SQL Anywhere database - Is encrypt function algorithm true AES

Author

Is encrypt function algorithm true AES

James Moore

2005-07-15, 8:23 pm

I'm working on a project that requires certain data be
encrypted before sending it over the network to the
database.
I've found many AES libraries and such on the web, but I
can't find one that will produce ASA compatible encryption.
Do ASA's en/de crypt functions use true AES or a variant?

My goal is to be able to encrypt a string into a blob (
using powerbuilder and external dll functions ) send the
cipher to the database and have it decrypt when necessary.

Any help is greatly appreciated as I've been digging and
tinkering for a week with no luck.

Thanks!

Graeme Perrow

2005-07-16, 9:23 am

I'm afraid that's not currently possible. The encrypt and decrypt
functions do use "true" AES, but the data is saved in a proprietary and
unpublished format (i.e. it's not just the raw encrypted data). if you
encrypt the data externally and then try to use the decrypt function to
decrypt it, it will not work.

James Moore wrote:
> I'm working on a project that requires certain data be
> encrypted before sending it over the network to the
> database.
> I've found many AES libraries and such on the web, but I
> can't find one that will produce ASA compatible encryption.
> Do ASA's en/de crypt functions use true AES or a variant?
>
> My goal is to be able to encrypt a string into a blob (
> using powerbuilder and external dll functions ) send the
> cipher to the database and have it decrypt when necessary.
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated as I've been digging and
> tinkering for a week with no luck.
>
> Thanks!

--
Graeme Perrow
Senior Software Developer
gperrow _at_ ianywhere _dot_ com
iAnywhere Solutions Inc.
A Sybase company

Whitepapers, TechDocs, bug fixes are all available through the iAnywhere
Developer Community at http://www.ianywhere.com/developer/

James Moore

2005-07-17, 8:23 pm

Oh, that's too bad. Thanks for your time.

> I'm afraid that's not currently possible. The encrypt and
> decrypt functions do use "true" AES, but the data is
> saved in a proprietary and unpublished format (i.e. it's
> not just the raw encrypted data). if you encrypt the data
> externally and then try to use the decrypt function to
> decrypt it, it will not work.
>
> James Moore wrote:
>
>
> --
> Graeme Perrow
> Senior Software Developer
> gperrow _at_ ianywhere _dot_ com
> iAnywhere Solutions Inc.
> A Sybase company
>
> Whitepapers, TechDocs, bug fixes are all available through
> the iAnywhere Developer Community at
> http://www.ianywhere.com/developer/

Greg Fenton

2005-07-17, 8:23 pm

James Moore wrote:
>
> My goal is to be able to encrypt a string into a blob (
> using powerbuilder and external dll functions ) send the
> cipher to the database and have it decrypt when necessary.

You might consider using your own library to encrypt the data at the
client side, and use that same library to decrypt it on the server side.
SQLAnywhere supports "external procedures", which are calls to
external DLLs.

Another option (though maybe not for your situation) would be to use
encrypted (TLS) communications between the client application and the
ASA server. The data is encrypted as it is transmitted over the
communication path. Unless you have a need to store the information
within the client application prior to sending it to the database, it
would essentially be the same as encrypting it and then sending it over
a non-encrypted communication path.

Hope this helps,
greg.fenton
--
Greg Fenton
Consultant, Solution Services, iAnywhere Solutions
--------
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