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AES-256-CTR Encryption in node JS and decryption in Java

I am trying to encode in nodejs and decryption for the same in nodejs works well. But when I try to do the decryption in Java using the same IV and secret, it doesn't behave as expected.
Here is the code snippet:
Encryption in nodeJs:
var crypto = require('crypto'),
algorithm = 'aes-256-ctr',
_ = require('lodash'),
secret = 'd6F3231q7d1942874322a#123nab#392';
function encrypt(text, secret) {
var iv = crypto.randomBytes(16);
console.log(iv);
var cipher = crypto.createCipheriv(algorithm, new Buffer(secret),
iv);
var encrypted = cipher.update(text);
encrypted = Buffer.concat([encrypted, cipher.final()]);
return iv.toString('hex') + ':' + encrypted.toString('hex');
}
var encrypted = encrypt("8123497494", secret);
console.log(encrypted);
And the output is:
<Buffer 94 fa a4 f4 a1 3c bf f6 d7 90 18 3f 3b db 3f b9>
94faa4f4a13cbff6d790183f3bdb3fb9:fae8b07a135e084eb91e
Code Snippet for decryption in JAVA:
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
String s =
"94faa4f4a13cbff6d790183f3bdb3fb9:fae8b07a135e084eb91e";
String seed = "d6F3231q7d1942874322a#123nab#392";
decrypt(s, seed);
}
private static void decrypt(String s, String seed)
throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, UnsupportedEncodingException, InvalidKeyException,
InvalidAlgorithmParameterException, IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {
String parts[] = s.split(":");
String ivString = parts[0];
String encodedString = parts[1];
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CTR/NoPadding");
byte[] secretBytes = seed.getBytes("UTF-8");
IvParameterSpec ivSpec = new IvParameterSpec(hexStringToByteArray(ivString));
/*Removed after the accepted answer
MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5");
byte[] thedigest = md.digest(secretBytes);*/
SecretKeySpec skey = new SecretKeySpec(thedigest, "AES");
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, skey, ivSpec);
byte[] output = cipher.doFinal(hexStringToByteArray(encodedString));
System.out.println(new String(output));
}
}
Output: �s˸8ƍ�
I am getting some junk value in the response. Tried a lot of options, but none of them seem to be working. Any lead/help is appreciated.

In your JS code, you're using the 32-character string d6F3231q7d19428743234#123nab#234 directly as the AES key, with each ASCII character directly mapped to a single key byte.
In the Java code, you're instead first hashing the same string with MD5, and then using the MD5 output as the AES key. It's no wonder that they won't match.
What you probably should be doing, in both cases, is either:
randomly generating a string of 32 bytes (most of which won't be printable ASCII characters) and using it as the key; or
using a key derivation function (KDF) to take an arbitrary input string and turn it into a pseudorandom AES key.
In the latter case, if the input string is likely to have less than 256 bits of entropy (e.g. if it's a user-chosen password, most of which only have a few dozen bits of entropy at best), then you should make sure to use a KDF that implements key stretching to slow down brute force guessing attacks.
Ps. To address the comments below, MD5 outputs a 16-byte digest, which will yield an AES-128 key when used as an AES SecretKeySpec. To use AES-256 in Java, you will need to provide a 32-byte key. If trying to use a 32-byte AES key in Java throws an InvalidKeyException, you are probably using an old version of Java with a limited crypto policy that does not allow encryption keys longer than 128 bits. As described this answer to the linked question, you will either need to upgrade to Java 8 update 161 or later, or obtain and install an unlimited crypto policy file for your Java version.

In the Java code you are taking the MD5 hash of secret before using it as a key:
MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5");
byte[] thedigest = md.digest(secretBytes);
SecretKeySpec skey = new SecretKeySpec(thedigest, "AES");
Whereas, in your NodeJS code, you don't do this anywhere. So you're using two different keys when encrypting and decrypting.
Don't copy and paste code without understanding it. Especially crypto code.

