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AES encrypt any java object to a base64 string

I'm trying to encrypt any java object (in this example an Integer, but Date should also work) to a base64 string using the Cipher class.
Basically I convert the given object into a byte array using ByteArrayOutputStream and encrypt this byte array with Cipher. See below
for (Integer i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutput oos = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);
oos.writeObject(i);
oos.flush();
byte[] data = bos.toByteArray();
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, new SecretKeySpec("&E(H+MbQeThWmZq4".getBytes("UTF-8"), "AES"));
String base64output = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(cipher.doFinal(data));
System.out.println(i + " - " + base64output);
}
The output
0 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa94LOaOdEXeZZm8qNoELOLdj
1 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa97aK6ELffW8n7vEkNAbC9RW
2 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa97mJ1m8lVtjwfGbHbMO2rxu
3 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa942rroZJbe2KN0/t8ukOkWd
4 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa97rbkvF4HLzuvGTm4JMJw+2
5 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa94zvSlIQe8RQI8t5/H74ShO
6 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa97tNLWZHmR0rNkDXZtVWA2Y
7 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa94lr84KZ6MnUsPOFyJIfDTB
8 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa97e6ihJ8SXmz9sy9XXwWeAz
9 - BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa97neBL2tLG2TXgCI/wDuyMo
seems strange to me because of the same prefix BroJyDQdUDVYwq6tUdk9UcgIX8R7+B474UFw/HFx9lGpDjC0ilKxw8fYd1hFB54f8shrn/XIT52WzcOsH0CBGJ3bva8Rk1h4uYo5sfpJa9
for every encrypted object. In this example, I'm using the same key for every object but this should not be the reason for this issue.
I've also tested this example with Strings and Dates instead of Integers. Encoding Dates into byte arrays and encrypting them with the same method also lead
into this issue having an identical prefix for all Date objects, while encoding Strings with the same method seem to work fine. Every encoded and encrypted
String leads to another encrypted base64 String. See below
Outputs for encrypted Dates: (also with identical prefix)
0 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JRj1HrbSaioOqhbM2uZi2r0
1 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JQ0q0kophfAfiPxe0U+sb1R
2 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JTeTKnbYsLo6TjfuQF9PYIk
3 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JSrDPGtepg4HWUL6VeBtWg7
4 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JS7dlSsNjnY011F2BooNnKW
5 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JStO2xPQvT76/k+xMdaDBpQ
6 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JQqz4J3yO8G9taHi7b/Zefl
7 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JR8/fOAiuGM8tO8zMcju4Xk
8 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JSMDHi6UyD5QQY1jRXNCErc
9 - cpQxMKQW7mHCKsxxsyMMJTRPnfgujbJYLiVKeHgM2JRfKstfsC8dPYuPfd9f2B+B
Outputs for encrypted Strings: (works as expected)
0 - TNpI3oLRzH5id6c/yRJlQQ==
1 - yMkm+ZuYWs4EnISo56Zljw==
2 - 03i1Lv01Nn2sGDGmtpRAIg==
3 - 5skvWbkcVXfT2TScaGxNfQ==
4 - 0p9qg5U+DqAnCBdyji+L9Q==
5 - gD5xPtAMy34xC90hKCQeWA==
6 - oQwKUhuxC5X/f6U9G9la8Q==
7 - 72cvCiLks3DDaTLAQvoVfw==
8 - wQu7Ug5RHg5egbNTI0YXQw==
9 - x1BQVwy3r6MP3SDLl/mktw==
Any idea?
Edit:
Even when I use CBC or another encryption method like DES or Blowfish the same issue occurs. I expect that every byte array from ByteArrayOutputStream should be encrypted into a completely different base64 string even if they have an identical prefix with ~90% of their length.

