Develop Reference

How to load RSA public key from String for signature verification in Java?

I have the following public key, that is stored in the DB (PostgresSQL) as text. It's a String, in java:
-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
MIICCgKCAgEA1ht0OqZpP7d/05373OE7pB7yCVGNGzkUEuCneyfOzps6iA03NbvI
1ZL0Jpp/N3AW73lGdhaoa3X3JE4GsI/bsToVLQwTKmIOC4yjTvBctmFEoyhhTfxW
s1UHZKl4XZ/7THbRlKHhRaTKyfDAbikkMAxNT/qutLAPjnN1qOwjb1oRq52NP6FJ
KWTTikz4UeOHroX+Xthn2fJSJDlQ4YMdBbgrZVx5JcHKNuPTKRf5gI8QQKMSA9Q9
QJRE5OGp7b6dG14ZmOUnUxb00Mp20LgcaGPcuWU+oFsbQaF6W4G4bdkSZRJJXhSg
d4Q7mahpar94/gnztJmth0GzqTWUYyZIWNqIFoMwuOgeaiDV43zb3uLsRVpRKYYy
esmzcOy/jTScVLRCD8QRyu9B2wgCkNAVztQOXPCOOa4O1LlVQWaecIs4WPhOqDhi
KTBhyVkpC1TrrBkp+QMqMqWll1OyVb6k/7uV0qE/i6rHJtjo5v9bcIgYzswyx9CD
9PKl2Q0L0Jg7TMG+yLDIrLfGeuSeEc4XYJzN7bJcCeiizzu5iU9dQUkrncOrq9jn
Ub2pM/+A+JqIsoPK3IY/pJKqH4JYpGKhO1iPQF6iXIZT1r3ZgJUSQtzSeyYqhkla
2uR2BsbPbDqebCuXm3lAsY5w+dujijcn96PKwYha1LsK5sACHuJ79AMCAwEAAQ==
-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
I don't know how this key has been generated, I'm sorry. I have been told to take this key and verify the signature of another string that I'll call "object". I have been told that the algorithm that I have to use to verify "object" is SHA256withRSA.
So, I have written the following java method to read the key
private PublicKey getPublicKey(String publicKey) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException, UnsupportedEncodingException {
publicKey = publicKey.replaceAll("\\n", "");
publicKey = publicKey.replace("-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----", "");
publicKey = publicKey.replace("-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----", "");
publicKey = publicKey.trim();
byte[] keyDecoded = Base64.getDecoder().decode(publicKey.getBytes());
X509EncodedKeySpec publicSpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(keyDecoded);
KeyFactory kf = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
PublicKey pubKey = kf.generatePublic(publicSpec);
return pubKey;
}
The point is that I get the following exception:
java.security.InvalidKeyException: IOException: algid parse error, not
a sequence
I have read plenty of qustions as mine in stackoverflow. The code written by other users is pretty similar (sometimes identical) to mine. So I definitely don't get why it doesn't work for me. Other developers (workmates) are doing the same in php and it works great, so I would discard the hypothesis of wrong public key. Maybe didn't I understood the process clearly? Do you have any clue, please?
I have also tried to cope with the problem using BouncyCastle library, as suggested here, but I get the same exception. The following is the code I have written:
private static PublicKey getPublicKey(String publicKey)
throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException {
Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
PemReader pp = new PemReader(new StringReader(publicKey));
PemObject pem = pp.readPemObject();
byte[] content = pem.getContent();
pp.close();
X509EncodedKeySpec spec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(content);
KeyFactory kf = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
return kf.generatePublic(spec);
}

You can't load that key using an X509EncodedKeySpec. According to it's JavaDoc documentation it expects the following format:
SubjectPublicKeyInfo ::= SEQUENCE {
algorithm AlgorithmIdentifier,
subjectPublicKey BIT STRING }
Instead your key looks different. I used the data from your post, converted it to hex data and posted it into the online ASN.1 decoder.
The output is this:
SEQUENCE (2 elem)
INTEGER (4096 bit) 873481340827968071893572683200799871431146795599597693981565010037737…
INTEGER 65537
As you may recognize your key does not contain an AlgorithmIdentifier therefore it can not be loaded using X509EncodedKeySpec.
My suggestion would be to use the BouncyCastle library and it's PEMParser class for loading this key:
File pemFile = new File("test.pem");
try (PEMParser pp = new PEMParser(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(pemFile)))) {
SubjectPublicKeyInfo subjPubKeyInfo = (SubjectPublicKeyInfo) pp.readObject();
RSAKeyParameters rsa = (RSAKeyParameters) PublicKeyFactory.createKey(subjPubKeyInfo);
RSAPublicKeySpec rsaSpec = new RSAPublicKeySpec(rsa.getModulus(), rsa.getExponent());
KeyFactory kf = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
java.security.PublicKey publicKey = kf.generatePublic(rsaSpec);
System.out.println(publicKey);
}
Or you manually convert the key to PKCS#8 format via openssl.

