Visual Basic 6.0 Requires Chilkat v11.6.0+

Argon2 Key Derivation with a Secret (Pepper), AD, and Encodings

Demonstrates the optional Argon2 options for Crypt2.Argon2DeriveKey: secret (a pepper), ad (associated data), the encoding member and its per-member overrides saltEncoding/secretEncoding/adEncoding, passwordCharset, and maxMemoryKb.

Background. A pepper is a secret value held by the application and not stored with the hash, so a stolen hash database cannot be attacked without it. The encoding members control how the salt, secret, and ad text are interpreted as bytes (base64 by default; utf-8 uses the characters themselves). maxMemoryKb is a guard against an unreasonable memory cost.

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Visual Basic 6.0

Dim success As Long
success = 0

Dim crypt As New ChilkatCrypt2

'  The password should come from a secure source rather than being hard-coded.
Dim password As String
password = "correct horse battery staple"

'  Build the Argon2 options JSON, this time using the optional secret, ad, and encoding members.
'    secret         the RFC 9106 secret value K, often called a "pepper": a key held by the
'                   application and NOT stored with the hash, so a stolen hash database cannot be
'                   attacked without it.
'    ad             optional associated data X: additional non-secret data bound into the derivation.
'    encoding       how salt, secret, and ad are encoded (default base64).  Per-member overrides are
'                   saltEncoding, secretEncoding, and adEncoding.
'    passwordCharset  the charset the password is converted to before use (default utf-8).
'    maxMemoryKb    a guard (not an Argon2 parameter) refusing to allocate more than this many KB;
'                   default 2097152 (2 GB).
Dim json As New ChilkatJsonObject

'  The salt is provided here as hex, overriding the default base64 for just this member.
success = json.UpdateString("salt","0102030405060708090a0b0c0d0e0f10")
success = json.UpdateString("saltEncoding","hex")

'  The pepper is supplied as UTF-8 text (its own characters are the bytes).
success = json.UpdateString("secret","application-wide-pepper")
success = json.UpdateString("secretEncoding","utf-8")

'  Associated data, supplied as UTF-8 text.
success = json.UpdateString("ad","user-id-42")
success = json.UpdateString("adEncoding","utf-8")

success = json.UpdateString("passwordCharset","utf-8")
success = json.UpdateInt("maxMemoryKb",1048576)
success = json.UpdateInt("keyLen",32)

Dim bdKey As New ChilkatBinData
success = crypt.Argon2DeriveKey(password,json.Emit(),bdKey)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print crypt.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Dim keyHex As String
keyHex = bdKey.GetEncoded("hex")
If (bdKey.LastMethodSuccess = 0) Then
    Debug.Print bdKey.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.Print "Derived key: " & keyHex