Microsoft's documentation contains two particularly important warnings:
The primary purpose of NcryptOpenStorageProvider is to enable applications to interact with a storage provider, which is responsible for managing cryptographic keys and other sensitive data. By opening a handle to a storage provider, developers can perform various operations, such as creating, reading, and deleting keys.
// Perform key generation or storage operations here... // e.g., NCryptCreatePersistedKey(hProvider, ...);
$ ncryptopenstorageprovider new --name myencryptedvol --size 10G [INFO] New storage provider 'myencryptedvol' created. [INFO] Provider ID: prov-7a3f2b1c [INFO] Encryption status: ACTIVE ncryptopenstorageprovider new
: A pointer to a null-terminated Unicode string identifying the KSP alias. If this is NULL , the default provider is loaded. Common built-in providers include:
Once the provider is open, you can create or open keys, usually by calling NCryptCreatePersistedKey . 3. Cleaning Up
The primary purpose of this constructor is to provide a method for creating CngProvider objects for KSPs that are not represented by the static properties. This capacity enables future .NET releases and third-party developers to add new providers, which can be accessed just like the built-in ones. Common built-in providers include: Once the provider is
: L"Microsoft Smart Card Key Storage Provider"
The function returns ERROR_SUCCESS (0) on success. On failure, it returns a nonzero SECURITY_STATUS code, such as:
: Windows may cache the binding handle internally. For example, when using the software KSP, it binds to the KeyIso (CNG Key Isolation) service. If that service restarts, existing handles may become invalid. or using a persistent key pair
Windows handles asymmetric cryptography and persistent keys through CNG Key Storage Functions . Before generating, exporting, or using a persistent key pair, an application must request a session handle from a designated provider. NCryptOpenStorageProvider dynamically loads the provider binary into memory and spins up its underlying services. C++ Syntax and Parameters
: A pointer to a variable that receives the provider handle. This handle must eventually be released using NCryptFreeObject .
The function that accomplishes this is .
A pointer to a null-terminated Unicode string identifying the specific provider alias. Leaving this NULL tells Windows to load the default OS provider. Windows natively ships with several specialized providers: