NCryptoki

NCryptoki is a library for .NET framework that implements the PKCS#11 specifications and supplies an API for C#, VB.NET, Visual Basic 6, Delphi and other COM interop languages for integrating a PKCS#11 compliant token in any application.

NCryptoki maps the cryptoki's functions defined in PKCS#11 specification in a set of high level .NET classes for C#, VB.NET and proposes a programming paradigm that allows to integrate your PKCS#11 compliant token in your applications with a few lines of code.

NCryptoki supplies also a COM interface that allows to use the supplied classes in any language that supports COM interop like Visual Basic 6, Delphi etc.

Main Features:
- Compliant with PKCS#11 2.20 specifications
- Compliant with any PKCS#11 smart card/token/HSM
- 32 or 64 bit platform
- .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0

NCryptoki allows to avoid from the extremely tedious work needed to import in your favorite programming language the PKCS#11 functions exposed by PKCS#11 native implementations reducing the complexity of the code and saving a lot of development time.

More in depth, PKCS#11 functions for accessing smart cards, as described in PKCS#11 specifications, are implemented in a native, unmanaged, dynamic link library (dll) written in C/C++. If you want to call PKCS#11 functions in your C# and/or VB.NET code you have no chance to avoid from using platform invoke services (P-Invoke) supplied by the framework, to import the unmanaged functions of the native PKCS#11 library in your C# and/or VB.NET managed code. But importing functions from an unmanaged dll, expecially from a highly complex PKCS#11 dll, requires very advanced skills in C/C++ and .NET and compels a lot of tedious work to declare the prototypes related to the functions to import using the P-Invoke rules and to deal with the marshalling of custom parameters.

NCryptoki allows to avoid from dealing with P-Invoke declarations and unmanaged code and allows to avoid from a lot of tedious work needed to code the P-Invoke declarations.