Develop Reference

Right way to do encryption in java

I'm completely new with encryption stuff and i have some questions about encryption in java
I use to do this for RSA encryption in java
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPTION_MODE,publicKey);
byte result = cipher.doFinal(data);
and same way to use AES and I use this code to generate a AES key
SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
byte [] key = new byte [16];
random.nextByte(key);
SecretKeySpec secretKey = new SecretKeySpec(key,"AES");
but as i saw in other programs code this is not how they use encryption i always see they use something as IV param in AES and they never use "AES" or "RSA" to get a cipher instance.
Is the way i using to encrypt data safe?
I'm sure that i missing something
UPDATE:
I also have a question about changing data size in AES encryption in the way that i use to encrypt data with AES it changes the data size from 1024 to 1040
byte key [] = new byte[16];
SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
random.nextBytes(key);
SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(key,"AES");
Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE,keySpec);
FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("test.txt");
byte [] buffer = new byte[1024];
byte [] encrypted;
while (in.read()>0){
encrypted = c.doFinal(buffer);
System.out.println(encrypted.length);
}
the out put is:
1040
1040
.
.
1040
Simply encrypted data size is always 16 bytes more than original data
Do i have to deal with this or it's because i using Cipher.getInstance("AES");

This is not the recommended way and you will need to change it. You may want to have a better look on StackOverflow. Your question is (in)directly answered in this post How to encrypt String in Java.
Make sure you look further down to all the answers. For example this one will probably help you to understand more.

The most simple is to use the below class
package com.toptal.gif_downloader.tools;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.security.MessageDigest;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Base64;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
public class CipherDecrypt {
private static SecretKeySpec secretKey;
private static byte[] key;
public static void setKey(final String myKey) {
MessageDigest sha = null;
try {
key = myKey.getBytes("UTF-8");
sha = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1");
key = sha.digest(key);
key = Arrays.copyOf(key, 16);
secretKey = new SecretKeySpec(key, "AES");
} catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException | UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static String Encrypt(final String strToEncrypt, final String secret) {
try {
setKey(secret);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
return Base64.getEncoder()
.encodeToString(cipher.doFinal(strToEncrypt.getBytes("UTF-8")));
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error while encrypting: " + e.toString());
}
return null;
}
public static String Decrypt(final String strToDecrypt, final String secret) {
try {
setKey(secret);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/ECB/PKCS5PADDING");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
return new String(cipher.doFinal(Base64.getDecoder()
.decode(strToDecrypt)));
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error while decrypting: " + e.toString());
}
return null;
}
}

