I recently bought a laptop that has Windows XP Professional SP2. I was
surprised to discover that algorithms under Outlook didn't include SHA1 or
3DES, which seem to be the minimum 'lingua franca' for strong crypto. I
looked up the suported algorithms in the CryptoAPI, and found reference to
additional CSPs (MS Strong Cryptograpjic Provider, Enhanced Crpytographic
Provider, etc). I vaguely remember having to load a "High Encryption
DIskette" back under Windows 2000, but there doesn't seem to be any
reference to an equivalent product for XP.

Do these CSPs actually exist? Microsoft tech support seems to be unaware of
the entire topic.

Does anybody have some useful pointers for these, or some other way that I
can add SHA1 and 3DES support to my laptop for less that a small fortune?

Thanks!

Kristen

Hi Kristen,

what makes you think that you do not have these algorithms installed? Have
you verified that none of the following providers are present at the
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\Defaults\Provider" key
in the registry:
- "Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider v1.0"
- "Microsoft Strong Cryptographic Provider" providers
- "Microsoft Enhanced RSA and AES Cryptographic Provider"

First of all, the SHA-1 algorithm has shipped with every version of Windows
since Windows 95, so you should definitely have this. 3DES has shipped with
every version of Windows XP as far as I know (with the possible exception of
the French version -- but I doubt that). So you have this one also.

The High Encryption package only relates to Windows 2000 and Internet
Explorer 5; Windows XP (and IE6) ship by default with strong encryption
enabled, as does (any version of) the .NET framework. This had to do with
cryptography export laws that were reformed between the release of Windows
2000 and Windows XP.

My guess is that you do have the CSPs installed, but that there's a problem
with your outlook configuration. Perhaps you should ask your question again
in one of the microsoft.public.outlook.* newsgroups.

Regards,
Pieter Philippaerts



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