Direct encode/decode does not result in original data

I want to create a RSA key pair and use it for encoding/decoding data. My code is quite short but I cannot find any error.
Can anyone help me finding my problem?
Thanks for every hint!
// Generate key pair.
KeyPairGenerator kpg = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA");
kpg.initialize(1024, new SecureRandom());
KeyPair keyPair = kpg.genKeyPair();
PublicKey publicKey = keyPair.getPublic();
PrivateKey privateKey = keyPair.getPrivate();
// Data to encode/decode.
byte[] original = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.".getBytes("UTF8");
// Encode data with public key.
Cipher cipherEncoder = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/NoPadding");
cipherEncoder.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, publicKey);
byte[] encodedData = cipherEncoder.doFinal(original);
// Decode data with private key.
Cipher cipherDecoder = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/NoPadding");
cipherDecoder.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, privateKey);
byte[] decodedData = cipherEncoder.doFinal(encodedData);
// Output.
System.out.println(new String("Original data: " + new String(original, "UTF8")));
System.out.println(new String("Encoded/decoded: " + new String(decodedData, "UTF8")));
The output at the end seems to be quirky.

Firstly, you are using the cipherEncoder to decode your data. You probably meant to use cipherDecoder. Secondly, you are going to have issues using RSA without padding (namely, your data will have a load of 0 bytes at the start). I would recommend you at least use PKCS1 padding. Here is the code after those changes.
// Generate key pair.
KeyPairGenerator kpg = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA");
kpg.initialize(1024, new SecureRandom());
KeyPair keyPair = kpg.genKeyPair();
PublicKey publicKey = keyPair.getPublic();
PrivateKey privateKey = keyPair.getPrivate();
// Data to encode/decode.
byte[] original = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.".getBytes("UTF8");
// Encode data with public key.
Cipher cipherEncoder = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding");
cipherEncoder.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, publicKey);
byte[] encodedData = cipherEncoder.doFinal(original);
// Decode data with private key.
Cipher cipherDecoder = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding");
cipherDecoder.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, privateKey);
byte[] decodedData = cipherDecoder.doFinal(encodedData);
// Output.
System.out.println(new String("Original data: " + new String(original, "UTF8")));
System.out.println(new String("Encoded/decoded: " + new String(decodedData, "UTF8")));

How to convert from String to PublicKey?

I've used the following code to convert the public and private key to a string
KeyPairGenerator keyPairGen = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA");
keyPairGen.initialize(2048);
KeyPair keyPair = keyPairGen.genKeyPair();
PublicKey publicKey = keyPair.getPublic();
PrivateKey privateKey = keyPair.getPrivate();
String publicK = Base64.encodeBase64String(publicKey.getEncoded());
String privateK = Base64.encodeBase64String(privateKey.getEncoded());
Now I'm trying to convert it back to public ad private key
PublicKey publicDecoded = Base64.decodeBase64(publicK);
I'm getting error of cannot convert from byte[] to public key. So I tried like this
PublicKey publicDecoded = new SecretKeySpec(Base64.decodeBase64(publicK),"RSA");
This leads to error like below
java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException: java.security.InvalidKeyException: Neither a public nor a private key
Looks like I'm doing wrong key conversion here. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't think you can use the SecretKeySpec with RSA.
This should do:
byte[] publicBytes = Base64.decodeBase64(publicK);
X509EncodedKeySpec keySpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(publicBytes);
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
PublicKey pubKey = keyFactory.generatePublic(keySpec);
And to decode the private use PKCS8EncodedKeySpec