Decryption of Encrypted Secret Key and Encrypted String

So I think I have encrypted my secret key and String well but decryption is becoming the problem for me. Below is my code:
package ReadFileExample;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
import java.security.PrivateKey;
import java.security.PublicKey;
import java.security.cert.CertificateFactory;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;
import java.util.Base64;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.KeyGenerator;
import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
import javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter;
import java.security.KeyStore;
public class generatekey {
static Cipher cipher;
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// generating a symmetric key using the AES algorithm
KeyGenerator generator = KeyGenerator.getInstance("AES");
// 128 bit key
generator.init(256);
//generates a secret key
SecretKey secretkey = generator.generateKey();
// returns an AES cipher
cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
//print key
System.out.println("Key: " + cipher);
String plainText = "Hello World";
// call to method encrypt
String hexEncryptedByteText = encrypt(plainText, secretkey);
// print orignial text and encrypted text
System.out.println("Plain Text: " + plainText);
System.out.println("Encrypted Text: " + hexEncryptedByteText);
int plainTextlength = plainText.length();
System.out.println("length of text: " + plainTextlength);
// allows to write data to a file
FileOutputStream fos = null;
// write bytes to file
BufferedOutputStream bos = null;
// create file to which data needs to be written
String fileName = "C:/Users/******/newFile.txt";
try{
// allows written data to go into the written path
fos = new FileOutputStream(fileName);
// converts written data into bytes
bos = new BufferedOutputStream(fos);
// writes the encrypted text into file
bos.write(hexEncryptedByteText.length());
System.out.println("encryptedText has been written successfully in "
+fileName);
// allows to catch bug in code
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try{
// check for null exception
if (bos != null){
bos.close();
}
// check for null exception
if (fos != null){
fos.close();
}
} catch (IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
// creates a file input stream by opening a path to the file needed
FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream("C:/Users/*****/public.cert");
// implements the X509 certificate type
CertificateFactory f = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509");
// initalizes data found in the file
X509Certificate certificate = (X509Certificate)f.generateCertificate(fin);
// gets public key from this certificate
PublicKey pk = certificate.getPublicKey();
System.out.println(pk);
String hexEncryptedByteKey = encryptedKey(pk, secretkey);
System.out.println("Encrypted Key: " + hexEncryptedByteKey);
System.out.println("Encrypted Key length: " + hexEncryptedByteKey.length());
// allows to write data to a file
FileOutputStream newFos = null;
// write bytes to file
BufferedOutputStream newBos = null;
// create file to which data needs to be written
String fileNameKey = "C:/Users/****/symmetric.txt";
try{
// allows written data to go into the written path
newFos = new FileOutputStream(fileNameKey);
// converts written data into bytes
newBos = new BufferedOutputStream(newFos);
// writes the encrypted text into file
newBos.write(hexEncryptedByteKey.length());
System.out.println("encryptedKey has been written successfully in "
+fileNameKey);
// allows to catch bug in code
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try{
// check for null exception
if (newBos != null){
newBos.close();
}
// check for null exception
if (newFos != null){
newFos.close();
}
} catch (IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
// load keystore to get private key
KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
String password = "*****";
char[] passwordChar = password.toCharArray();
System.out.println("password: " + passwordChar);
// locate file
try (FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("C:/Users/*****/keystore.jks")) {
ks.load(fis, passwordChar);
}
// protect password for keystore
KeyStore.ProtectionParameter protParam = new KeyStore.PasswordProtection(passwordChar);
// get private key from keystore
KeyStore.PrivateKeyEntry pkEntry = (KeyStore.PrivateKeyEntry)
ks.getEntry("*****", protParam);
PrivateKey myPrivateKey = pkEntry.getPrivateKey();
System.out.println("private key: " + myPrivateKey);
//method declaration
String decryptedKey = decryptedKey(myPrivateKey, hexEncryptedByteKey);
System.out.println("decrypted Key: " + decryptedKey);