Using object serialization before encryption is not a great idea. Either you encrypt the data for transport protection, in which case TLS makes much more sense. Or you are encrypting for longer time storage, in which case serialization is dangerous as the serialization format could change. Heck, you might want to change the entire language / runtime in the future.
I'd suggest you generate your own protocol. In that case you can for instance simply encode an integer to 4 bytes using ByteBuffer#putInt(int) or by using DataOutputStream#writeInt(int). That way your integer just takes the minimum amount of 4 bytes (as an unsigned 32 bit big endian value). For very complex methods you may even look at ASN.1 structures and encodings (which are implemented in Bouncy Castle, among other libraries).
A Java Date is really just a long internally, which can be perfectly stored in 8 bytes. Another option is to encode it to an (UTC) date string and store that using US ASCII compatible encoding (StandardCharsets.US_ASCII).
Beware that ECB mode is very dangerous. For instance, imagine that values above 0x00FFFFFF are uncommon and that you don't want to leak the presence of such values. Also imagine that the most significant byte is the last byte of a block that is filled with header bytes otherwise. In that case it is very easy to distinguish blocks with e.g. 0x01 from blocks with 0x00 which should be more common in this situation. So you immediately leak information about your plaintext.
This problem is just as prominent in CBC mode if you use a static IV rather than a random (or at least fully unpredictable) IV value. You have to use a random IV for each CBC encryption to be secure. You can store the IV together with the ciphertext. Commonly for CBC the 16 byte IV is simply prefixed to the ciphertext. However, preferably you should be using the authenticated GCM mode with a 12 byte random nonce instead.
It's a bit of a shame that Java allows reuse of the Cipher instances at all - as it for instance doesn't allow the Cipher to destroy key material after usage. That it defaults to an insecure mode where the IV is repeated is doubly shameful. You'll have to take care of the IV issue yourself.
Example of using GCM and ByteBuffer:
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// input, a date and message
Date date = new Date();
String message = "hello world";
// AES-128 key (replace by a real 256 bit key in your case)
SecretKey aesKey = new SecretKeySpec(new byte[128 / Byte.SIZE], "AES");
// default nonce sizes for GCM, using a constant should be preferred
int nonceSize = 96;
int tagSize = 128;
String cts;
try (StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter(); PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(stringWriter)) {
for (Integer i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
byte[] randomNonce = createRandomIV(nonceSize);
GCMParameterSpec gcmSpec = new GCMParameterSpec(128, randomNonce);
byte[] encodedMessage = message.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
ByteBuffer encodedNumberDateAndMessage = ByteBuffer.allocate(Integer.BYTES + Long.BYTES + encodedMessage.length);
encodedNumberDateAndMessage.putInt(i);
encodedNumberDateAndMessage.putLong(date.getTime());
encodedNumberDateAndMessage.put(encodedMessage);
// for reading we need to flip the buffer
encodedNumberDateAndMessage.flip();
ByteBuffer encryptedNumberDateAndMessage =
ByteBuffer.allocate(nonceSize / Byte.SIZE + encodedNumberDateAndMessage.limit() + tagSize / Byte.SIZE);
encryptedNumberDateAndMessage.put(randomNonce);
Cipher gcm = Cipher.getInstance("AES/GCM/NoPadding");
gcm.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, aesKey, gcmSpec);
gcm.doFinal(encodedNumberDateAndMessage, encryptedNumberDateAndMessage);
// not required, we'll be using array() method
// encryptedNumberDateAndMessage.flip();
// we can use the full array as there
String base64Ciphertext = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(encryptedNumberDateAndMessage.array());
if (i != 0) {
out.write('\n');
}
out.write(base64Ciphertext);
}
cts = stringWriter.toString();
}
System.out.println(cts);
// TODO decrypt ciphertexts in cts
// hint use BufferedReader to read lines and don't forget to strip off the IV/Nonce first
}
private static byte[] createRandomIV(int sizeInBits) {
if (sizeInBits % Byte.SIZE != 0) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid IV size, must be a multiple of 8 bits");
}
byte[] randomNonce = new byte[sizeInBits / Byte.SIZE];
SecureRandom rbg = new SecureRandom();
rbg.nextBytes(randomNonce);
return randomNonce;
}
Which produces the seemingly random output: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 consists of the nonce, the ciphertext of an integer, a long value representing the date and the "hello world" string and finally the authentication tag, which is considered part of the ciphertext in Java.

