Polar Crypto Light Free :: FAQ

Click here to read General FAQ...

Do U.S. export laws concerning cryptographic software affect Polar Crypto in any way?
No. Polar Crypto is developed outside the U.S., where U.S. export laws do not apply.

Polar Crypto is available as Polar Crypto Light and Polar Crypto Component. What is the difference between them?
Please look at the comparison table available at: http://www.polarsoftware.com/products/cryptolight/availability.asp

Tehnical Q&A

• Polar Crypto Light Component
• Polarcryptolight.dll Polar Crypto Light dynamic-link library and ActiveX control (both in one file, installed in the WIN/SYSTEM directory)
• Polar Crypto Light Documentation
• Polarcrypto20light.chm Developer's on-line Documentation
• License.txt License agreement
• ReadMe.txt Information about installation, registration, etc.
• Polar Crypto Light Sample Files
• Source code for the samples written in Visual Basic 6.0 (using ActiveX)
• Source code for the sample written in Visual C++ 6.0 (using ActiveX)
• Source code for the sample written in Borland Delphi (using ActiveX)
• Source code for the ASP Sample
• Demo Browser (for easier browsing through the samples)

How do I encrypt text with CryptoLight component?
Add the CryptoLight component from component toolbox to your form. Follow the next procedure to create all programming that you need to encrypt text:

1. set the password which will protect your data (text in this case);
2. call the 'Encrypt' method to encrypt text;
3. if you want to show encrypted text you can encode it and show it like any other string.

Code samples
Add the following code to event which is supposed to perform encryption

Dim vtInput, vtOutput As Variant
CryptoLight1.Password = txtPassword.Text
vtInput = CryptoLight1.Decode(txtChiper.Text, pcfHex)
'decrypt the text (vtInput) using Crypto Light Decrypt method
vtOutput = CryptoLight1.Decrypt(vtInput)
'convert decrypted text into string
txtDecrypted.Text = CryptoLight1.Encode(vtOutput, pcfBinary)

How do I decrypt encrypted text with CryptoLight component?
Add the CryptoLight component from component toolbox to your form. Follow the next procedure to create all programming that you need to decrypt encrypted text:

1. set the password which protects your data (text in this case);
2. convert encoded text (encrypted text was encoded because we wanted to show it);
3. call the 'Decrypt' method to decrypt text;
4. if you want to show encrypted text you can encode it and show it like any other string.

Code samples
Add the following code to event which is supposed to perform encryption

Dim vtInput, vtOutput As Variant
CryptoLight1.Password = txtPassword.Text
vtInput = CryptoLight1.Decode(txtChiper.Text, pcfHex)
'decrypt the text (vtInput) using Crypto Light Decrypt method
vtOutput = CryptoLight1.Decrypt(vtInput)
'convert decrypted text into string
txtDecrypted.Text = CryptoLight1.Encode(vtOutput, pcfBinary)

How do I encrypt file with CryptoLight component?
Add the CryptoLight component from component toolbox to your form. Follow the next procedure to create all programming that you need to encrypt file:

1. set the password which will protect your data (file in this case);
2. call the 'EncryptFile' method to encrypt file.

Code sample
Add the following code to event which is supposed to perform encryption

CryptoLight1.Password = txtPassword.Text
CryptoLight1.EncryptFile("C:\File.dat", "C:\EncryptedFile.dat")

How do I decrypt encrypted file with CryptoLight component?
Add the CryptoLight component from component toolbox to your form. Follow the next procedure to create all programming that you need to decrypt encrypted file:

1. set the password which protects your data (file in this case);
2. call the 'DecryptFile' method to decrypt file;

Code sample
Add the following code to event which is supposed to perform encryption

CryptoLight1.Password = txtPassword.Text
CryptoLight1.DecryptFile("C:\EncryptedFile.dat", "C:\DecryptedFile.dat")

Can we use Polar Crypto Light in VB6, Active Server Pages (ASP) and VB .NET?
This product is basically a COM component that can be used in any development environment that supports COM. All the three you mentioned do support the COM technology, therefore, Polar Crypto Light can be used in all of them.

I wrote a VB program with Polar Crypto Light 2.5. This program encrypted a file on workstation A and I tried to use the same program and key to perform decryption on workstation B and workstation C and both incident failed. The only time that I can decrypt the file is on workstation A with same key and same application.
This error is commonly due to the combined use of the trial and full version of the product. I advise you to reinstall Polar Crypto Light (remove the polarcryptolight.dll file from the system folder manually if the installation procedure does not delete it) on both computers, and make sure that you are using full version of the polarcryptolight.dll (check its properties) when you reinstall it.
I have a text file containing user names and passwords that I want to encrypt and decrypt.
To encrypt I use: response = CryptoLight1.EncryptFile("\security\user.txt", "\security\userc.txt")
To decrypt I use: response = Cryptolght1.Decryptfile("\security\userc.txt","\Security\user.txt")
I get a response = 5001.
What am I doing wrong?
Methods like EncryptFile and DecryptFile require full paths to the files you want them to work with (i.e. "c:\temp\test.enc").
Note that you also have to set Password property for Polar Crypto Light before you use any encrypt/decrypt methods.

Which commands, that are used for encryption and decryption in Delphi, are used in Polar Crypto Light?

var
CryptoCtrl:TCryptoLight;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
var
vData:OleVariant;
buf : PByteArray;
i : integer;
begin
// create crypto light instance
CryptoCtrl:=TCryptoLight.Create(self);
Edit1.Text := char(0);
// set password and encrypt data
CryptoCtrl.Password := 'Polar';
vData := CryptoCtrl.Encrypt('Sample Text');
// decrypt data
vData := CryptoCtrl.Decrypt(vData);
// polar zip uses variants to store data. to extract such data first you have to lock the variant data buffer
buf := VarArrayLock(vData);
// and extract it on byte per byte basis
for i := 0 to VarArrayHighBound(vData, 1) do
Edit1.Text := Edit1.Text + char(buf[i]);
// when we are done we need to unlock the variant data otherwise error will be reported
VarArrayUnLock(vData);
// free the crypto light component
CryptoCtrl.free;
end;

When I download and install the release version of Crypto Light it installs as Trial version 2.5, is this the full release version?
Before installing the release version you have to uninstall the trial version. Before installing the release version you have to delete all the instances of the Crypto Light trial versions so that you can be 100 % sure when you once install the release that there are no instances of the old version on your computer.
This is the procedure step by step:

1. Uninstall the trial one.
2. Delete all the instances of PolarCryptoLight.ocx and PolarCryptoLight.dll.
3. Run an application that uses Polar CryptoLight. It won’t work, which is the proof there is no PolarCryptoLight.ocx and PolarCryptoLight.dll on the disk.
4. Install the release version.

Can I mix the trial and release version?
Regarding specific limitations in the key creation algorithms in the trial version, generated key may differ from the key that was created with release version of the component, despite same passwords. Subsequently, for the encryption or decryption process you can not mix these two versions of the product.