# MLDSA Control

The MLDSA control can be used to create and verify digital signatures using Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm (ML-DSA) cryptography.

## Syntax

**MLDSA**

## Remarks

The MLDSA component can be used to create and verify digital signatures using Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm (ML-DSA) cryptography. Includes support for ML-DSA-44, ML-DSA-65, and ML-DSA-87 parameter sets.

Note that by default the component uses ML-DSA-44. You may specify the parameter set by setting [ParamSet](#ParamSet).

##  Property List

*The following is the full list of the properties of the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.*

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| [Context](#context-property-mldsa-control) | The ML-DSA context string. |
| [HashAlgorithm](#hashalgorithm-property-mldsa-control) | The hash algorithm used when PreHash is enabled. |
| [InputFile](#inputfile-property-mldsa-control) | The file to process. |
| [InputMessage](#inputmessage-property-mldsa-control) | The message to process. |
| [KeyPrivateKey](#keyprivatekey-property-mldsa-control) | The raw ML-DSA private key. |
| [KeyPublicKey](#keypublickey-property-mldsa-control) | The raw ML-DSA public key. |
| [PreHash](#prehash-property-mldsa-control) | Whether to use HashML-DSA when signing and verifying. |
| [Signature](#signature-property-mldsa-control) | The signature. |
| [UseHex](#usehex-property-mldsa-control) | Whether the signature is hex encoded. |

## Method List

*The following is the full list of the methods of the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.*

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| [Config](#config-method-mldsa-control) | Sets or retrieves a configuration setting. |
| [CreateKey](#createkey-method-mldsa-control) | Creates a new key. |
| [Reset](#reset-method-mldsa-control) | Resets the control. |
| [Sign](#sign-method-mldsa-control) | Creates a signature. |
| [Verify](#verify-method-mldsa-control) | Verifies a signature. |

## Event List

*The following is the full list of the events fired by the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.*

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| [Error](#error-event-mldsa-control) | Fired when information is available about errors during data delivery. |
| [Progress](#progress-event-mldsa-control) | Fired as progress is made. |

## Config Settings

*The following is a list of config settings for the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.*

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| [ParamSet](#ParamSet) | The ML-DSA parameter set. |
| [CodePage](#CodePage) | The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations. |
| [MaskSensitiveData](#MaskSensitiveData) | Whether sensitive data is masked in log messages. |
| [UseInternalSecurityAPI](#UseInternalSecurityAPI) | Whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation. |

# Context Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

The ML-DSA context string.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.Context[=string]
```

## Default Value

""

## Remarks

This property specifies the optional ML-DSA context used when signing and verifying. This property may be empty. The default value is empty.

The same value must be specified when calling [Sign](#sign-method-mldsa-control) and [Verify](#verify-method-mldsa-control).

The maximum length is 255 bytes.

To read or write binary data to the property, a Variant (Byte Array) version is provided in **.ContextB**.

## Data Type

Binary String

# HashAlgorithm Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

The hash algorithm used when PreHash is enabled.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.HashAlgorithm[=integer]
```

## Possible Values

```text
mhaSHA256(0),
mhaSHA384(1),
mhaSHA512(2)
```

## Default Value

0

## Remarks

This property specifies the hash algorithm used to pre-hash input data when [PreHash](#prehash-property-mldsa-control) is set to *True*.

Possible values are:

- 0 (mhaSHA256 - default): SHA-256
- 1 (mhaSHA384): SHA-384
- 2 (mhaSHA512): SHA-512

## Data Type

Integer

# InputFile Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

The file to process.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.InputFile[=string]
```

## Default Value

""

## Remarks

This property specifies the file to be processed. Set this property to the full or relative path to the file which will be processed.

**Input and Output Properties**

The control will determine the source and destination of the input and output based on which properties are set.

The order in which the input properties are checked is as follows:

- InputFile
- [InputMessage](#inputmessage-property-mldsa-control)

When a valid source is found, the search stops. The order in which the output properties are checked is as follows:

- OutputFile
- OutputMessage: The output data is written to this property if no other destination is specified.

## Data Type

String

# InputMessage Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

The message to process.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.InputMessage[=string]
```

## Default Value

""

## Remarks

This property specifies the message to be processed.

