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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