Unlocking the Secrets of Java Cryptography Extensions: The Basics

Listing 3.2 shows the reverse process of grabbing the encrypted key from the file and decrypting the data file.

package com.dlt.developer.crypto;

import java.security.*;
import javax.crypto.*;
import javax.crypto.spec.*;

import javax.crypto.*;import java.security.Key;

import java.io.*;

/**
 * @author David Thurmond
 * An example of decrypting a text file using Data Encryption
 * Standard encryption.
 */
public class DecryptFileExample {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

      // First, create the encryption key...
      System.out.println("Reading key from file...");
      BufferedInputStream in =
         new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream
         ("encrypted_key.txt"));
      byte[] keyBytes = new byte[in.available()];
      in.read(keyBytes);
      System.out.println("Bytes read=" + keyBytes.length);
      in.close();
      SecretKeySpec skeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "DES");

      // Now, create the cipher object with appropriate parameters...
      System.out.println("Decrypting file using DES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
      Cipher desCipher = Cipher.getInstance("DES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
      desCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, skeySpec);


      System.out.println("Reading encrypted file and decrypting...");
      BufferedOutputStream outData =
         new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream
         ("decrypted_data.txt"));
      BufferedInputStream inData =
         new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream
         ("encrypted_data.txt"));
      while (inData.available() > 0) {
         // Read the next chunk of bytes...
         byte[] encryptedBytes = new byte[inData.available()];
         inData.read(encryptedBytes);
         // Now, decrypt them and write them to the encrypted file...
         byte[] cleartextBytes = desCipher.update(encryptedBytes);
         outData.write(cleartextBytes, 0, cleartextBytes.length);
      }    // while
      outData.write(desCipher.doFinal());

      inData.close();
      outData.flush();
      outData.close();

      System.out.println("Done!");
   }    // main


}

Listing 3.2: DecryptFileExample.java

In Listing 3.2, the file encrypted_key.txt is read, and the key's raw bytes are retrieved and loaded into a key spec for use by the Cipher object:

FileInputStream("encrypted_key.txt"));
   byte[] keyBytes = new byte[in.available()];
...Create the cipher object with the right decription...
...parameters and key spec...
SecretKeySpec skeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "DES");
   Cipher desCipher = Cipher.getInstance("DES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
   desCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, skeySpec);

The remainder of the process is just the reverse of the previous example. Data is read from encrypted_data.txt, is decrypted by using the Cipher.update() and Cipher.doFinal() methods just as before, and is written out to decrypted_data.txt. Note that without the final invocation of doFinal(), a chunk of data would be missing at the end of the decrypted file. By examining decrypted_data.txt and cleartext.txt, the input to the file encryption program, you will see that the files are identical.

Password-Based Encryption

Although password-based encryption is not considered to be as secure as the secret-key encryption method shown above, it is probably the most commonly used method of encrypting and decrypting data. Listing 4.1 shows how to encrypt a file using a predetermined password, "mybigsecret". The password algorithm in this example uses a predetermined source of randomness, called a salt, and an iteration counter to determine a block size for the encryption, to make cracking the password a bit more difficult. In a real-world example, the salt and iteration counter might be determined based on some pre-determined agreement between the encrypting and decrypting parties, rather than being a hard-coded value.

package com.dlt.developer.crypto;

import javax.crypto.*;import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;

import javax.crypto.spec.*;
import java.io.*;

/**
 * @author David Thurmond
 * An example of encrypting a text file using password-based
 * encryption.
 */
public class EncryptFilePasswordExample {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

      PBEKeySpec pbeKeySpec;
      PBEParameterSpec pbeParamSpec;
      SecretKeyFactory keyFac;

      // Salt
      byte[] salt = {(byte)0x9f, (byte)0x33, (byte)0x4e, (byte)0xfe,
         (byte)0xd4, (byte)0xee, (byte)0x12, (byte)0x54};

      // Iteration count
      int count = 17;

      // Create PBE parameter set
      pbeParamSpec = new PBEParameterSpec(salt, count);
      char[] password = {'m', 'y', 'b', 'i', 'g', 's', 'e', 'c',
                         'r', 'e', 't'};

      pbeKeySpec = new PBEKeySpec(password);
      keyFac = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBEWithMD5AndDES");
      SecretKey pbeKey = keyFac.generateSecret(pbeKeySpec);

      // Create PBE Cipher
      Cipher pbeCipher = Cipher.getInstance("PBEWithMD5AndDES");

      // Initialize PBE Cipher with key and parameters
      pbeCipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, pbeKey, pbeParamSpec);
      System.out.println("Encrypting file using
                          DES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");



      System.out.println("Reading cleartext file and encrypting...");
      BufferedOutputStream outData =
         new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream
         ("password_encrypted_data.txt"));
      BufferedInputStream in =
         new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream
         ("cleartext.txt"));
      while (in.available() > 0) {
         // Read the next chunk of bytes...
         byte[] cleartextBytes = new byte[in.available()];
            in.read(cleartextBytes);
            // Now, encrypt them and write them to the encrypted file...
            byte[] encryptedBytes = pbeCipher .update(cleartextBytes);
            outData.write(encryptedBytes, 0, encryptedBytes.length);
      }    // while
      // Take care of any pending padding operations
      outData.write(pbeCipher .doFinal());
      in.close();
      outData.flush();
      outData.close();

      System.out.println("Done!");
   }    // main



}

Listing 4.1: EncryptFilePasswordExample.java

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This article was originally published on October 15, 2008