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how to convert array byte[] to key?

I have information security project about encrypting file using AES. and the using key in this algorithm is also encrypted using RSA algorithm and public key,
the problem is: after encrypting the random key it returns array byte[], how this array byte converted into key so I can encrypt the file?
NOTE [public_Key is generated from user using JPasswordField
and this is the challenge I faced from my course project]
public void AESEncryption(File file) throws FileNotFoundException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException, IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {
String data;
SecretKey random_key;
int key_size=128;
Scanner myReader = new Scanner(file);
while (myReader.hasNextLine()) {
data = myReader.nextLine();
}
// create GenerateKey object to access public key
// GenerateKey is my personal class and contain public key
GenerateKey key = new GenerateKey();
// convert public key to string
String public_Key = key.PublicKey.getText();
// convert string public key to secret key
byte[] decodedKey = Base64.getDecoder().decode(public_Key);
SecretKey originalKey = new SecretKeySpec(decodedKey, 0, decodedKey.length, "AES");
// generate random key
KeyGenerator g = KeyGenerator.getInstance("AES");
// give it size
g.init(key_size);
random_key = g.generateKey();
// encrypt the random key with RSA and public key
byte[] random_byteKey = random_key.getEncoded();
Cipher cipher_Key = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding");
cipher_Key.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, originalKey);
byte[] encrypted_key = cipher_Key.doFinal(random_byteKey); //RSA key
// after generating RSA key we will Encrypt file using RSA key
byte[] byte_message = data.getBytes();
Cipher cipherTxt = Cipher.getInstance("AES/GCM/NoPadding");
// the problem in here
cipherTxt.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, encrypted_key);
byte[] encByte = cipherTxt.doFinal(byte_message);
}

You are not understanding what you need to do. First you generate a random AES key that is used solely for the data encryption. Then you encrypt that key with RSA using the trusted RSA public key which is part of the key pair of the receiver. So you never have to convert either the public key or the RSA ciphertext to a symmetric key.
As an aside, instead of using Cipher#doFinal() you should use Cipher#wrap() , which takes a symmetric key. That way you don't have to encode them to a byte array. It may also be more secure if a hardware module is used, for instance, depending on the Cipher implementation.
I'd strongly suggest you generate separate methods for these separate steps as well as for the file handling.
In the end, you'll need something more akin to this:
public static void hybridEncrypt(RSAPublicKey publicKey, File in, File out) throws IOException, InvalidKeyException {
int key_size=128;
try {
KeyGenerator g = KeyGenerator.getInstance("AES");
g.init(key_size);
SecretKey dataKey = g.generateKey();
// encrypt the random data key with the RSA public key
Cipher cipher_Key = Cipher.getInstance("RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding");
cipher_Key.init(Cipher.WRAP_MODE, publicKey);
byte[] encryptedKey = cipher_Key.wrap(dataKey);
Cipher cipherTxt = Cipher.getInstance("AES/GCM/NoPadding");
cipherTxt.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, dataKey);
byte[] message = Files.readAllBytes(in.toPath());
byte[] encryptedMessage = cipherTxt.doFinal(message);
out.createNewFile();
Files.write(out.toPath(), encryptedKey);
Files.write(out.toPath(), encryptedMessage, StandardOpenOption.APPEND);
} catch(NoSuchAlgorithmException | NoSuchPaddingException | IllegalBlockSizeException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("RSA or AES/GCM not available", e);
} catch (BadPaddingException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Padding failed for NoPadding", e);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
KeyPairGenerator kpGen = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA");
kpGen.initialize(3072);
KeyPair keyPairReceiver = kpGen.generateKeyPair();
RSAPublicKey publicKeyReceiver = (RSAPublicKey) keyPairReceiver.getPublic();
hybridEncrypt(publicKeyReceiver, new File("plain.txt"), new File("bla.bin"));
}
Beware that this is still not best practice code, for instance it uses the old PKCS#1 encryption instead of OAEP. Don't copy paste this guys - with encryption you need to understand what you are doing, and preferably use a well vetted high level library.