String hexDecryptedByteText = decryptedTextHex(decryptedKey, hexEncryptedByteText);
System.out.println("key: " + hexDecryptedByteText);
}
public static String encrypt(String plainText, SecretKey secretkey) throws Exception {
//Encodes the string into a sequence of bytes
byte[] plainTextByte = plainText.getBytes();
//intialize cipher to encryption mode
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretkey);
//data is encrypted
byte[] encryptedByte = cipher.doFinal(plainTextByte);
//Base64.Encoder encoder = Base64.getEncoder();
//encodes bytes into a string using Base64
byte[] encryptedByteText = Base64.getEncoder().encode(plainTextByte);
String hexEncryptedByteText = DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(plainTextByte);
// return the string encrypted text to the main method
return hexEncryptedByteText;
}
public static String encryptedKey(PublicKey pk, SecretKey secretkey) throws Exception {
// data written to byte array
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
// writes data types to the output stream
ObjectOutputStream writter = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);
//specific object of secretkey is written to the output stream
writter.writeObject(secretkey);
//creates a byte array
byte[] plainTextByteKey = baos.toByteArray();
//creates a cipher using the RSA algorithm
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA");
// initalizes cipher for encryption using the public key
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, pk);
//encrypts data
//byte[] encryptedByteKey = Base64.getEncoder().encode(plainTextByteKey);
String hexEncryptedByteKey = DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(plainTextByteKey);
//Base64.Encoder encoderKey = Base64.getEncoder();
// encodes the byte array into a string.
//String encryptedTextKey = new String(encryptedByteKey);
return hexEncryptedByteKey;
}
private static String decryptedKey(PrivateKey myPrivateKey, String hexEncryptedByteKey) throws Exception {
//ByteArrayOutputStream baosDecrypt = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
//ObjectOutputStream writterDecrypt = new ObjectOutputStream(baosDecrypt);
//writterDecrypt.writeObject(hexEncryptedByteKey);
//byte[] byteKeyDecrypt = baosDecrypt.toByteArray();
Cipher cipher;
cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, myPrivateKey);
//cipher.doFinal();
//byte [] decryptedKey = Base64.getDecoder().decode(byteKeyDecrypt);
//String decryptedTextKey = new String(byteKeyDecrypt);
byte[] decodedHex = DatatypeConverter.parseHexBinary(hexEncryptedByteKey);
System.out.println("decoded hex key: " + decodedHex);
String decryptedKey = new String(decodedHex, "UTF-8");
return decryptedKey;
}
private static String decryptedTextHex(String decryptedKey, String hexEncryptedByteText) throws Exception {
byte[] decryptedTextByte = decryptedKey.getBytes();
byte[] textString = hexEncryptedByteText.getBytes();
SecretKey key = new SecretKeySpec(decryptedTextByte, 0, decryptedTextByte.length, "AES");
Cipher cipher;
cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
//IvParameterSpec iv = new IvParameterSpec(cipher.getIV());
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key);
byte[] decodedTextHex = cipher.doFinal(textString);
byte[] decoded = Base64.getDecoder().decode(decodedTextHex);
String hexDecryptedByteText = DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(decoded);
return hexDecryptedByteText;
}
}
This is the error I am getting:
Exception in thread "main" java.security.InvalidKeyException: Parameters missing
at com.sun.crypto.provider.CipherCore.init(CipherCore.java:469)
at com.sun.crypto.provider.AESCipher.engineInit(AESCipher.java:313)
at javax.crypto.Cipher.implInit(Cipher.java:802)
at javax.crypto.Cipher.chooseProvider(Cipher.java:864)
at javax.crypto.Cipher.init(Cipher.java:1249)
at javax.crypto.Cipher.init(Cipher.java:1186)
at ReadFileExample.generatekey.decryptedTextHex(generatekey.java:289)
at ReadFileExample.generatekey.main(generatekey.java:202)
I am not sure what is wrong. If my decryption of key is wrong or just the decryption of the String. I get no errors when it comes to the decryption of the key however.
For some more information: I generated a secret key, encrypted a String with the secret key and then encrypted the secret key with a generated public key. Then I decrypted the secret key with the private key and lastly I need to decrypt the String with the decrypted secret key.
Help is greatly appreciated. I have been working on this for so long and I just don't know what to do anymore. ]
EDIT: That other question has nothing to do with my question. I don't even have that same error message and I have already downloaded the JCE as that solution has stated.