**Input and Output Properties**

The control will determine the source and destination of the input and output based on which properties are set.

The order in which the input properties are checked is as follows:

- [InputFile](#inputfile-property-mldsa-control)
- InputMessage

When a valid source is found, the search stops. The order in which the output properties are checked is as follows:

- OutputFile
- OutputMessage: The output data is written to this property if no other destination is specified.

To read or write binary data to the property, a Variant (Byte Array) version is provided in **.InputMessageB**.

## Data Type

Binary String

# KeyPrivateKey Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

The raw ML-DSA private key.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.KeyPrivateKey[=string]
```

## Default Value

""

## Remarks

The raw ML-DSA private key.

To read or write binary data to the property, a Variant (Byte Array) version is provided in **.KeyPrivateKeyB**.

## Data Type

Binary String

# KeyPublicKey Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

The raw ML-DSA public key.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.KeyPublicKey[=string]
```

## Default Value

""

## Remarks

The raw ML-DSA public key.

To read or write binary data to the property, a Variant (Byte Array) version is provided in **.KeyPublicKeyB**.

## Data Type

Binary String

# PreHash Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Whether to use HashML-DSA when signing and verifying.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.PreHash[=boolean]
```

## Default Value

False

## Remarks

This property specifies whether the component uses HashML-DSA when signing and verifying.

If set to *True*, the input is pre-hashed using [HashAlgorithm](#hashalgorithm-property-mldsa-control) before signing or verifying. This supports a single pass over input data from [InputFile](#inputfile-property-mldsa-control) or .

If set to *False* (default), pure ML-DSA is used.

## Data Type

Boolean

# Signature Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

The signature.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.Signature[=string]
```

## Default Value

""

## Remarks

This property holds the ML-DSA signature.

It is populated by [Sign](#sign-method-mldsa-control) and must be set before calling [Verify](#verify-method-mldsa-control).

To read or write binary data to the property, a Variant (Byte Array) version is provided in **.SignatureB**.

## Data Type

Binary String

# UseHex Property ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Whether the signature is hex encoded.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.UseHex[=boolean]
```

## Default Value

False

## Remarks

This property specifies whether [Signature](#signature-property-mldsa-control) is hex encoded.

If set to *False* (default), the signature is provided as-is with no encoding.

When [Sign](#sign-method-mldsa-control) is called and this property is set to *True*, [Signature](#signature-property-mldsa-control) is hex encoded when populated.

When [Verify](#verify-method-mldsa-control) is called and this property is set to *True*, [Signature](#signature-property-mldsa-control) is treated as hex encoded.

Input data from [InputMessage](#inputmessage-property-mldsa-control), [InputFile](#inputfile-property-mldsa-control), or SetInputStream is always processed as provided.

## Data Type

Boolean

# Config Method ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.Config ConfigurationString
```

## Remarks

Config is a generic method available in every control. It is used to set and retrieve [configuration settings](#config-settings-mldsa-control) for the control.

These settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the control, access to these *internal properties* is provided through the Config method.

To set a configuration setting named *PROPERTY*, you must call *Config("PROPERTY=VALUE")*, where *VALUE* is the value of the setting expressed as a string. For boolean values, use the strings "True", "False", "0", "1", "Yes", or "No" (case does not matter).

To read (query) the value of a [configuration setting](#config-settings-mldsa-control), you must call *Config("PROPERTY")*. The value will be returned as a string.

# CreateKey Method ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Creates a new key.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.CreateKey
```

## Remarks

CreateKey creates a new ML-DSA public and private key pair.

# Reset Method ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Resets the control.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.Reset
```

## Remarks

When called, the control will reset all of its properties to their default values.