How to properly recreate SecretKey from string

I'm trying to make an encryption-decryption app. I've got two classes - one with functions to generate the key, encrypt and decrypt, second one for JavaFX GUI. In the GUI class I've got 4 textareas: 1st to write text to encrypt, 2nd for encrypted text, 3rd for the key (String encodedKey = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(klucz.getEncoded());) and 4th for decrypted text.
The problem is, I am not able to decrypt the text. I'm trying to recreate the SecretKey like this:
String encodedKey = textAreaKey.getText();
byte[] decodedKey = Base64.getDecoder().decode(encodedKey);
SecretKey klucz = new SecretKeySpec(decodedKey, "DESede");
When I encrypt the key looks like this: com.sun.crypto.provider.DESedeKey#4f964d80 and when I try to recreate it: javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec#4f964d80 and I'm getting javax.crypto.IllegalBlockSizeException: Input length must be multiple of 8 when decrypting with padded cipher
Here is my 1st class:
public class Encryption {
public static SecretKey generateKey() throws NoSuchAlgorithmException {
Security.addProvider(new com.sun.crypto.provider.SunJCE());
KeyGenerator keygen = KeyGenerator.getInstance("DESede");
keygen.init(168);
SecretKey klucz = keygen.generateKey();
return klucz;
}
static byte[] encrypt(byte[] plainTextByte, SecretKey klucz)
throws Exception {
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESede/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, klucz);
byte[] encryptedBytes = cipher.doFinal(plainTextByte);
return encryptedBytes;
}
static byte[] decrypt(byte[] encryptedBytes, SecretKey klucz)
throws Exception {
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESede/ECB/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, klucz);
byte[] decryptedBytes = cipher.doFinal(encryptedBytes);
return decryptedBytes;
}
}
edit
btnEncrypt.setOnAction((ActionEvent event) -> {
try {
String plainText = textAreaToEncrypt.getText();
SecretKey klucz = Encryption.generateKey();
byte[] plainTextByte = plainText.getBytes();
byte[] encryptedBytes = Encryption.encrypt(plainTextByte, klucz);
String encryptedText = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(encryptedBytes);
textAreaEncryptedText.setText(encryptedText);
byte[] byteKey = klucz.getEncoded();
String stringKey = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(byteKey);
textAreaKey.setTextstringKey
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
});
btnDecrypt.setOnAction((ActionEvent event) -> {
try {
String stringKey = textAreaKey.getText();
byte[] decodedKey = Base64.getDecoder().decode(encodedKey);
SecretKey klucz2 = new SecretKeySpec(decodedKey, "DESede");
String encryptedText = textAreaEncryptedText.getText();
byte[] encryptedBytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(encryptedText.getBytes());
byte[] decryptedBytes = Encryption.decrypt(encryptedBytes, klucz2;
String decryptedText = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(decryptedBytes);
textAreaDecryptedText.setText(decryptedText);
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
});

One of your problems is here:
String encryptedText = new String(encryptedBytes, "UTF8");
Generally, many byte sequences in cipher text are not valid UTF-8–encoded characters. When you try to create a String, this malformed sequences will be replaced with the "replacement character", and then information from the the cipher text is irretrievably lost. When you convert the String back to bytes and try to decrypt it, the corrupt cipher text raises an error.
If you need to represent the cipher text as a character string, use base-64 encoding, just as you do for the key.
The other principal problem is that you are aren't specifying the full transformation. You should specify the "mode" and "padding" of the cipher explicitly, like "DESede/ECB/PKCS5Padding".
The correct mode will depend on your assignment. ECB is generally not secure, but more secure modes add a bit of complexity that may be outside the scope of your assignment. Study your instructions and clarify the requirements with your teacher if necessary.

