001: /*
002: * Copyright 1996-2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
003: * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
004: *
005: * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
006: * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
007: * published by the Free Software Foundation. Sun designates this
008: * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
009: * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
010: *
011: * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
012: * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
013: * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
014: * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
015: * accompanied this code).
016: *
017: * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
018: * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
019: * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
020: *
021: * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
022: * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
023: * have any questions.
024: */
025:
026: package java.security;
027:
028: /**
029: * The Key interface is the top-level interface for all keys. It
030: * defines the functionality shared by all key objects. All keys
031: * have three characteristics:
032: *
033: * <UL>
034: *
035: * <LI>An Algorithm
036: *
037: * <P>This is the key algorithm for that key. The key algorithm is usually
038: * an encryption or asymmetric operation algorithm (such as DSA or
039: * RSA), which will work with those algorithms and with related
040: * algorithms (such as MD5 with RSA, SHA-1 with RSA, Raw DSA, etc.)
041: * The name of the algorithm of a key is obtained using the
042: * {@link #getAlgorithm() getAlgorithm} method.<P>
043: *
044: * <LI>An Encoded Form
045: *
046: * <P>This is an external encoded form for the key used when a standard
047: * representation of the key is needed outside the Java Virtual Machine,
048: * as when transmitting the key to some other party. The key
049: * is encoded according to a standard format (such as
050: * X.509 <code>SubjectPublicKeyInfo</code> or PKCS#8), and
051: * is returned using the {@link #getEncoded() getEncoded} method.
052: * Note: The syntax of the ASN.1 type <code>SubjectPublicKeyInfo</code>
053: * is defined as follows:
054: *
055: * <pre>
056: * SubjectPublicKeyInfo ::= SEQUENCE {
057: * algorithm AlgorithmIdentifier,
058: * subjectPublicKey BIT STRING }
059: *
060: * AlgorithmIdentifier ::= SEQUENCE {
061: * algorithm OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
062: * parameters ANY DEFINED BY algorithm OPTIONAL }
063: * </pre>
064: *
065: * For more information, see
066: * <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3280.txt">RFC 3280:
067: * Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile</a>.
068: * <P>
069: *
070: * <LI>A Format
071: *
072: * <P>This is the name of the format of the encoded key. It is returned
073: * by the {@link #getFormat() getFormat} method.<P>
074: *
075: * </UL>
076: *
077: * Keys are generally obtained through key generators, certificates,
078: * or various Identity classes used to manage keys.
079: * Keys may also be obtained from key specifications (transparent
080: * representations of the underlying key material) through the use of a key
081: * factory (see {@link KeyFactory}).
082: *
083: * <p> A Key should use KeyRep as its serialized representation.
084: * Note that a serialized Key may contain sensitive information
085: * which should not be exposed in untrusted environments. See the
086: * <a href="../../../platform/serialization/spec/security.html">
087: * Security Appendix</a>
088: * of the Serialization Specification for more information.
089: *
090: * @see PublicKey
091: * @see PrivateKey
092: * @see KeyPair
093: * @see KeyPairGenerator
094: * @see KeyFactory
095: * @see KeyRep
096: * @see java.security.spec.KeySpec
097: * @see Identity
098: * @see Signer
099: *
100: * @version 1.64 07/05/05
101: * @author Benjamin Renaud
102: */
103:
104: public interface Key extends java.io.Serializable {
105:
106: // Declare serialVersionUID to be compatible with JDK1.1
107:
108: /**
109: * The class fingerprint that is set to indicate
110: * serialization compatibility with a previous
111: * version of the class.
112: */
113: static final long serialVersionUID = 6603384152749567654L;
114:
115: /**
116: * Returns the standard algorithm name for this key. For
117: * example, "DSA" would indicate that this key is a DSA key.
118: * See Appendix A in the <a href=
119: * "../../../technotes/guides/security/crypto/CryptoSpec.html#AppA">
120: * Java Cryptography Architecture API Specification & Reference </a>
121: * for information about standard algorithm names.
122: *
123: * @return the name of the algorithm associated with this key.
124: */
125: public String getAlgorithm();
126:
127: /**
128: * Returns the name of the primary encoding format of this key,
129: * or null if this key does not support encoding.
130: * The primary encoding format is
131: * named in terms of the appropriate ASN.1 data format, if an
132: * ASN.1 specification for this key exists.
133: * For example, the name of the ASN.1 data format for public
134: * keys is <I>SubjectPublicKeyInfo</I>, as
135: * defined by the X.509 standard; in this case, the returned format is
136: * <code>"X.509"</code>. Similarly,
137: * the name of the ASN.1 data format for private keys is
138: * <I>PrivateKeyInfo</I>,
139: * as defined by the PKCS #8 standard; in this case, the returned format is
140: * <code>"PKCS#8"</code>.
141: *
142: * @return the primary encoding format of the key.
143: */
144: public String getFormat();
145:
146: /**
147: * Returns the key in its primary encoding format, or null
148: * if this key does not support encoding.
149: *
150: * @return the encoded key, or null if the key does not support
151: * encoding.
152: */
153: public byte[] getEncoded();
154: }
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