# Sign Method ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Creates a signature.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.Sign
```

## Remarks

This method signs the data specified by [InputFile](#inputfile-property-mldsa-control) or [InputMessage](#inputmessage-property-mldsa-control) using the private key in Key and populates [Signature](#signature-property-mldsa-control).

# Verify Method ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Verifies a signature.

## Syntax

```text
mldsacontrol.Verify
```

## Remarks

This method verifies [Signature](#signature-property-mldsa-control) for the data specified by [InputFile](#inputfile-property-mldsa-control) or [InputMessage](#inputmessage-property-mldsa-control) using the public key in Key. The result is returned.

# Error Event ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Fired when information is available about errors during data delivery.

## Syntax

```text
Sub mldsacontrol_Error(ErrorCode As Integer, Description As String)
```

## Remarks

The Error event is fired in case of exceptional conditions during message processing. Normally the control fails with an error.

The *ErrorCode* parameter contains an error code, and the *Description* parameter contains a textual description of the error. For a list of valid error codes and their descriptions, please refer to the [Error Codes](#trappable-errors-mldsa-control) section.

# Progress Event ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

Fired as progress is made.

## Syntax

```text
Sub mldsacontrol_Progress(BytesProcessed As Long64, PercentProcessed As Integer)
```

## Remarks

This event is fired automatically as data is processed by the control.

The *PercentProcessed* parameter indicates the current status of the operation.

The *BytesProcessed* parameter holds the total number of bytes processed so far.

# Config Settings ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

 The control accepts one or more of the following *configuration settings*. Configuration settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the control, access to these *internal properties* is provided through the [Config](#config-method-mldsa-control) method.

### MLDSA Config Settings

**ParamSet**: The ML-DSA parameter set.This setting specifies the ML-DSA parameter set to use when creating keys. Possible values are:

- 44 (default)
- 65
- 87

### Base Config Settings

**CodePage**: The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.The default code page is Unicode UTF-8 (65001).

The following is a list of valid code page identifiers:

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Identifier | Name |
| 037 | IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada |
| 437 | OEM - United States |
| 500 | IBM EBCDIC - International |
| 708 | Arabic - ASMO 708 |
| 709 | Arabic - ASMO 449+, BCON V4 |
| 710 | Arabic - Transparent Arabic |
| 720 | Arabic - Transparent ASMO |
| 737 | OEM - Greek (formerly 437G) |
| 775 | OEM - Baltic |
| 850 | OEM - Multilingual Latin I |
| 852 | OEM - Latin II |
| 855 | OEM - Cyrillic (primarily Russian) |
| 857 | OEM - Turkish |
| 858 | OEM - Multilingual Latin I + Euro symbol |
| 860 | OEM - Portuguese |
| 861 | OEM - Icelandic |
| 862 | OEM - Hebrew |
| 863 | OEM - Canadian-French |
| 864 | OEM - Arabic |
| 865 | OEM - Nordic |
| 866 | OEM - Russian |
| 869 | OEM - Modern Greek |
| 870 | IBM EBCDIC - Multilingual/ROECE (Latin-2) |
| 874 | ANSI/OEM - Thai (same as 28605, ISO 8859-15) |