There are two main issues:
You should not use user entered password as a key (there are difference between them). The key must have specific size depending on the cipher (16 or 24 bytes for 3des)
Direct 3DES (DESede) is a block cipher encrypting 8 bytes at once. To encrypt multiple blocks, there are some methods defined how to do that properly. It is calls Block cipher mode.
For proper encryption you need to take care of a few more things
Creating a key from the password
Let's assume you want to use DESede (3des). The key must have fixed size - 16 or 24 bytes. To properly generate a key from password you should use PBKDF. Some people are sensitive to "must use", however neglecting this step really compromises the encryption security mainly using user-entered passwords.
For 3DES you can use :
int keySize = 16*8;
int iterations = 800000;
char[] password = "password".toCharArray();
SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
byte[] salt = random.generateSeed(8);
SecretKeyFactory secKeyFactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA512");
KeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec(password, salt, iterations, keySize);
SecretKey pbeSecretKey = secKeyFactory.generateSecret(spec);
SecretKey desSecret = new SecretKeySpec(pbeSecretKey.getEncoded(), "DESede");
// iv needs to have block size
// we will use the salt for simplification
IvParameterSpec ivParam = new IvParameterSpec(salt);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESEde/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, desSecret, ivParam);
System.out.println("salt: "+Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(salt));
System.out.println(cipher.getIV().length+" iv: "+Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(cipher.getIV()));
byte[] ciphertext = cipher.doFinal("plaintext input".getBytes());
System.out.println("encrypted: "+Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(ciphertext));
if you can ensure that your password has good entropy (is long and random enough) you may be good with a simple hash
MessageDigest dgst = MessageDigest.getInstance("sha-1");
byte[] hash = dgst.digest("some long, complex and random password".getBytes());
byte[] keyBytes = new byte[keySize/8];
System.arraycopy(hash, 0, keyBytes, 0, keySize/8);
SecretKey desSecret = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "DESede");
The salt serves to randomize the output and should be used.
The output of the encryption should be salt | cipthertext | tag (not necessarily in this order, but you will need all of these for proper encryption).
To decrypt the output, you will need to split the output to salt, ciphertext and the tag.
I see zero vectors ( static salt or iv ) very often in examples from StackOverflow, but in many cases it may lead to broken ciphers revelaling key or plaintext.
The initialization vector iv is needed for block chain modes (encrypting longer input than a single block), we could use the salt from the key as well
when having the same size ( 8 bytes in our case). For really secure solution the password salt should be longer.
The tag is an authentication tag, to ensure that nobody has manipulated with the ciphertext. You could use HMAC of the plaintext or ciphertext. It is important you should use different key for HMAC than for encryption. However - I believe in your case your homework will be ok even without the hmac tag

Java SecretKeyFactory generated key is same as input password

I'm trying to generate a secret key using PBE but the secret key generated by the SecretKeyFactory is exactly the same as the input password. I've tried different algorithms, iteration counts etc. and it is still the same so I feel I'm missing a step here.
public SecretKey generateKey(String password, String salt) {
char[] passChars = password.toCharArray();
byte[] saltBytes = salt.getBytes();
SecretKeyFactory keyFactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBEWithHmacSHA256AndAES_128");
PBEKeySpec keySpec = new PBEKeySpec(passChars, saltBytes, 2048, 128);
SecretKey secretKey = keyFactory.generateSecret(keySpec);
byte[] encodedKey = secretKey.getEncoded();
System.out.println("key: " + new String(encodedKey));
return new SecretKeySpec(encodedKey, "AES");
}
EDIT: if I use the algorithm "PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1" then the key generated is different from the password, but how come the algorithm I'm using is generating a key that is exactly the same as the input password?

When you generate a SecretKey using the SecretKeyFactory PBEWithHmacSHA256AndAES_128 you will get an instance of com.sun.crypto.provider.PBEKey and this class has the "special feature" that it returns the original "key" (aka password) when calling getEncoded() and not the cryptographic key material. If I understand it correctly the key derivation will not be made by the KeyFactory but by the Cipher itself.
Therefore you should not try to convert the SecretKey instance into a SecretKeySpec instance; instead just use the generated SecretKey instance in the correct cipher instance:
Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance("PBEWithHmacSHA256AndAES_128");
c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretKey);

Using Jasypt for password based AES encryption with PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1 key

