Java Generate Random Encryption Key

  1. Java Encryption Api
  2. Java Generate Random Encryption Key Software
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  4. Java Simple Text Encryption
  5. Encryption Key Example
  6. Java Generate Random Encryption Key Generator
  7. Java Encryption And Decryption
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What is the recommended way of generating a secure, random AES key in Java, using the standard JDK? In other posts, I have found this, but using a SecretKeyFactory might be a better idea: KeyGene. Generating a Key. You can use the Java KeyGenerator class to generate more random encryption keys. The KeyGenerator is covered in a bit more detail in the text about the Java KeyGenerator, but I will show you an example of how to use it here. Here is a Java KeyGenerator example. I need to generate a Key from a string, such that I can always create the same key from the same string. (Specifically a Key object, so that I can use it to create a Cipher in turn to create a SealedObject) Is this possible in Java, and what class/method combination should I be looking at to do so? Key generators are constructed using one of the getInstance class methods of this class. KeyGenerator objects are reusable, i.e., after a key has been generated, the same KeyGenerator object can be re-used to generate further keys. There are two ways to generate a key: in an algorithm-independent manner. Java provides KeyGenerator class this class is used to generate secret keys and objects of this class are reusable. To generate keys using the KeyGenerator class follow the steps given below. Step 1: Create a KeyGenerator object. The KeyGenerator class provides getInstance method which accepts a String variable representing the required key-generating algorithm and returns a KeyGenerator.

Creating and managing keys is an important part of the cryptographic process. Symmetric algorithms require the creation of a key and an initialization vector (IV). The key must be kept secret from anyone who should not decrypt your data. The IV does not have to be secret, but should be changed for each session. Asymmetric algorithms require the creation of a public key and a private key. The public key can be made public to anyone, while the private key must known only by the party who will decrypt the data encrypted with the public key. This section describes how to generate and manage keys for both symmetric and asymmetric algorithms.

Symmetric Keys

Java Encryption Api

The symmetric encryption classes supplied by the .NET Framework require a key and a new initialization vector (IV) to encrypt and decrypt data. Whenever you create a new instance of one of the managed symmetric cryptographic classes using the parameterless constructor, a new key and IV are automatically created. Anyone that you allow to decrypt your data must possess the same key and IV and use the same algorithm. Generally, a new key and IV should be created for every session, and neither the key nor IV should be stored for use in a later session.

To communicate a symmetric key and IV to a remote party, you would usually encrypt the symmetric key by using asymmetric encryption. Sending the key across an insecure network without encrypting it is unsafe, because anyone who intercepts the key and IV can then decrypt your data. For more information about exchanging data by using encryption, see Creating a Cryptographic Scheme.

The following example shows the creation of a new instance of the TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider class that implements the TripleDES algorithm.

When the previous code is executed, a new key and IV are generated and placed in the Key and IV properties, respectively.

Sometimes you might need to generate multiple keys. In this situation, you can create a new instance of a class that implements a symmetric algorithm and then create a new key and IV by calling the GenerateKey and GenerateIV methods. The following code example illustrates how to create new keys and IVs after a new instance of the symmetric cryptographic class has been made.

When the previous code is executed, a key and IV are generated when the new instance of TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider is made. Another key and IV are created when the GenerateKey and GenerateIV methods are called.

Asymmetric Keys

The .NET Framework provides the RSACryptoServiceProvider and DSACryptoServiceProvider classes for asymmetric encryption. These classes create a public/private key pair when you use the parameterless constructor to create a new instance. Asymmetric keys can be either stored for use in multiple sessions or generated for one session only. While the public key can be made generally available, the private key should be closely guarded.

A public/private key pair is generated whenever a new instance of an asymmetric algorithm class is created. After a new instance of the class is created, the key information can be extracted using one of two methods:

  • The ToXmlString method, which returns an XML representation of the key information.

  • Avg tuneup 2016 serial key generator. The ExportParameters method, which returns an RSAParameters structure that holds the key information.

Both methods accept a Boolean value that indicates whether to return only the public key information or to return both the public-key and the private-key information. An RSACryptoServiceProvider class can be initialized to the value of an RSAParameters structure by using the ImportParameters method.

