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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:
LHMsZPgZOz7nEcN5adB03+twTG2/ITfPnUUy4DxdgFEBAxm3HNDg8eXVnuvo80i4WMjY
eRJuw1ynrD3GeMmFTYiQc6VxelJuz8wHZtbl+7cepteKdtzcsdIDcDHBqvfjyzZp6WXd
MOkTLt4pk+sFm6I+CH4c90lxrRmwFKmS1wbX5eRSZYy6xqEjSz6iGC1vBXkPbl3k1C5r
cB5hKbpiAeNmbZYy1vdK5vissWYlkL6h6XJEYEFZaK7M097LkVAB01nu5GtCBUjPMjrK
LHzr/iudU3BPYmrimAIugjSckzXrzm03Ucgyb8laKktbh/Um4K2nyAGE2+T1aLH6JaYX
dg9SmcPl+dolHSIQPyvMUEPyu3VLSNPbN7ErPY93sjfKVyZsaGgft/cP4kUzNWEyRgAo
PiLHu4TKZMfBlFXst1867hEywST3RBbSSQ1g9D4DOkqh3oPkvsXP5INIEANZr2BHta38
4pJITAvij26NphYf9/ry5yGm+qPAaNG0Hqrk5ruVa60+V7k0jqDozjsST8OygyvkLrgY
HI6I3UHgzBNjskSJeo9fS3Cw3oKY8tneFbChtLz35DbcASOjpi7U9LKTL39lBTOBaZkG
jRycn4uSfT6JlDk3jn64wTL07I7bHvTSPSbWVG7XdKeSgOibW7FiCtTXojDPi8iywD58
which 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.

Java base64 encode, decode yield different results

I'm using this:
import com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.security.utils.Base64; to encode/decode Base64 strings and byte arrays to store into a db.
I'm testing out encoding and decoding to see if I can get back the original string:
SecureRandom srand = new SecureRandom();
byte[] randomSalt = new byte[64];
srand.nextBytes(randomSalt);
System.out.println("rand salt bytes: " + randomSalt); // first line
String salt = Base64.encode(randomSalt);
try {
System.out.println(Base64.decode(salt)); // second line
}catch(Base64DecodingException e){
System.out.println(e);
}
However, this prints out:
rand salt bytes: [B#68286c59
[B#44d01f20
Why are these not the same, so that I can get back the original byte array?

What you are doing is actually dealing with the java pointer instead of the actual bytes.
This is the correct way to implement
byte[] bytesEncoded = Base64.encodeBase64(str .getBytes());
System.out.println("ecncoded value is " + new String(bytesEncoded ));
// Decode data on other side, by processing encoded data
byte[] valueDecoded= Base64.decodeBase64(bytesEncoded );
System.out.println("Decoded value is " + new String(valueDecoded));

Why am I not getting the output in the string format?

In the following snippet I try to print encrypted array in a simple string format.
KeyGenerator keyGenerator = KeyGenerator.getInstance("Blowfish");
SecretKey secretKey = keyGenerator.generateKey();
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("Blowfish");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
String input = "password";
byte encrypted[] = cipher.doFinal(input.getBytes());
String s = new String(encrypted);
System.out.println(s);
But what I get is `┐╫Y²▓ô┴Vh¬∙:╪⌡¶ . Why is it ? How can I print it in the proper string format ?

You could use Base64 encoding from common-codec.
KeyGenerator keyGenerator = KeyGenerator.getInstance("Blowfish");
SecretKey secretKey = keyGenerator.generateKey();
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("Blowfish");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
String input = "password";
byte encrypted[] = cipher.doFinal(input.getBytes());
System.out.println(new String(Base64.encodeBase64(encrypted)));
Output:
8KA8ahr6INnY4qqtzjAJ8Q==

Encode the bytes in Base64 encoding (How do I convert a byte array to Base64 in Java?)
Or Hex: How to convert a byte array to a hex string in Java?
System.out.println( Hex.encodeHexString( bytes ) );

Most cryptographic algorithms (including blowfish) deal with binary data meaning that it will take binary data in and split out binary data that has been transformed by the algorithm (with the provided specs).
Binary data, as you know is != to string data, however binary data can be represented as string data (using hex, base64, etc).
If we look at your example code we can see this line:
byte encrypted[] = cipher.doFinal(input.getBytes());
This is what it is doing step by step:
It first converts string data into a binary data equivalent using the platform's default charset (NOT RECOMMENDED, but irrelevant).
It is passing the binary data (in form of a byte array) to the method doFinal().
The doFinal() method is processing this byte array via the specifications specified in the statements prior to this line (Blowfish, encryption).
The doFinal() statement is returning a byte array which represents the processed (encrypted, in your case) data.
The fact that the data originally came from a string is no longer relevant because of the nature of the encryption operation does not account for the source or type of the data. The encrypted byte array now contains data that may not be valid charset encoded string. Trying to use a character set to decode the string would most likely result in garbage output as the binary data is no longer a valid string.
However, binary data can be represented directly by outputting the VALUE of the actual bytes rather than what the charset equivalent mapping is (e.g A byte may have the value of 97, which represented in hex is: 0x61 but decoded via ASCII results in the character 'a').
Consider this code to output your encrypted data in hex:
KeyGenerator keyGenerator = KeyGenerator.getInstance("Blowfish");
SecretKey secretKey = keyGenerator.generateKey();
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("Blowfish");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
String input = "password";
byte encrypted[] = cipher.doFinal(input.getBytes());
StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder();
for(byte b:encrypted){
str.append(String.format("%02x", b));
}
String encData = str.toString();
System.out.println(encData);
P.S: Don't use getBytes() without any arguments! Supply your own charset like UTF-8. Do as follows:
byte encrypted[] = cipher.doFinal(input.getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")));

You can try with:
new String(bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)

byte[] to String {100,25,28,-122,-26,94,-3,-26}

How can I convert this byte[] to String :
byte[] mytest = new byte[] {100,25,28,-122,-26,94,-3,-26};
i get this : "d��^�" when I use :
new String( mytest , "UTF-8" )
Here is code java for creation of key :
m_key = new javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec(new byte[] {100,25,28,-122,-26,94,-3,-26}, "DES");
Thanks.