The behavior you see is the result of you using the no-mode ECB mode in combination with similarity in the plaintext. You will have the same issue with all block ciphers (AES, Blowfish, DES).
When using CBC all that goes away if you provide IVs as needed:
public class Main {
static Random rand = new SecureRandom();
public static IvParameterSpec generateIv() {
byte[] ivBytes = new byte[16];
rand.nextBytes(ivBytes);
return new IvParameterSpec(ivBytes);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
for (Integer i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutput oos = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);
oos.writeObject(i);
oos.flush();
byte[] data = bos.toByteArray();
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
IvParameterSpec iv = generateIv();
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, new SecretKeySpec("&E(H+MbQeThWmZq4".getBytes("UTF-8"), "AES"), iv);
String base64output = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(cipher.doFinal(data));
System.out.println(i + " - " + base64output);
}
}
}
Output:
0 - jt3Mk13pGjeaFf1oNq4LfmQ4z/31nRG4KtZ4H3RK6k/GA1anC3/lrzSXoLsQ6jMsVEpnxU13wAu6lkZJ3it1Ei4i4EsNFixc+YX4K6cIIv4ByY5Q246jd3H0m11C2FZJ
1 - Jqd0RB6lOITqifAaWluW6jx8F8gY4btZHx12CiXtZjfnehhtk64jva4eGTQd4EpvB/5Q/ORhZCNgF3ue0/Na1R9MCsK+mULAcyANdNcLyKbXo272G21z0LPCeweXdjhu
2 - xHdCG6rWNDyLTl8zruo8u+45V/RMXkrB7K+QU5r9lpc3FzvDwpl0wmy9Yj3FOyjMulmVT1zahH+wWVrmB9gNcXy7sGyCH/anJANC396OcDyQXqNIyvOPw9mpUmmRQcwR
3 - ygIDkLtQTupkbB35SzRflE3RAMmdYGSkdGZgRctFHdZCqGt+Arb3RbvhoAiiE9PwkyLmifyllQTTSutvV/ZtlGaGMX3v4bQUZDoaSyXQd9xn+pUSJk87NDVGi37xWw1O
4 - cJYSthCHHGeCqnuBJY8YdUbptKD3XNb2nt+pyIc94vRvjquYf7atu0+bDndFnePWvrlPzFIFXVB8CuANIsDhzRSNEOOU/wOkwcAN2AdavCqlZqN0Mtqdg4vqKGWx2oAE
5 - f7/gu8fJ8jkyhRAXJkLqdnJMLjCfFSjq8ovjhlNcuDPk8N/mYlA2845PGgi74Kb/zCG1WH8NtFK06xrpn15KyUxSANxoQ6C9QnzE9sc4aZj5rUatWeekvBfbqngq3JpG
6 - PitP2MuX4/Yysso8dCl1h2VK3MKoU2YpyzvLgZ3hZX/cBzSWp9O0Eafzj6GIMvAGVaL0x0V+K2Wv4eBOLIhDczhJXvHmKvTU7ZJnAwI37JXkOecN4HJdAXfFqg2WkT5f
7 - 1Mj8WnSqgLE08qfeYC1a3nZQ1jszxbT9J+ClUy8rCYusZHiArQcCgCwrNbWbI2yVfRjYOpsuTgyq31fnuHrkVfGu6RhiRhucR0a0Dign5fSU71STKksweHQ+oYQJibnQ
8 - TgGDGlOFWyfKO50xxPTPOmSpEsmpIVtWfnXkhhAoRsbZwo6z4oAuBJQs8EibsOr/r8KY5UHRbp+q3SlDhBE3mWszybMdOVRQKyJ1lZVXpmxmjXp/W2AqitsjCTKQaHi+
9 - 4xUnNjT8P0WiPtYg6ojrrQZnF0gU0wnndNQdLfPOMxoDvWjfe5OuEcY55yDRIosdpkeItTMVN1CRL4WecFgM8mBIVlnssE4Q1GM87PWNHipGZ91+MJwdsr0yUfCsJyRv
By the way you are using a 16 byte key and get AES-128 not AES-256.

As Mark pointed out, ObjectOutputStream creates an object header, so the common prefix is because of that and because you're not using a salt and you're using the same encryption key.
These weaknesses make the encryption solution (i.e. your code) susceptible to ciphertext-only attacks, even though the algorithm itself is perfectly fine. You've just implemented it in an unsecure way.