| 875 | IBM EBCDIC - Modern Greek |
| 932 | ANSI/OEM - Japanese, Shift-JIS |
| 936 | ANSI/OEM - Simplified Chinese (PRC, Singapore) |
| 949 | ANSI/OEM - Korean (Unified Hangul Code) |
| 950 | ANSI/OEM - Traditional Chinese (Taiwan; Hong Kong SAR, PRC) |
| 1026 | IBM EBCDIC - Turkish (Latin-5) |
| 1047 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin 1/Open System |
| 1140 | IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada (037 + Euro symbol) |
| 1141 | IBM EBCDIC - Germany (20273 + Euro symbol) |
| 1142 | IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway (20277 + Euro symbol) |
| 1143 | IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden (20278 + Euro symbol) |
| 1144 | IBM EBCDIC - Italy (20280 + Euro symbol) |
| 1145 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain (20284 + Euro symbol) |
| 1146 | IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom (20285 + Euro symbol) |
| 1147 | IBM EBCDIC - France (20297 + Euro symbol) |
| 1148 | IBM EBCDIC - International (500 + Euro symbol) |
| 1149 | IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic (20871 + Euro symbol) |
| 1200 | Unicode UCS-2 Little-Endian (BMP of ISO 10646) |
| 1201 | Unicode UCS-2 Big-Endian |
| 1250 | ANSI - Central European |
| 1251 | ANSI - Cyrillic |
| 1252 | ANSI - Latin I |
| 1253 | ANSI - Greek |
| 1254 | ANSI - Turkish |
| 1255 | ANSI - Hebrew |
| 1256 | ANSI - Arabic |
| 1257 | ANSI - Baltic |
| 1258 | ANSI/OEM - Vietnamese |
| 1361 | Korean (Johab) |
| 10000 | MAC - Roman |
| 10001 | MAC - Japanese |
| 10002 | MAC - Traditional Chinese (Big5) |
| 10003 | MAC - Korean |
| 10004 | MAC - Arabic |
| 10005 | MAC - Hebrew |
| 10006 | MAC - Greek I |
| 10007 | MAC - Cyrillic |
| 10008 | MAC - Simplified Chinese (GB 2312) |
| 10010 | MAC - Romania |
| 10017 | MAC - Ukraine |
| 10021 | MAC - Thai |
| 10029 | MAC - Latin II |
| 10079 | MAC - Icelandic |
| 10081 | MAC - Turkish |
| 10082 | MAC - Croatia |
| 12000 | Unicode UCS-4 Little-Endian |
| 12001 | Unicode UCS-4 Big-Endian |
| 20000 | CNS - Taiwan |
| 20001 | TCA - Taiwan |
| 20002 | Eten - Taiwan |
| 20003 | IBM5550 - Taiwan |
| 20004 | TeleText - Taiwan |
| 20005 | Wang - Taiwan |
| 20105 | IA5 IRV International Alphabet No. 5 (7-bit) |
| 20106 | IA5 German (7-bit) |
| 20107 | IA5 Swedish (7-bit) |
| 20108 | IA5 Norwegian (7-bit) |
| 20127 | US-ASCII (7-bit) |
| 20261 | T.61 |
| 20269 | ISO 6937 Non-Spacing Accent |
| 20273 | IBM EBCDIC - Germany |
| 20277 | IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway |
| 20278 | IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden |
| 20280 | IBM EBCDIC - Italy |
| 20284 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain |
| 20285 | IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom |
| 20290 | IBM EBCDIC - Japanese Katakana Extended |
| 20297 | IBM EBCDIC - France |
| 20420 | IBM EBCDIC - Arabic |
| 20423 | IBM EBCDIC - Greek |
| 20424 | IBM EBCDIC - Hebrew |
| 20833 | IBM EBCDIC - Korean Extended |
| 20838 | IBM EBCDIC - Thai |
| 20866 | Russian - KOI8-R |
| 20871 | IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic |
| 20880 | IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Russian) |
| 20905 | IBM EBCDIC - Turkish |
| 20924 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin-1/Open System (1047 + Euro symbol) |
| 20932 | JIS X 0208-1990 & 0121-1990 |
| 20936 | Simplified Chinese (GB2312) |
| 21025 | IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Serbian, Bulgarian) |
