InitialKeyPtr (MQPTR) for MQCSP

The address for the initial key for the password protection system.

This is an input field. The initial value of this field is the null pointer in those programming languages that support pointers, and an all-null byte string otherwise. This field is ignored if Version is less than MQCSP_VERSION_2.

This field is relevant only for IBM® MQ MQI clients running on IBM i, AIX®, Linux®, and Windows systems.

IBM MQ MQI clients can supply encrypted values for some fields, using the IBM MQ password protection system. If you used an initial key to encrypt the password for the key repository specified in the MQSCO structure, ensure you include initial key fields in the MQCSP for the same client application.

An initial key is used by the encryption algorithm to encrypt and decrypt these values. If an initial key is supplied when the values of these fields are encrypted using the runmqicred utility, then the same initial key must be specified by the client when it connects to the queue manager.

The initial key specified using this field overrides any initial key that is specified using the MQS_MQI_KEYFILE environment variable, or the MQIInitialKeyFile property in the Security stanza of the client configuration file.

You can use either InitialKeyOffset or InitialKeyPtr to specify the initial key, but not both.