CryptDecrypt function (wincrypt.h)

Important changes to support Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) email interoperability have been made to CryptoAPI that affect the handling of enveloped messages. For more information, see the Remarks section of CryptMsgOpenToEncode.

Syntax

BOOL CryptDecrypt(
  [in]      HCRYPTKEY  hKey,
  [in]      HCRYPTHASH hHash,
  [in]      BOOL       Final,
  [in]      DWORD      dwFlags,
  [in, out] BYTE       *pbData,
  [in, out] DWORD      *pdwDataLen
);

Parameters

[in] hKey

A handle to the key to use for the decryption. An application obtains this handle by using either the CryptGenKey or CryptImportKey function.

This key specifies the decryption algorithm to be used.

[in] hHash

A handle to a hash object. If data is to be decrypted and hashed simultaneously, a handle to a hash object is passed in this parameter. The hash value is updated with the decrypted plaintext. This option is useful when simultaneously decrypting and verifying a signature.

Before calling CryptDecrypt, the application must obtain a handle to the hash object by calling the CryptCreateHash function. After the decryption is complete, the hash value can be obtained by using the CryptGetHashParam function, it can also be signed by using the CryptSignHash function, or it can be used to verify a digital signature by using the CryptVerifySignature function.

If no hash is to be done, this parameter must be zero.

[in] Final

A Boolean value that specifies whether this is the last section in a series being decrypted. This value is TRUE if this is the last or only block. If this is not the last block, this value is FALSE. For more information, see Remarks.

[in] dwFlags

The following flag values are defined.

[in, out] pbData

A pointer to a buffer that contains the data to be decrypted. After the decryption has been performed, the plaintext is placed back into this same buffer.

The number of encrypted bytes in this buffer is specified by pdwDataLen.

[in, out] pdwDataLen

A pointer to a DWORD value that indicates the length of the pbData buffer. Before calling this function, the calling application sets the DWORD value to the number of bytes to be decrypted. Upon return, the DWORD value contains the number of bytes of the decrypted plaintext.

When a block cipher is used, this data length must be a multiple of the block size unless this is the final section of data to be decrypted and the Final parameter is TRUE.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the function returns nonzero (TRUE).

If the function fails, it returns zero (FALSE). For extended error information, call GetLastError.

The error codes prefaced by NTE are generated by the particular CSP being used. Some possible error codes follow.

Remarks

If a large amount of data is to be decrypted, it can be done in sections by calling CryptDecrypt repeatedly. The Final parameter must be set to TRUE only on the last call to CryptDecrypt, so that the decryption engine can properly finish the decryption process. The following extra actions are performed when Final is TRUE:

• If the key is a block cipher key, the data is padded to a multiple of the block size of the cipher. To find the block size of a cipher, use CryptGetKeyParam to get the KP_BLOCKLEN value of the key.
• If the cipher is operating in a chaining mode, the next CryptDecrypt operation resets the cipher's feedback register to the KP_IV value of the key.
• If the cipher is a stream cipher, the next CryptDecrypt call resets the cipher to its initial state.

There is no way to set the cipher's feedback register to the KP_IV value of the key without setting the Final parameter to TRUE. If this is necessary, as in the case where you do not want to add an additional padding block or change the size of each block, you can simulate this by creating a duplicate of the original key by using the CryptDuplicateKey function, and passing the duplicate key to the CryptDecrypt function. This causes the KP_IV of the original key to be placed in the duplicate key. After you create or import the original key, you cannot use the original key for encryption because the feedback register of the key will be changed. The following pseudocode shows how this can be done.

// Set the IV for the original key. Do not use the original key for 
// encryption or decryption after doing this because the key's 
// feedback register will get modified and you cannot change it.
CryptSetKeyParam(hOriginalKey, KP_IV, newIV)

while(block = NextBlock())
{
    // Create a duplicate of the original key. This causes the 
    // original key's IV to be copied into the duplicate key's 
    // feedback register.
    hDuplicateKey = CryptDuplicateKey(hOriginalKey)

    // Decrypt the block with the duplicate key.
    CryptDecrypt(hDuplicateKey, block)

    // Destroy the duplicate key. Its feedback register has been 
    // modified by the CryptEncrypt function, so it cannot be used
    // again. It will be re-duplicated in the next iteration of the 
    // loop.
    CryptDestroyKey(hDuplicateKey)
}

The Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider supports direct encryption with RSA public keys and decryption with RSA private keys. The encryption uses PKCS #1 padding. On decryption, this padding is verified. The length of ciphertext data to be decrypted must be the same length as the modulus of the RSA key used to decrypt the data. If the ciphertext has zeros in the most significant bytes, these bytes must be included in the input data buffer and in the input buffer length. The ciphertext must be in little-endian format.

Examples

For an example that uses this function, see Example C Program: Decrypting a File.

Requirements

See also

CryptCreateHash

CryptEncrypt

CryptGenKey

CryptGetHashParam

CryptGetKeyParam

CryptImportKey

CryptMsgOpenToEncode

CryptSignHash

CryptVerifySignature

Data Encryption/Decryption Functions