Subject: S/MIME Freeware Library (was RE: few more basic questions)

From: "Pawling, John" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 11:57:51 -0400

Pradeep,

Getronics Government Solutions provides freeware, open source, security
libraries at <http://www.getronicsgov.com/hot/sec_libraries.htm> that
can be incorporated into applications to help them meet security
requirements.  The S/MIME Freeware Library (SFL) implements the IETF
S/MIME v3 RFC 2630 and RFC 2634 specifications.  The Certificate
Management Library (CML) validates Version 3 X.509 certificates and
Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL) to meet the 2000 X.509 Recommendation
and IETF PKIX specifications.  These libraries use the Enhanced SNACC
Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) library.  The web site provides
further information.

===========================================
John Pawling, [email-masked]
Getronics Government Solutions, LLC
===========================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Pradeep, PK [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 12:14 AM
To: [email-masked]
Cc: Housley, Russ
Subject: few more basic questions

Hello Russ/Group,
thanks for your reply.

Are there free APIs available in Java or Vb or both to 
1) build S/MIME message
2) build PKCS#7 object to SignedData and Enveloped Data.

If free APIs are not available then:

Is it possible to build one's own component to build S/MIME message and
PKCS#7 objects? As I understand basically speaking S/MIME message and
PKCS#7 objects are nothing but a particular structure of text strings.
if the binary portion is base64 encoded then it is nothing but text
message. Kindly throw some light on this.

Warm Regards,

Pradeep

-----Original Message-----
From: Housley, Russ [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 11:12 PM
To: Pradeep, PK
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: a basic question

Pradeep:

In response to your beginner questions:

>1. S/MIME message is a ascii (text) message or a binary message?

The protected content is MIME encoded, so it can be anything.

>2. suppose i have a .gif file which i am sending as attachment of
>multipart/related MIME message. the attachment file is base64
>transfer-encoded...the resulting MIME message is a binary message or a
text
>message. can the MIME message be srored as string.

The result of the base64 encoding is a character string.

>3. I have a multipart/signed message which i have signed using my
private
>key...the message is a binary message or text message?

This depends on the encoding that is employed.  If base64 is used, then
(as 
before) the output is a character string.  If a binary encoding is used,

then, as expected, a binary message is the result.

Russ