AES Encryption in Java to match with C# Output

I am trying to do AES Encryption using JAVA, I have made multiple attempts, tried a lot of codes and did many changes to finally reach to a place where my encrypted text matches with the encrypted text generated using C# code BUT PARTIALLY. The last block of 32 bits is different. I do not have access to the C# code since it is a 3rd Party Service. Can anyone guide what am I missing?
Conditions Mentioned are to use:
Use 256-bit AES encryption in CBC mode and with PKCS5 padding to encrypt the entire query string using your primary key and initialization vector. (Do not include a message digest in the query string.) The primary key is a 64-digit hexadecimal string and the initialization vector is a 32-digit hexadecimal string.
The sample values I used are:
Aes_IV = 50B666AADBAEDC14C3401E82CD6696D4
Aes_Key = D4612601EDAF9B0852FC0641DC2F273E0F2B9D6E85EBF3833764BF80E09DD89F (my KeyMaterial)
Plain_Text = ss=brock&pw=123456&ts=20190304234431 (input)
Encrypted_Text = 7643C7B400B9A6A2AD0FCFC40AC1B11E51A038A32C84E5560D92C0C49B3B7E0 A072AF44AADB62FA66F047EACA5C6A018 (output)
My Output =
7643C7B400B9A6A2AD0FCFC40AC1B11E51A038A32C84E5560D92C0C49B3B7E0 A38E71E5C846BAA6C31F996AB05AFD089
public static String encrypt( String keyMaterial, String unencryptedString, String ivString ) {
String encryptedString = "";
Cipher cipher;
try {
byte[] secretKey = hexStrToByteArray( keyMaterial );
SecretKey key = new SecretKeySpec( secretKey, "AES" );
cipher = Cipher.getInstance( "AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding" );
IvParameterSpec iv;
iv = new IvParameterSpec( hexStrToByteArray( ivString ) );
cipher.init( Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key, iv );
byte[] plainText = unencryptedString.getBytes( "UTF-8") ;
byte[] encryptedText = cipher.doFinal( plainText );
encryptedString = URLEncoder.encode(byteArrayToHexString( encryptedText ),"UTF-8");
}
catch( InvalidKeyException | InvalidAlgorithmParameterException | UnsupportedEncodingException | IllegalBlockSizeException | BadPaddingException | NoSuchAlgorithmException | NoSuchPaddingException e ) {
System.out.println( "Exception=" +e.toString() );
}
return encryptedString;
}
I have used this for conversions.
public static byte[] hexStrToByteArray ( String input) {
if (input == null) return null;
if (input.length() == 0) return new byte[0];
if ((input.length() % 2) != 0)
input = input + "0";
byte[] result = new byte[input.length() / 2];
for (int i = 0; i < result.length; i++) {
String byteStr = input.substring(2*i, 2*i+2);
result[i] = (byte) Integer.parseInt("0" + byteStr, 16);
}
return result;
}
public static String byteArrayToHexString(byte[] ba) {
String build = "";
for (int i = 0; i < ba.length; i++) {
build += bytesToHexString(ba[i]);
}
return build;
}
public static String bytesToHexString ( byte bt) {
String hexStr ="0123456789ABCDEF";
char ch[] = new char[2];
int value = (int) bt;
ch[0] = hexStr.charAt((value >> 4) & 0x000F);
ch[1] = hexStr.charAt(value & 0x000F);
String str = new String(ch);
return str;
}
Any Suggestions, what should I do to match the outputs?

If only the last block of ECB / CBC padding is different then you can be pretty sure that a different block cipher padding is used. To validate which padding is used you can try (as Topaco did in the comments below the question) or you can decrypt the ciphertext without padding. For Java that would be "AES/CBC/NoPadding".
So if you do that given the key (and IV) then you will get the following output in hexadecimals:
73733D62726F636B2670773D3132333435362674733D3230313930333034323334343331000000000000000000000000
Clearly this is zero padding.
Zero padding has one big disadvantage: if your ciphertext ends with a byte valued zero then this byte may be seen as padding and stripped from the result. Generally this is not a problem for plaintext consisting of an ASCII or UTF-8 string, but it may be trickier for binary output. Of course, we'll assume here that the string doesn't use a null terminator that is expected to be present in the encrypted plaintext.
There is another, smaller disadvantage: if your plaintext is exactly the block size then zero padding is non-standard enough that there are two scenarios:
the padding is always applied and required to be removed, which means that if the plaintext size is exactly a number of times the block size that still a full block of padding is added (so for AES you'd have 1..16 zero valued bytes as padding);
the padding is only applied if strictly required, which means that no padding is applied if the plaintext size is exactly a number of times the block size (so for AES you'd have 0..15 zero valued bytes as padding).
So currently, for encryption, you might have to test which one is expected / accepted. E.g. Bouncy Castle - which is available for C# and Java - always (un)pads, while the horrid PHP / mcrypt library only pads where required.
You can always perform your own padding of course, and then use "NoPadding" for Java. Remember though that you never unpad more than 16 bytes.
General warning: encryption without authentication is unfit for transport mode security.