Unable to load RSA public key

I'm trying to read RSA public key shown below, but I get an exception at line 6: java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException: java.security.InvalidKeyException: IOException: algid parse error, not a sequence
My code:
String rsaPublicKey = rsaPublicKeyString.replace(
"-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----\n", "");
rsaPublicKey = rsaPublicKey.replace("\n-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----", "");
byte[] bytes = EncryptionUtils.decodeBase64(rsaPublicKey);
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
X509EncodedKeySpec keySpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(bytes);
pubKey = (RSAPublicKey)keyFactory.generatePublic(keySpec);
RSA public key:
-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
MIIBCgKCAQEAwVACPi9w23mF3tBkdZz+zwrzKOaaQdr01vAbU4E1pvkfj4sqDsm6
lyDONS789sVoD/xCS9Y0hkkC3gtL1tSfTlgCMOOul9lcixlEKzwKENj1Yz/s7daS
an9tqw3bfUV/nqgbhGX81v/+7RFAEd+RwFnK7a+XYl9sluzHRyVVaTTveB2GazTw
Efzk2DWgkBluml8OREmvfraX3bkHZJTKX4EQSjBbbdJ2ZXIsRrYOXfaA+xayEGB+
8hdlLmAjbCVfaigxX0CDqWeR1yFL9kwd9P0NsZRPsmoqVwMbMu7mStFai6aIhc3n
Slv8kg9qv1m6XHVQY3PnEw+QQtqSIXklHwIDAQAB
-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
What am I doing wrong?
UPD:
public static byte[] decodeBase64(String data) throws EncryptionException {
try {
BASE64Decoder decoder = new BASE64Decoder();
return decoder.decodeBuffer(data);
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new EncryptionException(e);
}
}

For me, I was missing the OID in the public key. I had to correct that on the iOS side using help from here: http://blog.wingsofhermes.org/?p=42
Also, my public key didn't have to be casted to an RSAPublicKey, the standard worked just fine:
X509EncodedKeySpec pubKeySpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(publicKeyBytes);
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
PublicKey pubKey = keyFactory.generatePublic(pubKeySpec);

Your problem is caused because your public key is an RSAPublicKey object rather than a SubjectPublicKeyInfo object (see this answer for a good description of the difference). You will need to convert from one to the other before your code will work.
BouncyCastle can do the conversion for you. The following code snippet will work, although I dislike it for two reasons:
It uses a deprecated class PEMReader.
It requires the BouncyCastle provider to be loaded.
Code:
Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
PEMReader reader = new PEMReader(new StringReader(rsaPublicKeyString));
BCRSAPublicKey key = (BCRSAPublicKey) reader.readObject();
bytes[] = key.getEncoded(); // now in SubjectPublicKeyInfo format.
// as before...
With BouncyCastle, there is always many ways to skin a cat. Perhaps someone can find a more elegant solution than the one above?

Using RSA encryption in Java without BouncyCastle

In my program, I'm trying to encrypt some plaintext with RSA using the following code:
static String RSAEncrypt(String pubkey, String plain){
return encrypt(pubkey,plain,"RSA");
}
static String encrypt(String stringKey, String plain, String algo){
String enc="failed";
try{
byte[] byteKey = new BASE64Decoder().decodeBuffer(stringKey);
Key key = new SecretKeySpec(byteKey,algo);
byte[] data = plain.getBytes();
Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance(algo);
c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key);
byte[] encVal = c.doFinal(data);
enc = new BASE64Encoder().encode(encVal);
}catch(Exception e){e.printStackTrace();}
return enc;
}
However, when it runs, it shows the following error:
java.security.InvalidKeyException: No installed provider supports this key: javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec
at javax.crypto.Cipher.chooseProvider(Cipher.java:877)
at javax.crypto.Cipher.init(Cipher.java:1212)
at javax.crypto.Cipher.init(Cipher.java:1152)
at Crypto.encrypt(Crypto.java:37)
at Crypto.RSAEncrypt(Crypto.java:62)
I have tried changing it to RSA/None/PKCS1Padding and RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding to no avail.. I know that installing BouncyCastle may help but I'd like to avoid it (I'd like to avoid more dependencies and I've been having some issues installing it anyway). Thanks in advance for any ideas.

As was said in the comments, SecretKeySpec is for symmetric algorithms only. You mentioned that you got your byte[] containing the key by calling getEncoded.
There are two possibilities and two resulting formats:
Encoding of an RSA PrivateKey
Calling PrivateKey#getEncoded on an instance of an RSA private key will result in a PKCS#8 encoding for private keys, and it can be restored with the help of PKCS8EncodedKeySpec.
Encoding of an RSA PublicKey
PublicKey#getEncoded on an RSA public key results in the generic X.509 public key encoding, and can be restored with X509EncodedKeySpec.
Example Usage
byte[] data = "test".getBytes("UTF8");
KeyPairGenerator kpg = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA");
kpg.initialize(512);
KeyPair keyPair = kpg.genKeyPair();
byte[] pk = keyPair.getPublic().getEncoded();
X509EncodedKeySpec spec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(pk);
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
PublicKey pubKey = keyFactory.generatePublic(spec);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, pubKey);
byte[] encrypted = cipher.doFinal(data);
byte[] priv = keyPair.getPrivate().getEncoded();
PKCS8EncodedKeySpec spec2 = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(priv);
PrivateKey privKey = keyFactory.generatePrivate(spec2);
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, privKey);
byte[] plain = cipher.doFinal(encrypted);
System.out.println(new String(plain, "UTF8")); //=> "test"