Generating Private Keys

Cryptography Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Generating Private Keys

This section provides a tutorial example on how to use the 'keytool -genkey' command to generate a pair of private key and public key. This command also generates a self-signed certificate from the key pair.

The "keytool -genkey" command can be used to generate a pair of private key and public key. It can also be used to generate a self-signed certificate from the key pair.

In the first example, I want to try the "-genkey" command option:

herong> keytool -genkey -alias my_home -keystore herong.jks
Enter keystore password:  HerongJKS
What is your first and last name?
  [Unknown]:  Herong Yang
What is the name of your organizational unit?
  [Unknown]:  My Unit
What is the name of your organization?
  [Unknown]:  My Home
What is the name of your City or Locality?
  [Unknown]:  My City
What is the name of your State or Province?
  [Unknown]:  My State
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
  [Unknown]:  US
Is <CN=Herong Yang, OU=My Unit, O=My Home, L=My City, ST=My State, 
   C=US> correct?
  [no]:  yes
Enter key password for <my_home>
        (RETURN if same as keystore password):  My1stKey

Based on the documentation, the above example command did the following for me:

Create a "keystore" file, herong.jks, in JKS format, with a password of "HerongJKS".
Generate a pair of private key and public key for me using the default implementation of the default security package.
Generate a certificate chain with a single self-signed certificate of my public key.
Insert a key entry into the keystore with my private key and the certificate chain.
The key entry is protected by a password of "My1stKey".

The following command shows that we do have a key entry in the keystore file:

herong> keytool -list -keystore herong.jks -storepass HerongJKS

Keystore type: jks
Keystore provider: SUN

Your keystore contains 1 entry:

my_home, Sat Jun 1 07:15:16 EDT 2002, keyEntry,
Certificate fingerprint 
   (MD5): BE:D2:AF:4E:A7:44:13:08:16:4C:68:3B:D1:99:79:55