When decrypting in RSA using Java BigIntegers, how do I preserve a zero byte at the beginning of the original data?

I am implementing my own version of RSA, along with the padding scheme RSA-OAEP in Java. This is my code for the basic algorithm:
public byte[] encrypt(byte[] data, RSA_PublicKey publicKey) {
BigInteger message = new BigInteger(data);
BigInteger n = publicKey.getModulus(); //RSA Modulus
BigInteger e = publicKey.getPublicExponent(); //RSA Public Exponent
if (message.compareTo(n) >= 0) {
throw new InvalidDataException();
}
byte[] cipherText = message.modPow(e, n).toByteArray(); //Encryption
return cipherText;
}
public byte[] decrypt(byte[] data, RSA_PrivateKey privateKey) {
BigInteger cipherText = new BigInteger(data);
BigInteger n = privateKey.getModulus(); //RSA Modulus
BigInteger d = privateKey.getPrivateExponent(); //RSA Private Exponent
if (cipherText.compareTo(n) >= 0) {
throw new InvalidDataException();
}
if (cipherText.compareTo(n.subtract(BigInteger.ONE)) == 1) {
throw new InvalidDataException();
}
byte[] message = cipherText.modPow(d, n).toByteArray(); //Decryption
return message;
}
In RSA-OAEP, a series of operations are performed on the data and a random seed using a mask generation function before encryption. A zero byte is placed in front of the padded data. This is what it looks like in my code:
buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(k);
buffer.put((byte)0);
buffer.put(maskedSeed);
buffer.put(maskedDB);
byte[] em = buffer.array();
byte[] cipherText = encrypt(em, publicKey);
return cipherText
When I decrypt this ciphertext, sometimes the zero byte is still in the resulting byte array, and other times it is not. For example, this data (in hex) was the same before encryption and after decryption:
00c127a743b56f53e46223eba367b63d3378648c1d5ce3e8eec1f714c099a15b674c528d5051c1c9a32dc39fb13ee745864c7f572fa950dc8336a54d89503754f6c18dd463ec1633e6e94638230d9b10cc6e2904f4c69247a8bac0c60885b37b8adefe3b682b3a6d39f445447fa2f173b408346d3d0db086e199ef9c1fd0d14f
However, this data:
001c924b794c178c9955d4f3211c67ecda59ffe8c4be55c101bcd5ff3ce0a746ca447b5fc8fd8725cbb083e4b9244cf49b6ca84465680c0c49bec2bab3dfab6371673f0d01605d641330592ffb8915229c2dc4ea1ffcdf8a9a0e461fdf224f5cf57f74affac9d35dd3ce61ff1dd068a8c9495290735415984ddb71515823f746
was decrypted as this:
1c924b794c178c9955d4f3211c67ecda59ffe8c4be55c101bcd5ff3ce0a746ca447b5fc8fd8725cbb083e4b9244cf49b6ca84465680c0c49bec2bab3dfab6371673f0d01605d641330592ffb8915229c2dc4ea1ffcdf8a9a0e461fdf224f5cf57f74affac9d35dd3ce61ff1dd068a8c9495290735415984ddb71515823f746
According to the RSA standard, the decrypted padded data is supposed to be checked for this zero byte to ensure it is properly padded, and to return an error message if it is not. I believe this has something to do with the fact that BigIntegers are signed. Is there some workaround for this issue?

new BigInteger(data) always parses the data in two-complement notation where the most-significant bit signalizes the sign. In RSA, all numbers are positive, so you can set the sign as 1:
new BigInteger(1, data)