Asymmetric private keys should never be stored verbatim or in plain text on the local computer. If you need to store a private key, you should use a key container. For more on how to store a private key in a key container, see How to: Store Asymmetric Keys in a Key Container.

The following code example creates a new instance of the RSACryptoServiceProvider class, creating a public/private key pair, and saves the public key information to an RSAParameters structure.

Java Generate Random Encryption Key

See also

  • Cipher
  • Keys
  • Signature

The Java Cryptography API enables you to encrypt and decrypt data in Java, as well as manage keys, sign and authenticate messages, calculate cryptographic hashes and much more. The term cryptography is often abbreviated to crypto, so sometimes you will see references to Java crypto instead of Java Cryptography. The two terms refer to the same topic though.

In this Java Cryptography tutorial I will explain the basics of how to use the Java Cryptography API to perform the different tasks needed for secure encryption.

This Java Cryptography tutorial will not cover the underlying cryptography theory. You will have to look elsewhere for that for now.

Java Cryptography Extension

The Java cryptography API is provided by what is officially called the Java Cryptography Extension. The Java Cryptography Extension is also sometimes referred to via the abbreviation JCE.

The Java Cryptography Extension has been part of the Java platform for a long time now. The JCE was initially kept separate from Java because the US had some export restrictions on encryption technology. Therefore the strongest encryption algorithms were not included in the standard Java platform. You could obtain these stronger encryption algorithms for Java JCE if you were a company inside the US, but the rest of the world had to make do with the weaker algorithms (or implement their own crypto algorithms and plug into JCE).

Today (2017) the US encryption export rules have been eased a lot. Therefore most of the world can benefit from the international encryption standards via Java JCE.

Java encryption and decryption

Java Cryptography Architecture

The Java Cryptography Architecture (JCA) is the name for the internal design of the Java cryptography API.

JCA is structured around some central general purpose classes and interfaces. The real functionality behind these interfaces are provided by providers. Thus, you may use a Cipher class to encrypt and decrypt some data, but the concrete cipher implementation (encryption algorithm) depends on the concrete provider used.

You can implement and plugin your own providers too, but you should be careful with that. Implementing encryption correctly without security holes is hard! Unless you know what you are doing, you are probably better off using the builtin Java provider, or use a well established provider like Bouncy Castle.

Core Classes and Interfaces

The Java cryptography API is divided between the following Java packages:

  • java.security
  • java.security.cert
  • java.security.spec
  • java.security.interfaces
  • javax.crypto
  • javax.crypto.spec
  • javax.crypto.interfaces

The core classes and interfaces of these packages are:

  • Provider
  • SecureRandom
  • Cipher
  • MessageDigest
  • Signature
  • Mac
  • AlgorithmParameters
  • AlgorithmParameterGenerator
  • KeyFactory
  • SecretKeyFactory
  • KeyPairGenerator
  • KeyGenerator
  • KeyAgreement
  • KeyStore
  • CertificateFactory
  • CertPathBuilder
  • CertPathValidator
  • CertStore

The most commonly used of these classes are covered throughout the rest of this Java Cryptography tutorial.

Provider

The Provider (java.security.Provider) class is a central class in the Java cryptography API. In order to use the Java crypto API you need a Provider set. The Java SDK comes with its own cryptography provider. If you don't set an explicit cryptography provider, the Java SDK default provider is used. However, this provider may not support the encryption algorithms you want to use. Therefore you might have to set your own cryptography provider.

One of the most popular cryptography providers for the Java cryptography API is called Bouncy Castle. Here is an example that sets a BouncyCastleProvider:

Cipher

The Cipher (javax.crypto.Cipher) class represents a cryptographic algorithm. A cipher can be used to both encrypt and decrypt data. The Cipher class is explained in more detail in the text on the Java Cipher class, but I will give a brief introduction to the Cipher class in the following sections.

Here is how to create a Java Cipher instance:

This example creates a Cipher instance which uses the AES encryption algorithm internally.

