This section provides a quick introduction of the secret key generation class, javax.crypto.KeyGenerator.
To generate secret keys, I need to learn the javax.crypto.KeyGenerator class.
javax.crypto.KeyGenerator is an abstract class providing a link to
implementation classes of secret key generration algorithms
provided by various security package providers.
Major methods in the KeyGenerator class:
getInstance() - Returns a KeyGenerator object of the specified algorithm from
the implementation of the specified provider. If provider is not specified,
the default implementation is used. This is a static method.
init() - Initializes this key generator with the specified key size.
generateKey() - Generates a key and returns it as a SecretKey object.
getAlgorithm() - Returns the algorithm name of this generator.
getProvider() - Returns the provider as a Provider object of this generator.
Steps of generating a secret key of a given algorithm are:
KeyGenerator kg = KeyGenerator.getInstance(algorithm);
kg.init(keySize);
SecretKey ky = kg.generateKey();
See next sections for a sample program on how to use the KeyGenerator class.