CryptoJS AES encryption and Java AES decryption

I'm only asking this because I have read many posts for 2 days now about crypto AES encryption, and just when I thought I was getting it, I realized I wasn't getting it at all.
This post is the closest one to my issue, I have exactly the same problem but it is unanswered:
CryptoJS AES encryption and JAVA AES decryption value mismatch
I have tried doing it in many ways but I haven't gotten it right.
First Off
I'm getting the already encrypted string (I only got the code to see how they were doing it), so modifying the encryption way is not an option. That's why all the similar questions aren't that useful to me.
Second
I do have access to the secret key and I can modify it (so adjusting length is an option if neccessary).
The encryption is done on CryptoJS and they send the encrypted string as a GET parameter.
GetParamsForAppUrl.prototype.generateUrlParams = function() {
const self = this;
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const currentDateInMilliseconds = new Date().getTime();
const secret = tokenSecret.secret;
var encrypted = CryptoJS.AES.encrypt(self.authorization, secret);
encrypted = encrypted.toString();
self.urlParams = {
token: encrypted,
time: currentDateInMilliseconds
};
resolve();
});
};
I can easily decrypt this on javascript using CryptoJS with:
var decrypted = CryptoJS.AES.decrypt(encrypted_string, secret);
console.log(decrypted.toString(CryptoJS.enc.Utf8));
But I don't want to do this on Javascript, for security reasons, so I'm trying to decrypt this on Java:
String secret = "secret";
byte[] cipherText = encrypted_string.getBytes("UTF8");
SecretKey secKey = new SecretKeySpec(secret.getBytes(), "AES");
Cipher aesCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
aesCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, secKey);
byte[] bytePlainText = aesCipher.doFinal(byteCipherText);
String myDecryptedText = = new String(bytePlainText);
Before I had any idea of what I was doing, I tried base64 decoding, adding some IV and a lot of stuff I read, of course none of it worked.
But after I started to understand, kinda, what I was doing, I wrote that simple script above, and got me the same error on the post: Invalid AES key length
I don't know where to go from here. After reading a lot about this, the solution seems to be hashing or padding, but I have no control on the encryption method, so I can't really hash the secret or pad it.
But as I said, I can change the secret key so it can match some specific length, and I have tried changing it, but as I'm shooting in the dark here, I don't really know if this is the solution.
So, my question basically is, If I got the encrypted string (in javascript like the first script) and the secret key, is there a way to decrypt it (in Java)? If so, how to do it?