Faced with the same task (but with 128, it easy to adapt for 256), here is working Java/NodeJs code with comments.
It's additionally wrapped to Base64 to readability, but it's easy to remove if you would like.
Java side (encrypt/decrypt) :
import java.lang.Math; // headers MUST be above the first class
import java.util.Base64;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
import javax.crypto.spec.IvParameterSpec;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
// one class needs to have a main() method
public class MyClass
{
private static void log(String s)
{
System.out.print("\r\n"+s);
}
public static SecureRandom IVGenerator() {
return new SecureRandom();
}
// arguments are passed using the text field below this editor
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String valueToEncrypt = "hello, stackoverflow!";
String key = "3e$C!F)H#McQfTjK";
String encrypted = "";
String decrypted = "";
//ENCODE part
SecureRandom IVGenerator = IVGenerator();
byte[] encryptionKeyRaw = key.getBytes();
//aes-128=16bit IV block size
int ivLength=16;
byte[] iv = new byte[ivLength];
//generate random vector
IVGenerator.nextBytes(iv);
try {
Cipher encryptionCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CTR/NoPadding");
encryptionCipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, new SecretKeySpec(encryptionKeyRaw, "AES"), new IvParameterSpec(iv));
//encrypt
byte[] cipherText = encryptionCipher.doFinal(valueToEncrypt.getBytes());
ByteBuffer byteBuffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(ivLength + cipherText.length);
//storing IV in first part of whole message
byteBuffer.put(iv);
//store encrypted bytes
byteBuffer.put(cipherText);
//concat it to result message
byte[] cipherMessage = byteBuffer.array();
//and encrypt to base64 to get readable value
encrypted = new String(Base64.getEncoder().encode(cipherMessage));
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new IllegalStateException(e);
}
//END OF ENCODE CODE
log("encrypted and saved as Base64 : "+encrypted);
///DECRYPT CODE :
try {
//decoding from base64
byte[] cipherMessageArr = Base64.getDecoder().decode(encrypted);
//retrieving IV from message
iv = Arrays.copyOfRange(cipherMessageArr, 0, ivLength);
//retrieving encrypted value from end of message
byte[] cipherText = Arrays.copyOfRange(cipherMessageArr, ivLength, cipherMessageArr.length);
Cipher decryptionCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CTR/NoPadding");
IvParameterSpec ivSpec = new IvParameterSpec(iv);
SecretKeySpec secretKeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(encryptionKeyRaw, "AES");
decryptionCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE,secretKeySpec , ivSpec);
//decrypt
byte[] finalCipherText = decryptionCipher.doFinal(cipherText);
//converting to string
String finalDecryptedValue = new String(finalCipherText);
decrypted = finalDecryptedValue;
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new IllegalStateException(e);
}
log("decrypted from Base64->aes128 : "+decrypted);
//END OF DECRYPT CODE
}
}
It could be easy be tested by online java compilers (this example prepared on https://www.jdoodle.com/online-java-compiler).
NodeJs decrypt side :
const crypto = require('crypto');
const ivLength = 16;
const algorithm = 'aes-128-ctr';
const encrypt = (value, key) => {
//not implemented, but it could be done easy if you will see to decrypt
return value;
};
function decrypt(value, key) {
//from base64 to byteArray
let decodedAsBase64Value = Buffer.from(value, 'base64');
let decodedAsBase64Key = Buffer.from(key);
//get IV from message
let ivArr = decodedAsBase64Value.slice(0, ivLength);
//get crypted message from second part of message
let cipherTextArr = decodedAsBase64Value.slice(ivLength, decodedAsBase64Value.length);
let cipher = crypto.createDecipheriv(algorithm, decodedAsBase64Key, ivArr);
//decrypted value
let decrypted = cipher.update(cipherTextArr, 'binary', 'utf8');
decrypted += cipher.final('utf8');
return decrypted;
}

Encrypting Java then Decrypting C# AES256 Encryption with HMACSHA256, Padding is invalid