The Cipher.getInstance(..) method take a String identifying which encryption algorithm to use, as well as a few other configurations of the algorithm. In the example above, the CBC part is a mode the AES algorithm can work in. The PKCS5Padding part is how the AES algorithm should handle the last bytes of the data to encrypt, if the data does not align with a 64 bit or 128 bit block size boundary. What exactly that means belongs in a tutorial about cryptography in general, not a tutorial about the Java cryptography API.

Initializing the Cipher

Before the Cipher instance can be used it must be initialized. You initialize the Cipher instance by calling its init() method. The init() method takes two parameters:

  • Encryption / Decryption cipher mode
  • Key

The first parameter specifies whether the Cipher instance should encrypt or decrypt data. The second parameter specifies they key to use to encrypt or decrypt data with.

Here is a Java Cipher.init() example:

Please note that the way the key is created in this example is not secure, and should not be used in practice. This Java cryptography tutorial will describe how to create keys more securely in sections later.

To initialize a Cipher instance to decrypt data you have to use the Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, like this:

Encrypting or Decrypting Data

Once the Cipher is properly initialized you can start encrypting or decrypting data. You do so by calling the Cipherupdate() or doFinal() methods.

The update() method is used if you are encrypting or decrypting part of a bigger chunk of data. The doFinal() method is called when you are encrypting the last part of the big chunk of data, or if the block you pass to doFinal() represents the complete data block to encrypt.

Here is an example of encrypting some data with the doFinal() method

To decrypt data you would have passed cipher text (encrypted data) into the doFinal() or doUpdate() method instead.

Keys

To encrypt or decrypt data you need a key. There are two types of keys - depending on which type of encryption algorithm you use:

  • Symmetric keys
  • Asymmetric keys

Symmetric keys are used for symmetric encryption algorithms. Symmetric encryption algorithms use the same key for encryption and decryption.

Asymmetric keys are used for asymmetric encryption algorithms. Asymmetric encryption algorithms use one key for encryption, and another for decryption. The public key - private key encryption algorithms are examples of asymmetric encryption algorithms.

Somehow the party that needs to decrypt data needs to know the key needed to decrypt the data. If the party decrypting the data is not the same as the party encrypting it, somehow these two parties need to agree on a key, or exchange the key. This is referred to as key exchange.

Key Security

Keys should be hard to guess so an attacker cannot easily guess the encryption key. The example in the previous section about the Cipher class used a very simple, hardcoded key. This is not a good idea in practice. If they key is easy to guess, it is easy for an attacker to decrypt the encrypted data and possibly create fake messages herself.

It is important to make a key hard to guess. Thus, a key should consist of random bytes. The more random, the better, and the more bytes, the harder to guess because there are more possible combinations.

Generating a Key

You can use the Java KeyGenerator class to generate more random encryption keys. The KeyGenerator is covered in a bit more detail in the text about the Java KeyGenerator, but I will show you an example of how to use it here.

Here is a Java KeyGenerator example:

The resulting SecretKey instance can be passed to the Cipher.init() method, like this:

Generating a Key Pair

Asymmetric encryption algorithms use a key pair consisting of a public key and a private key to encrypt and decrypt data. To generate an asymmetric key pair you can use the KeyPairGenerator (java.security.KeyPairGenerator). The KeyPairGenerator is covered in a bit more detail in Java KeyPairGenerator tutorial, but here is a simple Java KeyPairGenerator example:

KeyStore

The Java KeyStore is a database that can contain keys. A Java KeyStore is represented by the KeyStore (java.security.KeyStore) class. A KeyStore can hold the following types of keys: Pc health advisor 3.1.7 license key generator.

  • Private keys
  • Public keys + certificates
  • Secret keys

Private and public keys are used in asymmetric encryption. A public key can have an associated certificate. A certificate is a document that verifies the identity of the person, organization or device claiming to own the public key. A certificate is typically digitally signed by the verifying party as proof.

Secret keys are used in symmetric encryption.

The KeyStore class is quite advanced so it is described in more detail in its own Java KeyStore Tutorial.

Keytool

The Java Keytool is a command line tool that can work with Java KeyStore files. The Keytool can generate key pairs into a KeyStore file, export certificates from, and import certificates into a KeyStore and several other functions.