I'm implementing an encryption mechanism where I work, and the security guy's demands are as follows:
Create a 256 bit key using PBKDF2WithHmacSHA512, secret password, 256bit salt and 20000 iterations minimum.
Salt should be generated using SecureRandom.getInstance("SHA1PRNG");
Encrypt using AES256 with the derived key.
I'm trying to use Jasypt's StandardPBEStringEncryptor class
encryptor.setPassword(PASSWORD);
encryptor.setAlgorithm("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
encryptor.setKeyObtentionIterations(20000);
encryptor.setSaltGenerator(new RandomSaltGenerator());
encryptor.encrypt("something");
When I do this I get the following exception:
java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException: AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding SecretKeyFactory not available
Am I using Jasypt incorrectly? What am I missing here?
Thanks

I ended up contacting Daniel Fernández who is Jasypt's lead programmer and his answer:
I’m afraid Jasypt does not offer a way to specify different algorithms for the SecretKeyFactory and the instantiation of the Cipher itself. Sorry.
I used this bit of java code for doing this (Without Jasypt):
public String encrypt(final String message) {
final byte[] salt = generateSalt();
final Key key = createKey(salt);
final Cipher encryptingCipher = createCipher(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key, salt);
final byte[] messageBytes = message.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
final byte[] encryptedBytes = doFinal(encryptingCipher, messageBytes);
final byte[] data = ArrayUtils.addAll(salt, encryptedBytes);
return BaseEncoding.base64().encode(data);
}
private byte[] generateSalt() {
final SecureRandom secureRandom = new SecureRandom();
final byte[] salt = new byte[SALT_LENGTH];
secureRandom.nextBytes(salt);
return salt;
}
private Key createKey(final byte[] salt) {
final PBEKeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec(PASSWORD,
salt,
ITERATIONS,
KEY_LENGTH);
final SecretKey secretKey;
try {
secretKey = keyFactory.generateSecret(spec);
} catch (final InvalidKeySpecException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Error creating SecretKey", e);
}
final SecretKeySpec result = new SecretKeySpec(secretKey.getEncoded(), ALGORITHM);
spec.clearPassword();
return result;
}

