(Visual Basic 6.0) Generate an ECC Key (Public and Private)

Demonstrates how to generate an ECC key and save both public and private parts.

Chilkat ActiveX Downloads ActiveX for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows

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

' Create a Fortuna PRNG and seed it with system entropy.
' This will be our source of random data for generating the ECC private key.
Dim fortuna As New ChilkatPrng
Dim entropy As String
entropy = fortuna.GetEntropy(32,"base64")
Dim success As Long
success = fortuna.AddEntropy(entropy,"base64")

Dim ecc As New ChilkatEcc

' Generate a random ECC private key on the secp256r1 curve.
' Chilkat also supports other curves, such as secp384r1, secp521r1, and secp256k1.

Dim privKey As PrivateKey
Set privKey = ecc.GenEccKey("secp256r1",fortuna)
If (ecc.LastMethodSuccess = 0) Then
    Debug.Print ecc.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Save the private key to PKCS8 encrypted PEM
' (The private key can be saved in a variety of different formats. See the online reference documentation.)
success = privKey.SavePkcs8EncryptedPemFile("pemPassword","qa_output/eccPrivKey.pem")
If (success <> 1) Then
    Debug.Print privKey.LastErrorText
End If

' The private key PEM looks like this:

' 	-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
' 	MIHFMEAGCSqGSIb3DQEFDTAzMBsGCSqGSIb3DQEFDDAOBAhUmn+1/lwCIwICCAAw
' 	FAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECPlyNXAXZO+oBIGAIvxvTENXJWbrCwSjh0QNxLecBotUpfI5
' 	auOonLmwVMyt1ahMmNyVo/D+pnKQSE41Fg8fApM0DCDKZUOVCCcK1qirIsMPQkGp
' 	klPJbvrQRVYgzBtU31uNB5y2wqhrIeepal1HXBvbkUK0nfJMbcdz/XAEIQu2HhTD
' 	t6LMScPQld4=
' 	-----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----

' Now get the public key part from the private key.
' (A public key is actually a subset of the private key.)
Dim pubKey As PublicKey
Set pubKey = privKey.GetPublicKey()

' Save the public key to a PEM file.
' (The public key can be saved in a variety of different formats. See the online reference documentation.)
' For ECC keys, the 1st argument (bPreferPkcs1) is ignored and unused.
Dim bPreferPkcs1 As Long
bPreferPkcs1 = 0
success = pubKey.SavePemFile(bPreferPkcs1,"qa_output/eccPubKey.pem")

' The public key PEM looks like this:

' 	-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
' 	MIIBSzCCAQMGByqGSM49AgEwgfcCAQEwLAYHKoZIzj0BAQIhAP////8AAAABAAAA
' 	AAAAAAAAAAAA////////////////MFsEIP////8AAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA////
' 	///////////8BCBaxjXYqjqT57PrvVV2mIa8ZR0GsMxTsPY7zjw+J9JgSwMVAMSd
' 	NgiG5wSTamZ44ROdJreBn36QBEEEaxfR8uEsQkf4vOblY6RA8ncDfYEt6zOg9KE5
' 	RdiYwpZP40Li/hp/m47n60p8D54WK84zV2sxXs7LtkBoN79R9QIhAP////8AAAAA
' 	//////////+85vqtpxeehPO5ysL8YyVRAgEBA0IABGdOH8uM6SfX3mdV+TR0mWp2
' 	gfVRPlxWxwhOiowuNByBxmQz7ZR4CJY1XcN2zkUo5pzW73ZhGwgd2XTOvqPqG40=
' 	-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
' 

Debug.Print "finished."