I'm currently running into an issue where our decryption portion of our C# site is having trouble with the padding with the encrypted string from java. The .Net code throws this error "Padding is invalid and cannot be removed". The _signKey and _encKey are both 64 bytes.
public String encryptString(String plainText) {
byte[] ciphertext;
byte[] iv = new byte[16];
byte[] plainBytes = plainText.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
String _signKey = "****************************************************************";
String _encKey = "****************************************************************";
try {
Mac sha256 = Mac.getInstance("HmacSHA256");
SecretKeySpec shaKS = new SecretKeySpec(_signKey.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8), "HmacSHA256");
sha256.init(shaKS);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
SecureRandom randomSecureRandom = SecureRandom.getInstance("SHA1PRNG");
iv = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
randomSecureRandom.nextBytes(iv);
IvParameterSpec ivParams = new IvParameterSpec(iv);
byte[] sessionKey = sha256.doFinal((_encKey + iv).getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
// Perform Encryption
SecretKeySpec eks = new SecretKeySpec(sessionKey, "AES");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, eks, ivParams);
ciphertext = cipher.doFinal(plainBytes);
System.out.println("ciphertext= " + new String(ciphertext));
// Perform HMAC using SHA-256 on ciphertext
SecretKeySpec hks = new SecretKeySpec(_signKey.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8), "HmacSHA256");
Mac mac = Mac.getInstance("HmacSHA256");
mac.init(hks);
ByteArrayOutputStream outputStream2 = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
outputStream2.write(iv);
outputStream2.write(ciphertext);
outputStream2.flush();
outputStream2.write(mac.doFinal(outputStream2.toByteArray()));
return Base64.encodeBase64String(outputStream2.toByteArray());
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return plainText;
}
Does does encrypt the string properly as far as I can tell. We cannot change any code on the .Net side to decrypt this because this is being used today.
public static string DecryptString(string ciphertext)
{
using (HMACSHA256 sha256 = new HMACSHA256(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_signKey)))
{
// Convert message to bytes
byte[] encBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(ciphertext);
// Get arrays for comparing HMAC tags
byte[] sentTag = new byte[sha256.HashSize / 8];
byte[] calcTag = sha256.ComputeHash(encBytes, 0, (encBytes.Length - sentTag.Length));
// If message length is too small return null
if (encBytes.Length < sentTag.Length + _ivLength) { return null; }
// Copy tag from end of encrypted message
Array.Copy(encBytes, (encBytes.Length - sentTag.Length), sentTag, 0, sentTag.Length);
// Compare tags with constant time comparison, return null if no match
int compare = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < sentTag.Length; i++) { compare |= sentTag[i] ^ calcTag[i]; }
if (compare != 0) { return null; }
using (AesCryptoServiceProvider csp = new AesCryptoServiceProvider())
{
// Set parameters
csp.BlockSize = _blockBits;
csp.KeySize = _keyBits;
csp.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
csp.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
// Copy init vector from message
var iv = new byte[_ivLength];
Array.Copy(encBytes, 0, iv, 0, iv.Length);
// Derive session key
byte[] sessionKey = sha256.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_encKey + iv));
// Decrypt message
using (ICryptoTransform decrypt = csp.CreateDecryptor(sessionKey, iv))
{
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decrypt.TransformFinalBlock(encBytes, iv.Length, encBytes.Length - iv.Length - sentTag.Length));
}
}
}
}
If there is anything that sticks out it would be appreciated for the reply.

I didn't read all your code, but this line in Java:
byte[] sessionKey = sha256.doFinal((_encKey + iv).getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
does nothing useful or sensible. The "+" operator does string concatenation, but iv is a byte[], not a String. So java uses iv.toString(), which simply returns a String containing something like [B#1188e820 which is meaningless in this context.

Refer four java code and DotNet code:
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding"); //Java
csp.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7; //.Net
You are essentially using different padding, that is the probable source of error; however, there is an alternate view, Refer this great post and this for general fundamentals on padding
The cipher suites supported by deafult Oracle JVM implementation are here
If you notice it does not have 'AES/CBC/PKCS7Padding', a PKCS#7 padding implementation is available in sun.security package, refer this, otherwise you could use Bouncy Castle packages. It would be recommendable to use Bouncy Castle as com.sun package are generally considered unsupported.