In order to decode the byte array into something like ASCII, you need to know its original encoding. Otherwise you would need to treat it as binary.
Note: Base64 is intended for transferring binary data across networks.
I would suggest Base64 encoding your byte array. Then in your PHP code decoding the Base64 string back into a UTF-8 string.
In Java, here's how to Base64 encode your byte array and then decode it back to UTF-8:
import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
public class MyTest {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
byte[] byteArray = new byte[] {100,25,28,-122,-26,94,-3,-26};
System.out.println("To UTF-8 string: " + new String(byteArray, "UTF-8"));
byte[] base64 = Base64.encodeBase64(byteArray);
System.out.println("To Base64 string: " + new String(base64, "UTF-8"));
byte[] decoded = Base64.decodeBase64(base64);
System.out.println("Back to UTF-8 string: " + new String(decoded, "UTF-8"));
/* the decoded byte array is the same as the original byte array */
for (int i = 0; i < decoded.length; i++) {
assert byteArray[i] == decoded[i];
}
}
}
The output from the above code is:
To UTF-8 string: d��^�
To Base64 string: ZBkchuZe/eY=
Back to UTF-8 string: d��^�
So if you wanted to use the same binary data in your PHP code, cut and paste the Base64 string into your PHP code and decode it back to UTF-8. Something like this:
<?php
$str = 'ZBkchuZe/eY=';
$key = base64_decode($str);
echo $key;
?>
I don't code in PHP, but you should be able to decode Base64 using this method:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.base64-decode.php
The above code should echo back the original binary data as UTF-8 (albeit with funny characters). The point is that the funny-looking string in the $key variable is representing the same binary data you had in the Java byte array:
d��^�
You should be able to pass the $key variable into your PHP encryption method.

with the way you are doing it makes no sense imo. you are creating a new string with the byte[] as an argument. i dont think that function is suppose to parse. so what you end up with is a lot of junk. but a little bit of googling got me this: http://www.mkyong.com/java/how-do-convert-byte-array-to-string-in-java/

Would m_key.getEncoded() give you the desired result.
Javadocs - SecretKeySpec
If not, you have to identify the Key provider that was used for the encoding (which resulted in the byte array that you have now) and decode.

How do I convert a byte array to Base64 in Java?

Okay, I know how to do it in C#.
It's as simple as:
Convert.ToBase64String(byte[])
and Convert.FromBase64String(string) to get byte[] back.
How can I do this in Java?

Java 8+
Encode or decode byte arrays:
byte[] encoded = Base64.getEncoder().encode("Hello".getBytes());
println(new String(encoded)); // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
byte[] decoded = Base64.getDecoder().decode(encoded);
println(new String(decoded)) // Outputs "Hello"
Or if you just want the strings:
String encoded = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString("Hello".getBytes());
println(encoded); // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
String decoded = new String(Base64.getDecoder().decode(encoded.getBytes()));
println(decoded) // Outputs "Hello"
For more info, see Base64.
Java < 8
Base64 is not bundled with Java versions less than 8. I recommend using Apache Commons Codec.
For direct byte arrays:
Base64 codec = new Base64();
byte[] encoded = codec.encode("Hello".getBytes());
println(new String(encoded)); // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
byte[] decoded = codec.decode(encoded);
println(new String(decoded)) // Outputs "Hello"
Or if you just want the strings:
Base64 codec = new Base64();
String encoded = codec.encodeBase64String("Hello".getBytes());
println(encoded); // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
String decoded = new String(codec.decodeBase64(encoded));
println(decoded) // Outputs "Hello"
Spring
If you're working in a Spring project already, you may find their org.springframework.util.Base64Utils class more ergonomic:
For direct byte arrays:
byte[] encoded = Base64Utils.encode("Hello".getBytes());
println(new String(encoded)) // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
byte[] decoded = Base64Utils.decode(encoded);
println(new String(decoded)) // Outputs "Hello"
Or if you just want the strings:
String encoded = Base64Utils.encodeToString("Hello".getBytes());
println(encoded); // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
String decoded = Base64Utils.decodeFromString(encoded);
println(new String(decoded)) // Outputs "Hello"
Android (with Java < 8)
If you are using the Android SDK before Java 8 then your best option is to use the bundled android.util.Base64.
For direct byte arrays:
byte[] encoded = Base64.encode("Hello".getBytes());
println(new String(encoded)) // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
byte [] decoded = Base64.decode(encoded);
println(new String(decoded)) // Outputs "Hello"
Or if you just want the strings:
String encoded = Base64.encodeToString("Hello".getBytes());
println(encoded); // Outputs "SGVsbG8="
String decoded = new String(Base64.decode(encoded));
println(decoded) // Outputs "Hello"

Use:
byte[] data = Base64.encode(base64str);
Encoding converts to Base64
You would need to reference commons codec from your project in order for that code to work.
For java8:
import java.util.Base64

Additionally, for our Android friends (API Level 8):
import android.util.Base64
...
Base64.encodeToString(bytes, Base64.DEFAULT);

In case you happen to be using Spring framework along with java, there is an easy way around.
Import the following.
import org.springframework.util.Base64Utils;
Convert like this.
byte[] bytearr ={0,1,2,3,4};
String encodedText = Base64Utils.encodeToString(bytearr);
To decode you can use the decodeToString method of the Base64Utils class.