CryptoAPI Version 2.0

Windows NT 4.0 provided the low-level cryptography support and modular Cryptographic Service Providers in CryptoAPI version 1.0. The next version of Windows NT Security services will provide CryptoAPI version 2.0, with a much richer set of functionality to support public-key security.

The major features of CryptoAPI Version 2.0 include:

• Support for X.509 version 3 certificates and X.509 version 2.0 CRLs though common encoding/decoding functions, certificate parse, and verification.
• Support for PKCS #10 certificate requests and PKCS #7 for signed and enveloped data.
• Adding and retrieving certificates and CRLs from certificate stores, locating certificates by attributes, and associating private keys.
• Digital signature and verification and data encryption support using higher-level functions available to applications in HTML, Java, Visual Basic® Script, and C/C++.

The CryptoAPI version 2.0 features are used by the Windows NT operating system components such as the Software Publisher Trust Provider for the Authenticode technology's verification. Other applications and system services will use CryptoAPI version 2.0 to provide the common functionality to enable public-key security technology.