Encryption in java, decryption in PHP and vice versa

PHP code:
<?php
class Crypter {
private $Key;
private $Algo;
private $Mode;
private $Iv;
public function __construct() {
$this->Algo = MCRYPT_BLOWFISH;
$this->Mode = MCRYPT_MODE_CBC;
$this->Key = substr('7890', 0, mcrypt_get_key_size($this->Algo, $this->Mode));
}
public function Encrypt($data) {
$iv_size = mcrypt_get_iv_size($this->Algo, $this->Mode);
$iv = mcrypt_create_iv($iv_size, MCRYPT_RAND);
$this->Iv = $iv;
$blocksize = mcrypt_get_block_size('blowfish', 'cbc'); // get block size
$pkcs = $blocksize - (strlen($data) % $blocksize); // get pkcs5 pad length
$data.= str_repeat(chr($pkcs), $pkcs); // append pkcs5 padding to the data
$crypt = mcrypt_encrypt($this->Algo, $this->Key, $data, $this->Mode, $this->Iv);
return base64_encode($crypt);
}
public function Decrypt($data) {
$crypt = base64_decode($data);
$decrypt = mcrypt_decrypt($this->Algo, $this->Key, $crypt, $this->Mode, $this->Iv);
$block = mcrypt_get_block_size('blowfish', 'cbc');
$pad = ord($decrypt[($len = strlen($decrypt)) - 1]);
return substr($decrypt, 0, strlen($decrypt) - $pad);
}
}
?>
JAVA code:
package blowfishcbc;
import java.security.MessageDigest;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.spec.IvParameterSpec;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
import sun.misc.BASE64Decoder;
import sun.misc.BASE64Encoder;
public class BlowfishCBC {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
String keyString = "7890";
String input = "some data";
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("Blowfish/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
// for IV
byte[] iv = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
new SecureRandom().nextBytes(iv);
IvParameterSpec ivSpec = new IvParameterSpec(iv);
// for key
byte[] keyData = (keyString).getBytes();
SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(keyData, "Blowfish");
// encrypt
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, keySpec, ivSpec);
byte[] encrypted = cipher.doFinal(input.getBytes("UTF-8"));
String enc = new BASE64Encoder().encode(encrypted);
System.out.println("encrypted: " + new String(enc));
// decrypt
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, keySpec, ivSpec);
byte[] dec = new BASE64Decoder().decodeBuffer(enc);
byte[] decrypted = cipher.doFinal(dec);
System.out.println("decrypted: " + new String(decrypted, "UTF-8"));
}
}
I have a scenario where encoding and decoding will be in between two systems like JAVA and PHP. Now the above classes are both examples of PHP and JAVA respectively.
First of all if I use Blowfish algorithm in CBC mode I have to provide a parameter IV (initialization vector). Which is generated randomly and length is equal to the block size. And the block size depends on the encryption mode and algorithm which are being used. Now if I want to decode some data in PHP which was encoded in JAVA then first of all the encryption key must be same as well as the IV (initialization vector).
Now in the java code the IV is generated randomly and if I pass that same IV in the PHP code along with the encoded string (encoded in java) then I get an error in the PHP system that the IV size must be same as the block size.
Now,
for PHP
$iv_size = mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_BLOWFISH, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC);
and for JAVA
cipher.getBlockSize();
Both gives the size is 8. But when I pass the IV generated in JAVA to PHP it gives the error of Message: mcrypt_encrypt(): The IV parameter must be as long as the blocksize Now how can I solve this problem.
So far I understand the IV generation process in both system must be same. To be specific the IV length must be same. A little help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Encryption - Decryption with AES/BlowFish/DESede and Enum