You have to be carefull with the key size, AES is a 128-bit block cipher supporting keys of 128, 192, and 256 bits so if your key size is any different you will get exceptions, also if you keysize is greater than 128 then the code wont work unless you have Unlimited policy files. Basically there is quite a bit detail to this. If you want to see some working code check out this link: https://github.com/Jsondb/jsondb-core/blob/master/src/main/java/io/jsondb/crypto/DefaultAESCBCCipher.java

Android Java AES Encryption Cipher Padding and Mode Error

This is a continuation from my question yesterday:
Android Java AES Encryption
I am currently testing AES encryption on Android. In my previous question I am able to encrypt and decrypt a string using Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
I was informed in the replies that I should specify the IV, encryption mode and padding to prevent any potential issues in the future since no specification means the program will use the system's default value. So I changed my code to c = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
But now my code no longer works, and it will return a NullPointerException.
My code:
byte[] a = encryptFIN128AES("pls");
String b = decryptFIN128AES(a);
Log.e("AES_Test", "b = " + b);
/**
* Encrypts a string with AES (128 bit key)
* #param fin
* #return the AES encrypted string
*/
private byte[] encryptFIN128AES(String fin) {
SecretKeySpec sks = null;
try {
sks = new SecretKeySpec(generateKey(PASSPHRASE, SALT.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)).getEncoded(), "AES");
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.e("encryptFIN128AES", "AES key generation error");
}
// Encode the original data with AES
byte[] encodedBytes = null;
try {
Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, sks);
encodedBytes = c.doFinal(fin.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.e("encryptFIN128AES", "AES encryption error");
}
return encodedBytes;
}
/**
* Decrypts a string with AES (128 bit key)
* #param encodedBytes
* #return the decrypted String
*/
private String decryptFIN128AES(byte[] encodedBytes) {
SecretKeySpec sks = null;
try {
sks = new SecretKeySpec(generateKey(PASSPHRASE, SALT.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)).getEncoded(), "AES");
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.e("decryptFIN128AES", "AES key generation error");
}
// Decode the encoded data with AES
byte[] decodedBytes = null;
try {
Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
c.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, sks);
decodedBytes = c.doFinal(encodedBytes);
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.e("decryptFIN128AES", "AES decryption error");
}
//return Base64.encodeToString(decodedBytes, Base64.DEFAULT);
return new String(decodedBytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
}
/**
* Build private key from a passpharase/PIN (incl. key derivation (Uses PBKDF2))
* #param passphraseOrPin
* #param salt
* #return The generated SecretKey (Used for AES-encryption, key size specified in outputKeyLength)
*/
public static SecretKey generateKey(char[] passphraseOrPin, byte[] salt)
throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException {
// Number of PBKDF2 hardening rounds to use. Larger values increase
// computation time. You should select a value that causes computation
// to take >100ms.
final int iterations = 1000;
// Generate a 256-bit key
final int outputKeyLength = 128;
SecretKeyFactory secretKeyFactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1");
KeySpec keySpec = new PBEKeySpec(passphraseOrPin, salt, iterations, outputKeyLength);
SecretKey secretKey = secretKeyFactory.generateSecret(keySpec);
return secretKey;
}
Output:
E/decryptFIN128AES: AES decryption error
E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: Thread-176
Process: testapp.ttyi.nfcapp, PID: 2920
java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to get length of null array
at java.lang.String.<init>(String.java:371)
at testapp.ttyi.nfcapp.DisplayQRActivity.decryptFIN128AES(DisplayQRActivity.java:254)
at testapp.ttyi.nfcapp.DisplayQRActivity.access$100(DisplayQRActivity.java:29)
at testapp.ttyi.nfcapp.DisplayQRActivity$1.run(DisplayQRActivity.java:77)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:818)
testapp.ttyi.nfcapp.DisplayQRActivity.decryptFIN128AES(DisplayQRActivity.java:254) points to the last line of decryptFIN128AES, which is:
return new String(decodedBytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
I understand that the NullPointerException occurs because something went wrong with the decryption process. Since it must have went into the catch case and thus decodedBytes remains as NULL and thus causes the error when I want to return decodedBytes. So now my question is: Why does this happen and how can I fix this?
Your help is much appreciated.

Many thanks to #Thomas W for your help. I changed the catch to throw and now I can see the actual error has something to do with BadPaddingException: error:06065064:digital envelope routines:EVP_DecryptFinal_ex:bad decrypt
After some googling I found the solution is the lack of IV argument in my c.init. Previously I was using "AES" in which Java defaults to "AES/ECB/PKCS5Padding" and that works fine without IV.
(Source: Android: Encrypt a string with AES 256bit Encryption with iv and secret key)
But once I changed to "AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding" Java will have issues without a declared IV. Therefore by changing c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, sks); and c.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, sks); to
c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, sks, new IvParameterSpec(new byte[16])); and
c.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, sks, new IvParameterSpec(new byte[16])); fixed the issue.
Now my program can encrypt and decrypt properly.

