javax.crypto.SecretKey - The Secret Key Interface

This section provides a quick introduction of secret key and symmetric encryption algorithm. The secret key interface, javax.crypto.SecretKey, is also described.

What is a Secret Key? A secrete key is the key used in a symmetric encryption algorithm, where the same key is used both the encryption process and the decryption process.

Known symmetric encryption algorithms:

The secret key concept is supported in JDK through the JCE (Java Cryptography Extension) package. The first thing I want to learn in JCE is the javax.crypto.SecretKey interface.

javax.crypto.SecretKey is an interface providing a grouping point for various secret keys. It extents java.security.Key, and inherits 3 methods:

getAlgorithm() - Returns the algorithm name used to generate the key.

getEncoded() - Returns the key as a byte array in its primary encoding format.

getFormat() - Returns the name of the primary encoding format of this key.

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javax.crypto.SecretKey - The Secret Key Interface

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