The Keytool comes with the Java installation. The Keytool is described in more detail in the tutorial about the Java Keytool.

MessageDigest

When you receive some encrypted data from someone else, how do you know that no one has modified the encrypted data on the way to you?

A common solution is to calculate a message digest from the data before it is encrypted, and then encrypt both the data and the message digest and send that across the wire. A message digest is a hash value calculated from the message data. If a byte is changed in the encrypted data, the message digest calculated from the data will change too.

When receiving encrypted data, you decrypt it and calculate the message digest from it, and compare the calculated message digest to the message digest that was sent along with the encrypted data. If the two message digests are the same there is a high probability (but not a 100% guarantee) that the data was not modified.

You can use the Java MessageDigest (java.security.MessageDigest) to calculate message digests. You call the MessageDigest.getInstance() method to create a MessageDigest instance. There are several different message digest algorithms available. You need to tell which algorithm you want to use when creating a MessageDigest instance. This is covered in more detail in the Java MessageDigest tutorial. Here is a short introduction to the MessageDigest class.

Java Generate Random Encryption Key Software

Here is an example of creating a MessageDigest example:

This example creates MessageDigest instance which uses the SHA-256 cryptographic hash algorithm internally to calculate message digests.

In order to calculate a message digest of some data you call the update() or digest() method.

The update() method can be called multiple times, and the message digest is updated internally. When you have passed all the data you want to include in the message digest, you call digest() and get the resulting message digest data out. Here is an example of calling update() several times followed by a digest() call:

You can also call digest() a single time passing all the data to calculate the message digest from. Here is how that looks:

Mac

The Java Mac class is used to create a MAC from a message. The term MAC is short for Message Authentication Code. A MAC is similar to a message digest, but uses an additional key to encrypt the message digest. Only by having both the original data and the key can you verify the MAC. Thus, a MAC is a more secure way to guard a block of data from modification than a message digest. The Mac class is described in more detail in the Java Mac tutorial, but below is a short introduction.

You create a Java Mac instance by calling the Mac.getInstance() method, passing as parameter the name of the algorithm to use. Here is how that looks:

Before you can create a MAC from data you must initialize the Mac instance with a key. Here is an example of initializing the Mac instance with a key:

Once the Mac instance is initialized you can calculate a MAC from data by calling the update() and doFinal() method. If you have all the data to calculate the MAC for, you can call the doFinal() method immediately. Here is how that looks:

If you only have the access to the data in separate blocks, call update() multiple times with the data, and finish off with a call to doFinal(). Here is how that looks:

Signature

The Signature (java.security.Signature) class is used to digital sign data. When data is signed a digital signature is created from that data. The signature is thus separate from the data.

A digital signature is created by creating a message digest (hash) from the data, and encrypting that message digest with the private key of the device, person or organization that is to sign the data. The encrypted message digest is called a digital signature.

To create a Signature instance you call the Signature.getInstance(..) method. Here is an example that creates a Signature instance:

Signing Data

Java Generate Random Encryption Keyboard

To sign data you must initialize the Signature instance in signature mode. You do so by calling the initSign(..) method passing the private key to use to sign the data. Here is how initializing a Signature instance in signature mode is done:

Once the Signature instance is initialized it can be used to sign data. You do so by calling update() passing the data to sign as parameter. You can call the update() method several times with more data to include when creating the signature. When all the data has been passed to the update() method you call the sign() method to obtain the digital signature. Here is how that looks:

Verifying a Signature

Java Simple Text Encryption

To verify a signature you must initialize a Signature instance into verification mode. This is done by calling the initVerify(..) method passing as parameter the public key to use to verify the signature. Here is now initializing a Signature instance into verification mode looks:

Encryption Key Example

Once initialized into verification mode, you call the update() method with the data the signature is signing, and finish with a call to verify() which returns true or false depending on whether the signature could be verified or not. Here is how verifying a signature looks:

Full Signature and Verification Example

Java Generate Random Encryption Key Generator

Here is a full example of both creating and verifying a digital signature with the Signature class:

Java Encryption And Decryption

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