How to do Encryption and Decryption with RSA in android

I am trying to encrypt and decrypt the image file with my Helper class
RSAHelper.java
package com.lib;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.security.KeyFactory;
import java.security.KeyPair;
import java.security.KeyPairGenerator;
import java.security.PrivateKey;
import java.security.PublicKey;
import java.security.spec.PKCS8EncodedKeySpec;
import java.security.spec.X509EncodedKeySpec;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import static javax.crypto.Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE;
import static javax.crypto.Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE;
/**
* Created by shobhan.
*/
public class RSAHelper {
private final static String RSA = "RSA";
private PublicKey publicKey;
private PrivateKey privateKey;
public RSAHelper() throws Exception {
/**
* generate RSA keys
*/
generateKey();
}
private void generateKey() throws Exception {
KeyPairGenerator keyPairGenerator = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance(RSA);
keyPairGenerator.initialize(1024);
KeyPair keyPair = keyPairGenerator.generateKeyPair();
publicKey = keyPair.getPublic();
privateKey = keyPair.getPrivate();
}
/**
* Used to do encryptFile the file
*
* #param srcPath File path to be encrypted
* #param destPath Encrypts the file in srcPath and creates a file in destPath
* #return true if encryption success, false otherwise
*/
public boolean encryptFile(String srcPath, String destPath) {
try {
FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(srcPath);
FileOutputStream fileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(destPath);
// byte[] key = "12345678".getBytes();
// SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(key, ALGORITHM);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance(RSA);
cipher.init(Cipher.PUBLIC_KEY, publicKey);
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, publicKey);
// cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, keySpec);
// CipherOutputStream cipherOutputStream = new
// CipherOutputStream(fileOutputStream, cipher);
byte[] buf = new byte[117];
byte[] encryptedData = null;
int read;
while ((read = fileInputStream.read(buf)) > 0) {
encryptedData = cipher.doFinal(buf);
fileOutputStream.write(encryptedData);
// cipherOutputStream.write(buf);
}
fileInputStream.close();
fileOutputStream.flush();
// cipherOutputStream.close();
return true;
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return false;
}
/**
* Used to do decryptFile the file
*
* #param srcPath File path to be decrypted
* #param destPath Decrypts the file in srcPath and creates a file in destPath
* #return true if encryption success, false otherwise
*/
public boolean decryptFile(String srcPath, String destPath) {
try {
FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(srcPath);
FileOutputStream fileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(destPath);
// byte[] key = "12345678".getBytes();
// SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(key, ALGORITHM);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance(RSA);
cipher.init(Cipher.PRIVATE_KEY, privateKey);
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, privateKey);
// cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, keySpec);
// CipherOutputStream cipherOutputStream = new
// CipherOutputStream(fileOutputStream, cipher);
byte[] buf = new byte[128];
byte[] decryptedData = null;
int read;
while ((read = fileInputStream.read(buf)) > 0) {
decryptedData = cipher.doFinal(buf);
fileOutputStream.write(decryptedData);
// cipherOutputStream.write(buf);
}
fileInputStream.close();
fileOutputStream.flush();
return true;
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return false;
}
}
in Activity I used like
RSAHelper rsaHelper = null;
try {
rsaHelper = new RSAHelper();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
String src = getExternalFilesDir("sdcard").getAbsolutePath() + "/mother.png";
String dest = src.replace("mother","motherEnc");
String decrypted = dest.replace("motherEnc","motherDec");
rsaHelper.encryptFile(src, dest);
rsaHelper.decryptFile(dest, decrypted);
but the decrypted file is not original(means corrupted).
Same code working when I execute in windows desktop.
Am I doing anything wrong?
Thanks in advance.

Continuing the list begun in the comment by #zaph:
You are initializing the cipher twice, luckily with identical modes so it's just confusing but not the source of your bug.
You are relying on defaults for the Cipher transformation, a frequent source of non-portability, bugs and/or confusion. Always explicitly specify the Cipher transformation fully, like Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1PADDING") or Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/NOPADDING").
You are incorrectly assuming that InputStream.read() will always return a full buffer of bytes if they are available. That might be how current implementations of FileInputStream actually work, but that is just luck. That behavior can change without warning at any time. InputStream implementors only need to obey the InputStream API contract, and so that is all you should rely on. You do record the number of bytes actually read, but then you don't do anything with it.
You are flushing your OutputStream but not closing it. You should close it instead.
Your bug is caused by number 5. Since there is no guarantee that your input file is an exact multiple of 117 bytes, the last block will likely be less than 117 bytes. However, you then encrypt the full 117 byte block, of which the trailing bytes are simply what was leftover from the previous read. So your decrypted file will be a multiple of 117, and will match up to the original length, with the trailing bytes being identical to the trailing bytes of the previous block.

Java - Encrypt String with existing public key file

I've been researching this for the past 4-5 hours now and can't seem to find an answer that actually works despite finding 'answers' that used everything from a few methods to an entire ~100 line class. I can't imagine that there isn't some simple function to do such a trivial thing :P
I have a pre-existing set of public / private keys (actually, two sets - one generated by ssh-keygen and another by openssl so .. whatever format works is cool).
All I am after is a simple java equivalent to what I write in python like -
key_object = someModule.KeyObject(nameOfPublicKeyFile)
def encrypt (SomePlainText) :
return someOtherModule.encrypt(key_object, SomePlainText)
Any help would be awesome!

