Question

I’m doing a project for a company that’s had software built by another firm some years ago. Trouble is they have built the app with VB6 and conveniently stored the data in encrypted XML files. “Encrypted XML?!”, you may ask? Yes, its apparently block encrypted complete with embedded key. I’m no expert in crypto, so I’m calling for help. Any idea which cipher I should use to decrypt this?

Format: (notice that the file is split into 2 parts … key & data)

   <CryptoXML>

     <EncryptedKey>
        <CipherData>
            <CipherValue><![CDATA[.........]]></CipherValue>
        </CipherData>
     </EncryptedKey>

     <EncryptedData Type="LanguageDefs">
        <CipherData>
             <CipherValue><![CDATA[..........]]></CipherValue>
        </CipherData>
     </EncryptedData>

   </CryptoXML>

And here’s the full XML file if you want to try.

Answer 1

Do you want us to guess the key or you have the key? I am 99,9% sure that the key is encoded in the application and with enough patience you can get it from there. The XML block itself looks like the one following XMLEnc standard, so you can use the library of your choice to handle the data (if you have a key).