(Visual Basic 6.0) PKCS11 Initialize

See more PKCS11 Examples

The first thing to do to interact with a smart card or USB security token using PKCS11 is to call Initialize. It loads the vendors DLL/shared library and initializes the Cryptoki library. (The Cryptoki library is the DLL/shared lib provided by the smart card vendor.)

Note: This example requires Chilkat v9.5.0.88 or later.

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.

' Note: Chilkat's PKCS11 implementation runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and other supported operating systems.

Dim pkcs11 As New ChilkatPkcs11

' You'll need to know in advance the name and possibly the full path to the smart card vendor's shared library.
' On Windows systems it is a .dll.   On Linux it is a .so.  On Mac OS X it will be a .dylib.
' On Windows, if you set the SharedLibPath equal to just the name of the DLL, then it is assumed to be located in the Windows system directory
' which contains dynamic-link libraries and drivers. The Windows system directory is typically C:\Windows\System32

' In this example we will pass just the name of the DLL because it is located in C:\Windows\System32.
' On non-Windows systems you should specify the full path to the shared lib.
' Also use the full path on Windows systems where the smart card vendor's DLL does not install to C:\Windows\System32.
pkcs11.SharedLibPath = "aetpkss1.dll"

Dim success As Long
success = pkcs11.Initialize()
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print pkcs11.LastErrorText
Else
    Debug.Print "PKCS11 successfully initialized."
End If