These openssl commands in the shell create an RSA key pair and write the public and private keys to DER formatted files.
Here, the private key file is not password-protected (-nocrypt) to keep things simple.
$ openssl genrsa -out keypair.pem 2048
Generating RSA private key, 2048 bit long modulus
............+++
................................+++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
$ openssl rsa -in keypair.pem -outform DER -pubout -out public.der
writing RSA key
$ openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -nocrypt -in keypair.pem -outform DER -out private.der
Now that you have the DER files, you can read them in Java and use KeySpec and KeyFactory to create PublicKey and PrivateKey objects.
public byte[] readFileBytes(String filename) throws IOException
{
Path path = Paths.get(filename);
return Files.readAllBytes(path);
}
public PublicKey readPublicKey(String filename) throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException
{
X509EncodedKeySpec publicSpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(readFileBytes(filename));
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
return keyFactory.generatePublic(publicSpec);
}
public PrivateKey readPrivateKey(String filename) throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException
{
PKCS8EncodedKeySpec keySpec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(readFileBytes(filename));
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
return keyFactory.generatePrivate(keySpec);
}
With the public and private keys, you can encrypt and decrypt small amounts of data (that fit within your RSA modulus.) I recommend OAEP padding.
public byte[] encrypt(PublicKey key, byte[] plaintext) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException, IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException
{
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/OAEPWithSHA1AndMGF1Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key);
return cipher.doFinal(plaintext);
}
public byte[] decrypt(PrivateKey key, byte[] ciphertext) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException, IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException
{
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/OAEPWithSHA1AndMGF1Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key);
return cipher.doFinal(ciphertext);
}
Here it is tied together with a simple encryption and decryption:
public void Hello()
{
try
{
PublicKey publicKey = readPublicKey("public.der");
PrivateKey privateKey = readPrivateKey("private.der");
byte[] message = "Hello World".getBytes("UTF8");
byte[] secret = encrypt(publicKey, message);
byte[] recovered_message = decrypt(privateKey, secret);
System.out.println(new String(recovered_message, "UTF8"));
}
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

