Generate Secret Key from Password

The GenEncodedSecretKey method provides a way to produce a secret key from an arbitrarily sized password string. The secret key produced will be equal in bit length to the KeyLength. A given string passed to GenEncodedSecretKey will always produce the same key. (In other words, this is really a hash function and not a random key generator.)

Download Chilkat Crypt ActiveX

Dim crypt As New ChilkatCrypt2

Dim success As Long
success = crypt.UnlockComponent("Anything for 30-day Trial")
If (success <> 1) Then
    MsgBox "Crypt component unlock failed"
    Exit Sub
End If

crypt.CryptAlgorithm = "aes"
crypt.KeyLength = 128

'  Transform an arbitrary-length password to a secret key
'  equal in bit-length to the KeyLength:
Dim hexKey As String
hexKey = crypt.GenEncodedSecretKey("my_password","hex")

'  Set the secret key:
crypt.SetEncodedKey hexKey,"hex"

'  The hexKey is 16 bytes in length:
MsgBox hexKey