First of all I wanna say thank you...
I wrote a program which one is doing encryption and decryption with Enum.
Enum has AES,BlowFish,DESede. My program will support these 3 encryption algorithm.
Then I wanted to Generate a SecretKey with SecretKeyFactory.But I think,I made a mistake to generate a key. (Obviously I loose myself in code.I have no idea about what can I do...)
My Code is below. This program's purpose is;
Users will write encryption and decryption method parameters. (Text,Encryption Algorithm)
Algorithm type will choose in Enum type. (Enum has 3 algorithm format)
According to the entered Encryption Type,program will encrypt entered text.
I know my code is really terrible. It has lots of unnecessary declaration and logical mistakes.
Code is working fine sometimes,sometimes will crash.
EDIT = Question is my code doesnt work always. Sometimes gives error. Error is = javax.crypto.BadPaddingException: Given final block not properly padded
Thank you for answering.
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import java.security.spec.KeySpec;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
import javax.crypto.SecretKeyFactory;
import javax.crypto.spec.PBEKeySpec;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
public class SymetricAlgorithms {
private static enum algorithms { //Enum declaration 3 encryption types here
AES, BlowFish, DESede;
}
private static String data = "HOWCANISOLVETHIS"; //this will be encrypt and decrypt
public static void main(String[] args) throws Throwable {
SecretKey kgen = GenerateKey(); // Create a key.
String encrypText = encrypt(kgen, data, algorithms.AES); //encrypt method calling here.
String decrypText = dencypt(kgen, encrypText, algorithms.AES);//decrypt method calling here.
System.out.println("plaintext = " + data + " key = " + kgen
+ "\nEncryptedText = " + encrypText
+ "\nDecryptedText = " + decrypText);
}
public static String dencypt(SecretKey inKey, String text, algorithms eValue)throws Throwable {//decryption
try {
byte[] text2 = text.getBytes(); //convert from parameters TEXT to Bytes
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES"); //Cipher initialize and choose encryption method (AES)
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, inKey); //cipher process
byte plainTextByte[] = new byte[20]; //Creating byte array
plainTextByte =cipher.doFinal(text2);//using byte array to assign ciphers result
System.out.println(plainTextByte);
return new String(plainTextByte);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Data Cant Decrypted !");
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
public static String encrypt(SecretKey inKey, String text, algorithms eValue)
throws Throwable {
try {
Cipher cipher = null; //cipher declaration
switch (eValue) {//Enum. 3 types here and control structure for Users choosing encryption type is acceptable
case AES:cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
break;
case BlowFish:Cipher cipher2 = Cipher.getInstance("BlowFish");
cipher = cipher2;
break;
case DESede:Cipher cipher3 = Cipher.getInstance("DESede");
cipher=cipher3;
break;
default:
System.out.println("Unexpectable value input.");
break;
}
System.out.println(inKey);
//Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, inKey);
byte[] ciphertext = cipher.doFinal(text.getBytes("UTF-8"));//cipher result is assign to byte array
System.out.println(ciphertext);
return new String(ciphertext);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Unexpectable algorithm type !");
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
public static SecretKey GenerateKey() throws Throwable {//Generate a key for using crypt
//could sb explain these? =D I loose myself. I combined codes from finding internet...Failed...
try {
SecretKeyFactory factory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1");
SecureRandom prng = SecureRandom.getInstance("SHA1PRNG");
byte bytes[] = new byte[20];
prng.nextBytes(bytes);
String passwordTemp = prng.toString();
String saltTemp = passwordTemp;
char[] password = passwordTemp.toCharArray();
byte[] salt = saltTemp.getBytes();
KeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec(password, salt, 65536, 128);
SecretKey tmp = factory.generateSecret(spec);
SecretKey secret = new SecretKeySpec(tmp.getEncoded(), "AES");
return secret;
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Key cant be generated !");
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
}

The theme of the problem is misunderstanding of the relationship between Strings and bytes. At the end of the encrypt method, what do you think these two lines do:
byte[] ciphertext = cipher.doFinal(...
return new String(ciphertext);
The last line takes the encrypted bytes, which could be almost anything, and attempts to interpret those bytes as encoding some characters of a string. Using what encoding? String constructor with no character encoding argument uses system default encoding, which depends on JVM/OS/Locale. Lets say it is UTF-8. Are you guaranteed that there will actually be some character for the encrypted bytes? Answer: NO. Will you get the same bytes back, when you take the resulting string and call .getBytes("UTF-8"). Answer: No, there are mutliple byte sequences encoding the same characters, thus new String(bytes, "UTF-8").getBytes("UTF-8") is not guaranteed to return the bytes you started with.
In summary, don't attempt to interpret arbitrary bytes as a string. Make your encrypt method return byte[], and your decryp method take an array of bytes to decode-- then it will work.
It is not necessary to make your program work, but if you must represent the encrypted bytes as a string, consider base64 encoding, or hexadecimal encoding -- these encodings uniquely map every possible byte (or sequence of bytes) to a string.
UPDATE: here is a more concise generateKey() method. It allows you to pass the password in as an argument.
public static SecretKey generateKey(String password) {
try {
SecureRandom secureRandom = SecureRandom.getInstance("SHA1PRNG");
byte saltBytes[] = new byte[20];
secureRandom.nextBytes(saltBytes);
KeySpec spec = new PBEKeySpec(password.toCharArray(), saltBytes, 65536, 128);
SecretKeyFactory factory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1");
SecretKey secretKey = factory.generateSecret(spec);
return new SecretKeySpec(secretKey.getEncoded(), "AES");
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new IllegalStateException("Key cant be generated !");
}
}

