PKCS #11 Reference Guide for nShield Security World v13.9.3

Introduction

This guide is for application developers who are writing PKCS #11 applications.

For an introduction to the PKCS #11 user library, see nShield PKCS #11 library. You can find information about the available utilities in the Utilities reference guide. For information about the environment variables, see nShield PKCS #11 library environment variables.

Before using the nShield PKCS #11 libraries, we recommend that you read https://docs.oasis-open.org/pkcs11/pkcs11-spec/v3.2/pkcs11-spec-v3.2.html

To obtain full use of functions such as C_Encapsulate() and C_Decapsulate() it is required that applications access these functions by calling C_GetInterface() or C_GetInterfaceList() as-per the 3.2 version of the PKCS#11 specification.

The following diagram illustrates the way that an nShield PKCS #11 library works with the nShield APIs.

cryptoapi pkcs11
This guide does not address how the nShield PKCS #11 libraries map PKCS #11 functions to nCore API calls within the library.

Before reading this document and using the PKCS #11 library supplied by Entrust, familiarize yourself with the information contained in API introductory guide.