Generate a Key Pair

This guide shows how to generate an asymmetric Private Key using Virgil Crypto Library.

Prerequisites for work

Install Virgil Crypto

Virgil Crypto for JavaScript is available on npm:

NPM

npm install virgil-crypto

> Important! You will need Node.js version >=6 to use virgil-crypto. If you have a different version, consider upgrade or use nvm(or a similar tool) to install Node.js of supported version alongside your current installation. If you only intend to use virgil-crypto in a browser, you can ignore this warning.

CDN

You can also generate a Private Key with the default key pair algorithm or choose a specific algorithm available on this table. Also, during Key generation you can protect it with a password.

Virgil doesn't keep a copy of your Key. If you lose a Key, there is no way to recover it.

Generate a Private Key with the default algorithm (EC_X25519):

import { VirgilCrypto } from 'virgil-crypto';

const virgilCrypto = new VirgilCrypto();
const keyPair = virgilCrypto.generateKeys();

Generate a Private Key with a specific algorithm:

import { VirgilCrypto, KeyPairType } from 'virgil-crypto';

// construct instance that always creates 256-bits NIST curve keys
const virgilCrypto = new VirgilCrypto({ defaultKeyPairType: KeyPairType.EC_SECP256R1 });
const keyPair = virgilCrypto.generateKeys();

// alternatively, you can pass the type of keys to generate directly into `generateKeys`
const otherKeyPair = virgilCrypto.generateKeys(KeyPairType.RSA_4096);