Cryptography in Java

I'm making an app that encrypts some files. I want to use gnu's cryptix library. It says it is no longer developed since 2005, but I guess it has everything I need... should I use something else?
And I have a question about encrypting a single file. Right now I do it with a loop like this:
for(int i=0; i+block_size < bdata.length; i += block_size)
cipher.encryptBlock(bdata, i, cdata, i);
So my question is how to encrypt the last block that may not have the same size as the block_size. I was thinking maybe a should add some extra data to the last block, but than I don't know how to decrypt that...

I would strongly suggest using AES encryption and it too comes with the JAVA SDK. Have a look at: Using AES with Java Technology which will give you some great example. To read up more on AES see: Advanced Encryption Standard - Wikipedia.
Never use your own encryption scheme or an older form of an encryption scheme. AES has been tried and tested by people with far greater knowledge in that field then us, so you know it will work. Where as with your own or an old encryption scheme we might miss a fatal loop hole that will leave our data open to attacks.
See this question here to see the difference in the encryption schemes: Comparison of DES, Triple DES, AES, blowfish encryption for data
Addendum:
AES in java will work flawlessly for 192 and 256bit keys but you will have to install the newer JCE Policy Files. See here and here. You should also place the files in your JDK or else it wont work when executed from your IDE.
Note: Make sure you download the correct JCE policy files, depending on your Java version i.e 1.4, 1.5 1.6 or 7.
However if you use 128bit keys no need to install the newer JCE files.
Here is a template of some secure AES usage in java it use CBC/AES/PKCS5Padding and a random IV using RandomSecure.
Note you need both the key and IV for decrypting:
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException;
import java.security.InvalidKeyException;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import javax.crypto.*;
import javax.crypto.spec.IvParameterSpec;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
/**
* This program generates a AES key, retrieves its raw bytes, and then
* reinstantiates a AES key from the key bytes. The reinstantiated key is used
* to initialize a AES cipher for encryption and decryption.
*/
public class AES {
/**
* Encrypt a sample message using AES in CBC mode with a random IV genrated
* using SecyreRandom.
*
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
String message = "This string contains a secret message.";
System.out.println("Plaintext: " + message + "\n");
// generate a key
KeyGenerator keygen = KeyGenerator.getInstance("AES");
keygen.init(128); // To use 256 bit keys, you need the "unlimited strength" encryption policy files from Sun.
byte[] key = keygen.generateKey().getEncoded();
SecretKeySpec skeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(key, "AES");
// build the initialization vector (randomly).
SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
byte iv[] = new byte[16];//generate random 16 byte IV AES is always 16bytes
random.nextBytes(iv);
IvParameterSpec ivspec = new IvParameterSpec(iv);
// initialize the cipher for encrypt mode
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, skeySpec, ivspec);
System.out.println("Key: " + new String(key, "utf-8") + " This is important when decrypting");
System.out.println("IV: " + new String(iv, "utf-8") + " This is important when decrypting");
System.out.println();
// encrypt the message
byte[] encrypted = cipher.doFinal(message.getBytes());
System.out.println("Ciphertext: " + asHex(encrypted) + "\n");
// reinitialize the cipher for decryption
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, skeySpec, ivspec);
// decrypt the message
byte[] decrypted = cipher.doFinal(encrypted);
System.out.println("Plaintext: " + new String(decrypted) + "\n");
} catch (IllegalBlockSizeException | BadPaddingException | UnsupportedEncodingException | InvalidKeyException | InvalidAlgorithmParameterException | NoSuchPaddingException | NoSuchAlgorithmException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* Turns array of bytes into string
*
* #param buf Array of bytes to convert to hex string
* #return Generated hex string
*/
public static String asHex(byte buf[]) {
StringBuilder strbuf = new StringBuilder(buf.length * 2);
int i;
for (i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
if (((int) buf[i] & 0xff) < 0x10) {
strbuf.append("0");
}
strbuf.append(Long.toString((int) buf[i] & 0xff, 16));
}
return strbuf.toString();
}
}