| 21027 | Extended Alpha Lowercase |
| 21866 | Ukrainian (KOI8-U) |
| 28591 | ISO 8859-1 Latin I |
| 28592 | ISO 8859-2 Central Europe |
| 28593 | ISO 8859-3 Latin 3 |
| 28594 | ISO 8859-4 Baltic |
| 28595 | ISO 8859-5 Cyrillic |
| 28596 | ISO 8859-6 Arabic |
| 28597 | ISO 8859-7 Greek |
| 28598 | ISO 8859-8 Hebrew |
| 28599 | ISO 8859-9 Latin 5 |
| 28605 | ISO 8859-15 Latin 9 |
| 29001 | Europa 3 |
| 38598 | ISO 8859-8 Hebrew |
| 50220 | ISO 2022 Japanese with no halfwidth Katakana |
| 50221 | ISO 2022 Japanese with halfwidth Katakana |
| 50222 | ISO 2022 Japanese JIS X 0201-1989 |
| 50225 | ISO 2022 Korean |
| 50227 | ISO 2022 Simplified Chinese |
| 50229 | ISO 2022 Traditional Chinese |
| 50930 | Japanese (Katakana) Extended |
| 50931 | US/Canada and Japanese |
| 50933 | Korean Extended and Korean |
| 50935 | Simplified Chinese Extended and Simplified Chinese |
| 50936 | Simplified Chinese |
| 50937 | US/Canada and Traditional Chinese |
| 50939 | Japanese (Latin) Extended and Japanese |
| 51932 | EUC - Japanese |
| 51936 | EUC - Simplified Chinese |
| 51949 | EUC - Korean |
| 51950 | EUC - Traditional Chinese |
| 52936 | HZ-GB2312 Simplified Chinese |
| 54936 | Windows XP: GB18030 Simplified Chinese (4 Byte) |
| 57002 | ISCII Devanagari |
| 57003 | ISCII Bengali |
| 57004 | ISCII Tamil |
| 57005 | ISCII Telugu |
| 57006 | ISCII Assamese |
| 57007 | ISCII Oriya |
| 57008 | ISCII Kannada |
| 57009 | ISCII Malayalam |
| 57010 | ISCII Gujarati |
| 57011 | ISCII Punjabi |
| 65000 | Unicode UTF-7 |
| 65001 | Unicode UTF-8 |

 The following is a list of valid code page identifiers for Mac OS only:

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Identifier | Name |
| 1 | ASCII |
| 2 | NEXTSTEP |
| 3 | JapaneseEUC |
| 4 | UTF8 |
| 5 | ISOLatin1 |
| 6 | Symbol |
| 7 | NonLossyASCII |
| 8 | ShiftJIS |
| 9 | ISOLatin2 |
| 10 | Unicode |
| 11 | WindowsCP1251 |
| 12 | WindowsCP1252 |
| 13 | WindowsCP1253 |
| 14 | WindowsCP1254 |
| 15 | WindowsCP1250 |
| 21 | ISO2022JP |
| 30 | MacOSRoman |
| 10 | UTF16String |
| 0x90000100 | UTF16BigEndian |
| 0x94000100 | UTF16LittleEndian |
| 0x8c000100 | UTF32String |
| 0x98000100 | UTF32BigEndian |
| 0x9c000100 | UTF32LittleEndian |
| 65536 | Proprietary |

**MaskSensitiveData**: Whether sensitive data is masked in log messages.In certain circumstances it may be beneficial to mask sensitive data, like passwords, in log messages. Set this to *True* to mask sensitive data. The default is *True*.

**UseInternalSecurityAPI**: Whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation. When set to *False*, the control will use the system security libraries by default to perform cryptographic functions where applicable.

Setting this configuration setting to *True* tells the control to use the internal implementation instead of using the system security libraries.

 This setting is set to *False* by default on all platforms.

# Trappable Errors ([MLDSA](#mldsa-control) Control)

### MLDSA Errors

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 20103 | No Key specified. |
| 20121 | Invalid parameter set. |
| 21702 | Specified ML-DSA key is invalid. |
| 21703 | Invalid parameter set. |
| 21704 | Public key must be specified. |
| 21705 | Private key must be specified. |
| 21706 | Input data must be specified. |
| 21707 | Signature must be specified. |
| 21708 | Signing failed. |
| 21709 | Verification failed. |
| 21710 | Invalid hash algorithm. |
| 21711 | Invalid context length. |