Disclaimer: Do not use encryption unless you understand encryption concepts including chaining mode, key derivation functions, IV and block size. And don't roll your own security scheme but stick to an established one. Just throwing in encryption algorithms doesn't mean an application has become any more secure.
CryptoJS implements the same key derivation function as OpenSSL and the same format to put the IV into the encrypted data. So all Java code that deals with OpenSSL encoded data applies.
Given the following Javascript code:
var text = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 👻 👻";
var secret = "René Über";
var encrypted = CryptoJS.AES.encrypt(text, secret);
encrypted = encrypted.toString();
console.log("Cipher text: " + encrypted);
We get the cipher text:
U2FsdGVkX1+tsmZvCEFa/iGeSA0K7gvgs9KXeZKwbCDNCs2zPo+BXjvKYLrJutMK+hxTwl/hyaQLOaD7LLIRo2I5fyeRMPnroo6k8N9uwKk=
On the Java side, we have
String secret = "René Über";
String cipherText = "U2FsdGVkX1+tsmZvCEFa/iGeSA0K7gvgs9KXeZKwbCDNCs2zPo+BXjvKYLrJutMK+hxTwl/hyaQLOaD7LLIRo2I5fyeRMPnroo6k8N9uwKk=";
byte[] cipherData = Base64.getDecoder().decode(cipherText);
byte[] saltData = Arrays.copyOfRange(cipherData, 8, 16);
MessageDigest md5 = MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5");
final byte[][] keyAndIV = GenerateKeyAndIV(32, 16, 1, saltData, secret.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8), md5);
SecretKeySpec key = new SecretKeySpec(keyAndIV[0], "AES");
IvParameterSpec iv = new IvParameterSpec(keyAndIV[1]);
byte[] encrypted = Arrays.copyOfRange(cipherData, 16, cipherData.length);
Cipher aesCBC = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
aesCBC.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key, iv);
byte[] decryptedData = aesCBC.doFinal(encrypted);
String decryptedText = new String(decryptedData, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
System.out.println(decryptedText);
The result is:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 👻 👻
That's the text we started with. And emojis, accents and umlauts work as well.
GenerateKeyAndIV is a helper function that reimplements OpenSSL's key derivation function EVP_BytesToKey (see https://github.com/openssl/openssl/blob/master/crypto/evp/evp_key.c).
/**
* Generates a key and an initialization vector (IV) with the given salt and password.
* <p>
* This method is equivalent to OpenSSL's EVP_BytesToKey function
* (see https://github.com/openssl/openssl/blob/master/crypto/evp/evp_key.c).
* By default, OpenSSL uses a single iteration, MD5 as the algorithm and UTF-8 encoded password data.
* </p>
* #param keyLength the length of the generated key (in bytes)
* #param ivLength the length of the generated IV (in bytes)
* #param iterations the number of digestion rounds
* #param salt the salt data (8 bytes of data or <code>null</code>)
* #param password the password data (optional)
* #param md the message digest algorithm to use
* #return an two-element array with the generated key and IV
*/
public static byte[][] GenerateKeyAndIV(int keyLength, int ivLength, int iterations, byte[] salt, byte[] password, MessageDigest md) {
int digestLength = md.getDigestLength();
int requiredLength = (keyLength + ivLength + digestLength - 1) / digestLength * digestLength;
byte[] generatedData = new byte[requiredLength];
int generatedLength = 0;
try {
md.reset();
// Repeat process until sufficient data has been generated
while (generatedLength < keyLength + ivLength) {
// Digest data (last digest if available, password data, salt if available)
if (generatedLength > 0)
md.update(generatedData, generatedLength - digestLength, digestLength);
md.update(password);
if (salt != null)
md.update(salt, 0, 8);
md.digest(generatedData, generatedLength, digestLength);
// additional rounds
for (int i = 1; i < iterations; i++) {
md.update(generatedData, generatedLength, digestLength);
md.digest(generatedData, generatedLength, digestLength);
}
generatedLength += digestLength;
}
// Copy key and IV into separate byte arrays
byte[][] result = new byte[2][];
result[0] = Arrays.copyOfRange(generatedData, 0, keyLength);
if (ivLength > 0)
result[1] = Arrays.copyOfRange(generatedData, keyLength, keyLength + ivLength);
return result;
} catch (DigestException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
} finally {
// Clean out temporary data
Arrays.fill(generatedData, (byte)0);
}
}
Note that you have to install the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy. Otherwise, AES with key size of 256 won't work and throw an exception:
java.security.InvalidKeyException: Illegal key size
Update
I have replaced Ola Bini's Java code of EVP_BytesToKey, which I used in the first version of my answer, with a more idiomatic and easier to understand Java code (see above).
Also see How to decrypt file in Java encrypted with openssl command using AES?.

When encrypting on one system and decrypting on another you are at the mercy of system defaults. If any system defaults do not match (and they often don't) then your decryption will fail.
Everything has to be byte for byte the same on both sides. Effectively that means specifying everything on both sides rather than relying on defaults. You can only use defaults if you are using the same system at both ends. Even then, it is better to specify exactly.
Key, IV, encryption mode, padding and string to bytes conversion all need to be the same at both ends. It is especially worth checking that the key bytes are the same. If you are using a Key Derivation Function (KDF) to generate your key, then all the parameters for that need to be the same, and hence specified exactly.
Your "Invalid AES key length" may well indicate a problem with generating your key. You use getBytes(). That is probably an error. You need to specify what sort of bytes you are getting: ANSI, UTF-8, EBCDIC, whatever. The default assumption for the string to byte conversion is the likely cause of this problem. Specify the conversion to be used explicitly at both ends. That way you can be sure that they match.
Crypto is designed to fail if the parameters do not match exactly for encryption and decryption. For example, even a one bit difference in the key will cause it to fail.