I always use BouncyCastle
I also use the streaming framework instead of the for loop you were describing: it deals with the issue raised. Mostly I use that because when it comes to cryptography (and threading) I rarely trust my own code, I trust the people that live eat and breath it. Here is the code I use when I want "gash" cryptography. i.e. I have no particular threat model, and just want something "a little secure".
The hex encoding of the keys makes them much easier to manipulate / store and so on. I use "makeKey" to ... well ... make a key, then I can use the key in the encrypt and decrypt methods. You can obviously go back to using byte[] instead of hex strings for the keys.
private static boolean initialised;
private static void init() {
if (initialised)
return;
Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
initialised = true;
}
public static String makeKey() {
init();
KeyGenerator generator = KeyGenerator.getInstance(algorithm, provider);
generator.init(keySize);
Key key = generator.generateKey();
byte[] encoded = key.getEncoded();
return Strings.toHex(encoded);
}
public static String aesDecrypt(String hexKey, String hexCoded) {
init();
SecretKeySpec key = new SecretKeySpec(Strings.fromHex(hexKey), algorithm);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance(algorithm + "/ECB/PKCS5Padding", provider);
cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key);
byte[] codedBytes = Strings.fromHex(hexCoded);
CipherInputStream inputStream = new CipherInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream(codedBytes), cipher);
byte[] bytes = getBytes(inputStream, 256);
String result = new String(bytes, "UTF-8");
return result;
}
public static String aesEncrypt(String hexKey, String input) {
init();
SecretKeySpec key = new SecretKeySpec(Strings.fromHex(hexKey), algorithm);
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/ECB/PKCS5Padding", "BC");
cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key);
ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream(input.length());
CipherOutputStream outputStream = new CipherOutputStream(byteArrayOutputStream, cipher);
setText(outputStream, input);
byte[] outputBytes = byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray();
String output = new String(Strings.toHex(outputBytes));
return output;
}
public static void setText(OutputStream outputStream, String text, String encoding) {
try {
outputStream.write(text.getBytes(encoding));
outputStream.flush();
} finally {
outputStream.close();
}
}
public static byte[] getBytes(InputStream inputStream, int bufferSize) {
try {
List<ByteArrayAndLength> list = Lists.newList();
while (true) {
byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
int count = inputStream.read(buffer);
if (count == -1) {
byte[] result = new byte[ByteArrayAndLength.length(list)];
int index = 0;
for (ByteArrayAndLength byteArrayAndLength : list) {
System.arraycopy(byteArrayAndLength.bytes, 0, result, index, byteArrayAndLength.length);
index += byteArrayAndLength.length;
}
assert index == result.length;
return result;
}
list.add(new ByteArrayAndLength(buffer, count));
}
} finally {
inputStream.close();
}
}
static class ByteArrayAndLength {
byte[] bytes;
int length;
public ByteArrayAndLength(byte[] bytes, int length) {
super();
this.bytes = bytes;
this.length = length;
}
static int length(List<ByteArrayAndLength> list) {
int result = 0;
for (ByteArrayAndLength byteArrayAndLength : list) {
result += byteArrayAndLength.length;
}
return result;
}
}
I've taken out some of the exception catching to reduce the size of the code, and Strings.fromHex turns the string back into a byte[]

Maybe you should consider using a javax.crypto package.
Here is an example of how to use Ciphers:
DES encryption
Hope this helps

I would seriously think twice before going this route. The development of the software was halted because standard alternatives exist, and have a look at the mailing list, there's been no significant activity since 2009. In my book that means that the software is abandoned, and abandoned software means you're more or less on your own.
Have a look here on SO, there are several questions and answers that may help you like this one. An at first sight interesting package that could simplify things for you (but still using the standard JCE infrastructure) is jasypt