I would like to share a piece of code.. well actually a whole class which can do what you require if you customize it to your own needs. I have used this in one of my application where I used to encrypt/decrypt a file with the generated public/private keys. Same can be applied to Strings as well.
import java.security.*;
import java.security.spec.*;
import javax.crypto.*;
import javax.crypto.spec.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
/**
* This class encrypts and decrypts a file using CipherStreams
* and a 256-bit Rijndael key. The key is then encrypted using
* a 1024-bit RSA key, which is password-encrypted.
*/
public class FileEncryptorRSA {
/**
* When files are encrypted, this will be appended to the end
* of the filename.
*/
private static final String ENCRYPTED_FILENAME_SUFFIX=".encrypted";
/**
* When files are decrypted, this will be appended to the end
* of the filename.
*/
private static final String DECRYPTED_FILENAME_SUFFIX=".decrypted";
/**
* Number of times the password will be hashed with MD5
* when transforming it into a TripleDES key.
*/
private static final int ITERATIONS = 1000;
/**
* FileEncryptor is started with one of three options:
*
* -c: create key pair and write it to 2 files
* -e: encrypt a file, given as an argument
* -d: decrypt a file, given as an argument
*/
public static void main (String[] args)
throws Exception {
if ((args.length < 1) || (args.length > 2)) {
usage();
} else if ("-c".equals(args[0])) {
createKey();
} else if ("-e".equals(args[0])) {
encrypt(args[1]);
} else if ("-d".equals(args[0])) {
decrypt(args[1]);
} else {
usage();
}
}
private static void usage() {
System.err.println("Usage: java FileEncryptor -c|-e|-d [filename]");
System.exit(1);
}
/**
* Creates a 1024 bit RSA key and stores it to
* the filesystem as two files.
*/
private static void createKey()
throws Exception {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
System.out.print("Password to encrypt the private key: ");
String password = in.readLine();
System.out.println("Generating an RSA keypair...");
// Create an RSA key
KeyPairGenerator keyPairGenerator = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA");
keyPairGenerator.initialize(1024);
KeyPair keyPair = keyPairGenerator.genKeyPair();
System.out.println("Done generating the keypair.\n");
// Now we need to write the public key out to a file
System.out.print("Public key filename: ");
String publicKeyFilename = in.readLine();
// Get the encoded form of the public key so we can
// use it again in the future. This is X.509 by default.
byte[] publicKeyBytes = keyPair.getPublic().getEncoded();
// Write the encoded public key out to the filesystem
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(publicKeyFilename);
fos.write(publicKeyBytes);
fos.close();
// Now we need to do the same thing with the private key,
// but we need to password encrypt it as well.
System.out.print("Private key filename: ");
String privateKeyFilename = in.readLine();
// Get the encoded form. This is PKCS#8 by default.
byte[] privateKeyBytes = keyPair.getPrivate().getEncoded();
// Here we actually encrypt the private key
byte[] encryptedPrivateKeyBytes =
passwordEncrypt(password.toCharArray(),privateKeyBytes);
fos = new FileOutputStream(privateKeyFilename);
fos.write(encryptedPrivateKeyBytes);
fos.close();
}
/**
* Encrypt the given file with a session key encrypted with an
* RSA public key which will be read in from the filesystem.
*/
private static void encrypt(String fileInput)
throws Exception {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader
(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
System.out.print("Public Key to encrypt with: ");
String publicKeyFilename = in.readLine();
// Load the public key bytes
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(publicKeyFilename);
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
int theByte = 0;
while ((theByte = fis.read()) != -1)
{
baos.write(theByte);
}
fis.close();
byte[] keyBytes = baos.toByteArray();
baos.close();
// Turn the encoded key into a real RSA public key.
// Public keys are encoded in X.509.
X509EncodedKeySpec keySpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(keyBytes);
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
PublicKey publicKey = keyFactory.generatePublic(keySpec);
// Open up an output file for the output of the encryption
String fileOutput = fileInput + ENCRYPTED_FILENAME_SUFFIX;
DataOutputStream output = new DataOutputStream
(new FileOutputStream(fileOutput));
// Create a cipher using that key to initialize it
Cipher rsaCipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding");
rsaCipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, publicKey);
// Now create a new 256 bit Rijndael key to encrypt the file itself.
// This will be the session key.
KeyGenerator rijndaelKeyGenerator = KeyGenerator.getInstance("Rijndael");
rijndaelKeyGenerator.init(256);
System.out.println("Generating session key...");
Key rijndaelKey = rijndaelKeyGenerator.generateKey();
System.out.println("Done generating key.");
// Encrypt the Rijndael key with the RSA cipher
// and write it to the beginning of the file.
byte[] encodedKeyBytes= rsaCipher.doFinal(rijndaelKey.getEncoded());
output.writeInt(encodedKeyBytes.length);
output.write(encodedKeyBytes);
// Now we need an Initialization Vector for the symmetric cipher in CBC mode
SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
byte[] iv = new byte[16];
random.nextBytes(iv);
// Write the IV out to the file.
output.write(iv);
IvParameterSpec spec = new IvParameterSpec(iv);
// Create the cipher for encrypting the file itself.
Cipher symmetricCipher = Cipher.getInstance("Rijndael/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
symmetricCipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, rijndaelKey, spec);
