How to decrypt encrypted data stored in BSTR

Question

I have seen the other links on this site about this topic but they are not helpful. If anyone can help me with this I would greatly appreciate it.

I am reading a line of encrypted text generated with the WinCrypt API using Visual Studio C++ 2010 express like this:

BSTR element;
HRESULT txt = command_body->get_innerText(&element);
size_t len = SysStringLen(element);
unsigned char * cmds;
cmds = (char *)malloc(len);
int ret = wcstombs(cmds,element,len);

The debugger shows that element is pointing to:

"ƒ¦Þ’Î 80:—ÇE³Ž(ùÖðRñ¨5·®•D²Q „× O»C¤ôýdÉùèGñ(åÒ¬¶»“ŽYÞŸÇi‹Bú{l!‹#dŽ "

element has data type wchar_t *, however in order for decryption to take place I need it as a char *. The data was encrypted with RC4 using WinCrypt. I have tried wcstombs and it does not work at all. Results in cmds being "[][]".

I am not sure what I am doing wrong but I need to somehow have this data as a char * or perhaps I am missing something completely. From what I have read here on MSDN it would appear that I would need to specify a new locale..but I am not sure which locale to specify in order for this data to make sense...

Here is the full code:

int main()
{
OleInitialize(NULL);            
IWebBrowser2* m_pInetExplorer;  
HRESULT hr;
CLSID clsid;
LPUNKNOWN punk=NULL;
CLSIDFromProgID (OLESTR("InternetExplorer.Application"), &clsid);
hr = CoCreateInstance (clsid, NULL, CLSCTX_SERVER, IID_IUnknown, (LPVOID *) &punk);
VARIANT vars[4];
memset(vars,0,sizeof(vars));
BSTR BStrURL = ::SysAllocString(L"http://127.0.0.1:8000/testing.html");
if(SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
    punk->QueryInterface (IID_IWebBrowser2, (LPVOID *) &m_pInetExplorer);
    punk->Release();
    m_pInetExplorer->put_Visible(VARIANT_TRUE);
    HRESULT hrie = m_pInetExplorer->Navigate(BStrURL,vars,vars+1,vars+2,vars+3);    //Go to webpage
    if (SUCCEEDED(hrie))
    {
        VARIANT_BOOL bBusy = VARIANT_TRUE;
        while(bBusy == VARIANT_TRUE)
        {
                Sleep(500);
                m_pInetExplorer->get_Busy(&bBusy);
        }
        IDispatch* pDisp;
        HRESULT test_doc = m_pInetExplorer->get_Document(&pDisp);
        if(SUCCEEDED(test_doc))
        {
            IHTMLDocument2* pHTMLDocument2;
            HRESULT hr;
            hr = pDisp->QueryInterface( IID_IHTMLDocument2,(void**)&pHTMLDocument2 );
            if(SUCCEEDED(hr))
            {
                IHTMLElement* command_body;
                HRESULT get_body = pHTMLDocument2->get_body(&command_body);
                if(SUCCEEDED(get_body))
                {
                    BSTR element;
                    HRESULT txt = command_body->get_innerText(&element);
                    size_t len = SysStringLen(element);
                    unsigned char * cmds;
                    cmds = (char *)malloc(len);
                    memcpy(cmds,element,len);
                }
            }
        }
    }   
}
}