Re-Implementing RSA decryption in Java

I'm using a private RSA key to encrypt a random AES key with the default Java RSA implementation:
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, privateKey);
byte[] cipherBytes = cipher.doFinal(plainText.getBytes());
Since we need a public key anyway, this is a convenient method to disguise the key and make sure it had been encrypted with our private key. The decryption is done similarly:
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, publicKey);
byte[] plainBytes = cipher.doFinal(cipherBytes);
This works fine with Oracle's JDK, but with IBM's this fails because IBM thinks using the private key for encryption is not a valid use case. Unfortunately, I have to support both JDKs, so I'm trying to re-implement the RSA decryption myself.
This is the code I have so far:
BigInteger big = new BigInteger(cipherBytes);
big = big.modPow(pub.getPublicExponent(), pub.getModulus());
System.out.println(new String(big.toByteArray()));
It almost works, but there seems to be a padding issue. Most of the time I'm getting the original text with a string of dot-like symbols in front of it, but sometimes it's only random bytes.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to figure out which padding scheme is used by default. Does anyone know what's missing in my code or can at least give a hint with which algorithm the padding is handled?
Here is an example of input and output values, as requested. I have used 512 bit keys to avoid too huge numbers.
Public modulus : 8117919732251191237549784557538073836207094968952416063837701691514861428726690140363567956265691836505266266364256892197254736023284927189008247933889303
Public exponent: 65537
Plaintext: teststring
Plaintext as BN: 549665952565679142563431
Ciphertext as BN: 6304229782339071167863563708554898540621778162930150363326921290545577949349781053660336996882823758722402137580193903457839924005473545992074817339077456
"Decrypted" BN: 409173825987017733751648712103449894027080255755383098685411421012016724550584319360408761540738019643860835515945008876151848132891805352276483731047
Resultstring: ˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇteststring
To address the discussion why am I doing this:
The public key is hard-coded into my software. I use the private key to encrypt another key for AES. Therefore, to actually decode anything with AES, you need the AES key first. To get this key, you have to decrypt it with the public key first. Since the public key cannot be modified without serious manipulation, only AES keys encrypted with the private key work. You may extract the public key somehow and decrypt the AES key, but that's elaborate and only gets you the AES key to decrypt the secured content. There is also a signature calculated with the private key, which is verified with the public key as well. So manipulations aren't possible.
So yes, technically the signature is sufficient, because there are methods to read the content. But those are elaborate and I don't mind if anyone really takes all the trouble, but I don't want to make things easy.

Public keys are for encrypting and verifying signatures. Private keys are for decrypting and signing. Public keys are intended to be just that: public. If you're doing things right, there should be no reason to hide a public key.

What you are trying to do looks more like signing rather than encryption. Use a separate key pair for signing, as it is not exactly the same as encrypting.

Ok, I've figured it out by reading the RSA spec. To add more security, a padding is added before encryption and the following "string" is created:
0x00 + BT + Padding + 0x00 + Data
The block type (BT) indicates the kind of padding. With BT = 0x01 the padding is 0xff and with BT = 0x02 the padding is random but non-zero. The concatenated string is then encrypted.
When decrypting, the format can be verified, but to just read the data, the leading bytes have to be removed. They are all non-zero until the 0x00 just before the data. Therefore, everything until and including the 0x00 after the padding can be removed. What's left is the message.
This code works now:
// Decrypt
byte[] decryptedBytes = (new BigInteger(1, cipherBytes)).modPow(pub.getPublicExponent(), pub.getModulus()).toByteArray();
// Extract msg
int dataStart;
for (dataStart = 0; decryptedBytes[msgStart] != 0; dataStart++);
dataStart++;
byte finalBytes[] = new byte[decryptedBytes.length - msgStart];
System.arraycopy(decryptedBytes, msgStart, finalBytes, 0, finalBytes.length);
This also explains the string of "^" in my previous attempts. Those were the padding bytes, which are 0xff with BT = 0x01.
I only needed decryption, but for the sake of completeness, this is the code for encryption:
int bitLength = 512;
String plainText = "teststring";
// Convert to bytes
byte plainBytes[] = plainText.getBytes();
byte encryptionBytes[] = new byte[bitLength / 8];
encryptionBytes[0] = 0; // Leading 0
encryptionBytes[1] = 1; // Block type
// Padding String
int paddingEnd = (bitLength / 8) - plainBytes.length - 2;
for (int i = 2; i < paddingEnd; i++) {
encryptionBytes[i] = (byte) 0xff;
}
encryptionBytes[paddingEnd + 1] = 0;
// Actual data
System.arraycopy(plainBytes, 0, encryptionBytes, paddingEnd + 1, plainBytes.length);
// Encrypt
byte[] cipherBytes = (new BigInteger(1, encryptionBytes)).modPow(priv.getPrivateExponent(), priv.getModulus()).toByteArray();
Hope this helps anyone :)