to be used for the .Decrypt and .Encrypt methods.

Methods:

Decrypt:(integer): executes the decryption of the .Text property associated with the .Key property and places the result in the .DecryptedText property.
DecryptFile:(string): executes the decryption of the .SourceFile property associated with the .Key property and places the result in the file specified by the .TargetFile property.
Encrypt:(integer): executes the encryption of the .Text property associated with the .Key property and places the result in the .EncryptedText property.
EncryptFile:(integer): executes the encryption of the .SourceFile property associated with the .Key property and places the result in the file specified by the .TargetFile property.

Events:

none.

VERY IMPORTANT:

   The .Key property is case sensitive.
    The length of .Text property can be any size.
    The length of .Key property must be greater or equal to 5 characters (best result with a key of 16 characters or more).
    In FULL MODE, the length of the .EncryptedText property is always a multiple of 16 characters + 1 character.
    In LITE MODE, the length of the .EncryptedText property is always a multiple of 8 characters + 1 character.

(64 Kb)