CipherOutputStream cos = new CipherOutputStream(output, symmetricCipher);
System.out.println("Encrypting the file...");
FileInputStream input = new FileInputStream(fileInput);
theByte = 0;
while ((theByte = input.read()) != -1)
{
cos.write(theByte);
}
input.close();
cos.close();
System.out.println("File encrypted.");
return;
}
/**
* Decrypt the given file.
* Start by getting the RSA private key
* and decrypting the session key embedded
* in the file. Then decrypt the file with
* that session key.
*/
private static void decrypt(String fileInput)
throws Exception {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
System.out.print("Private Key to decrypt with: ");
String privateKeyFilename = in.readLine();
System.out.print("Password for the private key: ");
String password = in.readLine();
// Load the private key bytes
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(privateKeyFilename);
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
int theByte = 0;
while ((theByte = fis.read()) != -1)
{
baos.write(theByte);
}
fis.close();
byte[] keyBytes = baos.toByteArray();
baos.close();
keyBytes = passwordDecrypt(password.toCharArray(), keyBytes);
// Turn the encoded key into a real RSA private key.
// Private keys are encoded in PKCS#8.
PKCS8EncodedKeySpec keySpec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(keyBytes);
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
PrivateKey privateKey = keyFactory.generatePrivate(keySpec);
// Create a cipher using that key to initialize it
Cipher rsaCipher = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding");
// Read in the encrypted bytes of the session key
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(new FileInputStream(fileInput));
byte[] encryptedKeyBytes = new byte[dis.readInt()];
dis.readFully(encryptedKeyBytes);
// Decrypt the session key bytes.
rsaCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, privateKey);
byte[] rijndaelKeyBytes = rsaCipher.doFinal(encryptedKeyBytes);
// Transform the key bytes into an actual key.
SecretKey rijndaelKey = new SecretKeySpec(rijndaelKeyBytes, "Rijndael");
// Read in the Initialization Vector from the file.
byte[] iv = new byte[16];
dis.read(iv);
IvParameterSpec spec = new IvParameterSpec(iv);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("Rijndael/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, rijndaelKey, spec);
CipherInputStream cis = new CipherInputStream(dis, cipher);
System.out.println("Decrypting the file...");
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(fileInput + DECRYPTED_FILENAME_SUFFIX);
// Read through the file, decrypting each byte.
theByte = 0;
while ((theByte = cis.read()) != -1)
{
fos.write(theByte);
}
cis.close();
fos.close();
System.out.println("Done.");
return;
}
/**
* Utility method to encrypt a byte array with a given password.
* Salt will be the first 8 bytes of the byte array returned.
*/
private static byte[] passwordEncrypt(char[] password, byte[] plaintext) throws Exception {
// Create the salt.
byte[] salt = new byte[8];
Random random = new Random();
random.nextBytes(salt);
// Create a PBE key and cipher.
PBEKeySpec keySpec = new PBEKeySpec(password);
SecretKeyFactory keyFactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBEWithSHAAndTwofish-CBC");
SecretKey key = keyFactory.generateSecret(keySpec);
PBEParameterSpec paramSpec = new PBEParameterSpec(salt, ITERATIONS);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("PBEWithSHAAndTwofish-CBC");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key, paramSpec);
// Encrypt the array
byte[] ciphertext = cipher.doFinal(plaintext);
// Write out the salt, then the ciphertext and return it.
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
baos.write(salt);
baos.write(ciphertext);
return baos.toByteArray();
}
/**
* Utility method to decrypt a byte array with a given password.
* Salt will be the first 8 bytes in the array passed in.
*/
private static byte[] passwordDecrypt(char[] password, byte[] ciphertext) throws Exception {
// Read in the salt.
byte[] salt = new byte[8];
ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream(ciphertext);
bais.read(salt,0,8);
// The remaining bytes are the actual ciphertext.
byte[] remainingCiphertext = new byte[ciphertext.length-8];
bais.read(remainingCiphertext,0,ciphertext.length-8);
// Create a PBE cipher to decrypt the byte array.
PBEKeySpec keySpec = new PBEKeySpec(password);
SecretKeyFactory keyFactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBEWithSHAAndTwofish-CBC");
SecretKey key = keyFactory.generateSecret(keySpec);
PBEParameterSpec paramSpec = new PBEParameterSpec(salt, ITERATIONS);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("PBEWithSHAAndTwofish-CBC");
// Perform the actual decryption.
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key, paramSpec);
return cipher.doFinal(remainingCiphertext);
}
}
EDIT:
You will require to change Java policy of you JVM to Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction for using this code.
All related information regarding change in JAVA Policy can be found HERE

Here is a good example:
http://javadigest.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/rsa-encryption-example/
and there are many more. (Google for "java encrypt RSA example" if this link breaks.)
I can't seem to find an answer that actually works
Try the one linked above. If it doesn't work, please follow up with an edit or comment to say what is going wrong.
I can't imagine that there isn't some simple function to do such a trivial thing. :P
Well sorry, but your imagination must be broken :-)
In fact, it is not a trivial thing. And it is made more difficult by the fact that Java is trying to support a wide range of crypto functionality and crypto technology stacks using a single unified API.