Re: Secret Keys

Roland Schemers (Roland.Schemers@Eng)
Tue, 5 May 1998 00:03:56 -0800 (PDT)

From: Roland.Schemers@Eng (Roland Schemers)
Message-Id: <199805050703.AAA28948@crypto.eng.sun.com>
Subject: Re: Secret Keys
To: vgoenka@novell.com (Vishal Goenka)
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 00:03:56 -0800 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <s54e5fdf.064@novell.com> from "Vishal Goenka" at May 5, 98 00:39:10 am

The information you are looking for is in the JCE, not the JDK. Please
see http://java.sun.com/security/, and select JCE. It is in the JCE
to keep the JDK easily exportable.

roland

> There are separate interfaces for PublicKey and PrivateKey, but none for =
> Symmetric Secret Keys. KeyFactory has methods to generate Public/Private =
> Keys from corresponding KeySpecs, how does a provider of Secret Key fit =
> his generate Symmetric Secret Key from a corresponding KeySpec in this =
> model.=20
>
> One work around could be to declare=20
> public interface SecretKey implements PublicKey, PrivateKey { }
>
> Another would be more significant work consisting of defining=20
> public interface SecretKey extends Key { }
> followed with introducing methods in KeyFactory (and its Spi)=20
> public SecretKey generateSecretKey(KeySpec spec).
>
> Also, there is a KeyPairGenerator class to generate a pair of public/privat=
> e keys, but nothing like KeyGenerator to generate Symmetric Secret Keys.
>
> I'm surely missing something important here, since this can't be a design =
> flaw, I'm sure.
> Please enlighten me on this.
>
> Regards,
> Vishal Goenka
> Novell.
>
>
>