Java AES encryption/decryption procedure and usage of Initialization Vector

I want to learn the basics of AES encryption so I started to make a very simple Java program. The program loads a text file in to a String and asks for a key from the user. The program then uses AES to encrypt the text creating a new text file with the encrypted text. The program prints the Initialization Vector (IV) to the user.
The program also has the decryption function. The user specifies the encrypted text file along with the Initialization Vector and the key to decrypt it back to the original text in a new text file.
However I think I'm doing something wrong. Is it normal procedure in AES encryption that the user needs to have both key and IV to decrypt the file? I have browsed through the internet and almost in every example, the encrypted data can be decrypted by the user specifying only the key but in my case the user needs to have both the key and the IV. The program is working fine but I think it isn't efficient.
So should I use a constant, known IV which is used in all the encryptions and decryptions or what? Also some tutorials are using "salt", what is it and should I use it?
Here are my encrypt and decrypt methods:
public String encrypt(String stringToEncrypt, String userKey)
throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException,
InvalidKeyException, IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {
// User gives string key which is formatted to 16 byte and to a secret
// key
byte[] key = userKey.getBytes();
MessageDigest sha = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1");
key = sha.digest(key);
key = Arrays.copyOf(key, 16);
SecretKeySpec secretKey = new SecretKeySpec(key, "AES");
// Cipher initialization
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5PADDING");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
// Encryption and encoding
String encryptedData = new BASE64Encoder().encode(cipher
.doFinal(stringToEncrypt.getBytes()));
// IV is printed to user
System.out.println("\nENCRYPTION IV: \n"
+ new BASE64Encoder().encode(cipher.getIV()) + "\n");
// Function returns encrypted string which can be writed to text file
return encryptedData;
}
public String decrypt(String stringToDecrypt, String userKey, String userIv)
throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, IOException,
NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException,
InvalidAlgorithmParameterException, IllegalBlockSizeException,
BadPaddingException {
// User gives the same string key which was used for encryption
byte[] key = userKey.getBytes();
MessageDigest sha = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1");
key = sha.digest(key);
key = Arrays.copyOf(key, 16);
SecretKeySpec secretKey = new SecretKeySpec(key, "AES");
// Decode string iv to byte
byte[] iv = new BASE64Decoder().decodeBuffer(userIv);
// Cipher initialization
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5PADDING");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, secretKey, new IvParameterSpec(iv));
// Decryption and decoding
String decryptedData = new String(cipher.doFinal(new BASE64Decoder()
.decodeBuffer(stringToDecrypt)));
// Function returns decrypted string which can be writed to text file
return decryptedData;
}
UPDATE
I updated my code now to use "PBKDF2WithHmacSHA256" algorithm with salt and etc. I also combined the Initialization Vector (IV) byte array to the cipher text byte array as prefix so I can split them in decrypt method and get the IV there (That's working fine).
However there's now an issue with the key, because I'm generating new encrypted key also in decryption method which of course is a wrong key for encrypted data. I want to be able to close the program so I can't store the key as a class variable. It's very hard to explain the issue but I hope you understand the problem...
public static byte[] getEncryptedPassword(String password, byte[] salt,
int iterations, int derivedKeyLength)
throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException {
KeySpec mKeySpec = new PBEKeySpec(password.toCharArray(), salt,
iterations, derivedKeyLength);
SecretKeyFactory mSecretKeyFactory = SecretKeyFactory
.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA256");
return mSecretKeyFactory.generateSecret(mKeySpec).getEncoded();
}
public String encrypt(String dataToEncrypt, String key) throws InvalidKeyException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidParameterSpecException, IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException, InvalidKeySpecException {
byte[] mEncryptedPassword = getEncryptedPassword(key, generateSalt(),
16384, 128);
SecretKeySpec mSecretKeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(mEncryptedPassword, "AES");
Cipher mCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
mCipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, mSecretKeySpec);
byte[] ivBytes = mCipher.getIV();
byte[] encryptedTextBytes = mCipher.doFinal(dataToEncrypt.getBytes());
byte[] combined = new byte[ivBytes.length+encryptedTextBytes.length];
System.arraycopy(ivBytes, 0, combined, 0, ivBytes.length);
System.arraycopy(encryptedTextBytes, 0, combined, ivBytes.length, encryptedTextBytes.length);
return Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(combined);
}
public String decrypt(String dataToDecrypt, String key) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException, InvalidKeySpecException, IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException, InvalidAlgorithmParameterException {
byte[] encryptedCombinedBytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(dataToDecrypt);
byte[] mEncryptedPassword = getEncryptedPassword(key, generateSalt(),
16384, 128);
byte[] ivbytes = Arrays.copyOfRange(encryptedCombinedBytes,0,16);
SecretKeySpec mSecretKeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(mEncryptedPassword, "AES");
Cipher mCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
mCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, mSecretKeySpec, new IvParameterSpec(ivbytes));
byte[] encryptedTextBytes = Arrays.copyOfRange(encryptedCombinedBytes, 16, encryptedCombinedBytes.length);
System.out.println(encryptedTextBytes.length);
byte[] decryptedTextBytes = mCipher.doFinal(encryptedTextBytes);
return Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(decryptedTextBytes);
}
public byte[] generateSalt() {
SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
byte saltBytes[] = new byte[16];
random.nextBytes(saltBytes);
return saltBytes;
}}
I hope somebody knows how to make this better. Thanks!

Just save the IV in the file before the encrypted data.
You should never use the same IV more than once (it's ok-ish, if you roll a new IV every time, and it just so happens that you roll the same twice, so you don't have to store and check that). Using the same IV many times poses a great security risk, as encrypting the same content twice reveals that it's - in fact - the same content.
Storing IV alongside the encrypted data is a common, and secure procedure, as it's role is to introduce "randomness" to the encryption scheme, and it shouldn't be secret, just securely (and in some schemes randomly) generated.