Technical Details

The Soft Pedal Shop's CSP Tracing Utility captures the interactions between applications and one or more CSPs being traced.  It does this by wedging itself between the Microsoft CryptoAPI layer and the target CSPs.  It then records the values of all the parameters that are passed back and forth during cryptographic operations.

The Tracing CSP is aware of parameter types and special structures, and records all information passing between the application and the CSP, even data referenced by pointers.

A separate utility, called the CSP Control Panel, provides easy graphical control over which CSPs are to be traced, and creates a text file interpretation of the exchanged parameters.  It also is aware of parameter types and special structures, providing full details and interpretations of the traced information, complete with imbedded structures and symbolic names.  Even structures undocumented by Microsoft are fully expanded in the trace interpretation.

Error conditions, invalid parameters, and CSP loading problems are recorded and reported, making troubleshooting of CSP startup problems trivial.

Minimal System Requirements

The Soft Pedal Shop's CSP Tracing Utility requires at least the following:

• Microsoft Windows 98 or later
• Adobe Acrobat Reader V5.0.5 or later to view the documentation (supplied on the CD)
• 32 megabytes of memory beyond the minimum required for the previous requirements
• 3 megabytes of free disk space beyond the minimum required for the previous requirements
• A CD-ROM reader from which to install.

The Soft Pedal Shop's CSP Tracing Utility is not supported on the following operating systems:

• Windows 95
• Windows NT versions 3.1 - 4.0

This is because required system files do not ship on these systems by default.  However, it is possible to get the CSP Tracing Utility running on these platforms through a judicious selection of service packs, Internet Explorer updates, etc.

Should you need assistance tracing CSPs on these older platforms, The Soft Pedal Shop can provide consulting services to get you going.

What's New In This Version

• Version 1.1
  • The username of the caller is now displayed in the trace if the host operating system supports it.  This makes it easier to spot potential problems when your CSP is called from special system accounts, and recognize when threads switch user ids.
  • Handles are now identified by Unique IDs, making it easier to find all operations specific to that instance of a handle.
  • Permission settings have been enhanced, ensuring that logging works from any system or user account (even special system accounts), but viewing and controlling the traces can only be done from an administrator account.
  • Optionally limit the size of buffers that get traced, keeping trace logs small.
  • Various other minor bug fixes & enhancements.