Creation of cryptoviruses

To successfully write a cryptovirus, a thorough knowledge of the various cryptographic primitives such as random number generators, proper recommended cipher text chaining modes etc. are necessary. Wrong choices can lead to poor cryptographic strength. So, usage of preexisting routines would be ideal. Microsoft's Cryptographic API (CAPI), is a possible tool for the same. It has been demonstrated that using just 8 different calls to this API, a cryptovirus can satisfy all its encryption needs.^[9]