Xojo Plugin

Encrypting a Data Stream

See more Encryption Examples

This example illustrates encrypting a large dataset using symmetric encryption algorithms like AES, ChaCha20, Blowfish, etc. The data is processed in chunks using the EncryptStringENC method. The FirstChunk and LastChunk properties identify whether a chunk is the first, intermediate, or last in the encrypted stream. By default, both properties are set to _TRUE_, indicating that the data provided represents the entire dataset.

You can provide data chunks smaller than the encryption algorithm's block size. For example, AES uses 16-byte blocks; 3DES, and Blowfish use 8-byte blocks; and ChaCha20, as a streaming algorithm, effectively has a block size of 1 byte.

Chilkat handles the buffering of data as needed. If a data chunk smaller than the block size is provided, an empty string (or 0 bytes) is returned, and the data is buffered to be combined with subsequent chunks. The final chunk is padded to the algorithm's block size (as determined by the PaddingScheme property) to complete the encryption process.

Chunk-wise decryption follows the same procedure as chunk-wise encryption.

Xojo Plugin

// This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
// See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

Dim crypt As New Chilkat.Crypt2

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

crypt.SetEncodedKey "000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F","hex"
crypt.SetEncodedIV "000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F","hex"

crypt.EncodingMode = "hex"
Dim txt1 As String
txt1 = "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." + EndOfLine.Windows
Dim txt2 As String
txt2 = "-" + EndOfLine.Windows
Dim txt3 As String
txt3 = "Done." + EndOfLine.Windows

Dim sbEncrypted As New Chilkat.StringBuilder

// Encrypt the 1st chunk:
// (don't worry about feeding the data to the encryptor in 
// exact multiples of the encryption algorithm's block size.
// Chilkat will buffer the data.)
crypt.FirstChunk = True
crypt.LastChunk = False
Dim success As Boolean
success = sbEncrypted.Append(crypt.EncryptStringENC(txt1))

// Encrypt the 2nd chunk
crypt.FirstChunk = False
crypt.LastChunk = False
success = sbEncrypted.Append(crypt.EncryptStringENC(txt2))

// Now encrypt N more chunks...
// Remember -- we're doing this in CBC mode, so each call
// to the encrypt method depends on the state from previous
// calls...
crypt.FirstChunk = False
crypt.LastChunk = False
Dim i As Int32
For i = 0 To 4
    success = sbEncrypted.Append(crypt.EncryptStringENC(txt1))
    success = sbEncrypted.Append(crypt.EncryptStringENC(txt2))
Next

// Now encrypt the last chunk:
crypt.FirstChunk = False
crypt.LastChunk = True
success = sbEncrypted.Append(crypt.EncryptStringENC(txt3))

System.DebugLog(sbEncrypted.GetAsString())

// Now decrypt in one call.
// (The data we're decrypting is both the first AND last chunk.)  
crypt.FirstChunk = True
crypt.LastChunk = True
Dim decryptedText As String
decryptedText = crypt.DecryptStringENC(sbEncrypted.GetAsString())

System.DebugLog(decryptedText)

// Note: You may decrypt in N chunks by setting the FirstChunk
// and LastChunk properties prior to calling the Decrypt* methods