Chapter 1 - Understanding Java's Cryptographic Architecture

Abstract

This chapter elaborates different aspects of Java's cryptographic architecture (JCA). The Java language includes a well-defined architecture that allows including cryptographic services in designs without fully comprehending the mathematical proofs or calculations behind the algorithms. The most visible aspect of cryptography is encryption, which can be accomplished in Java using as little as seven lines of code, not counting proper exception handling. The chapter presents an example to demonstrate some of the core tenets of cryptography with Java in action, which shows the creation of a secret key that is used to translate an unencrypted message into an encrypted one. Because of U.S. export laws, the functionality of Java is split between two different libraries, the JAVA Cryptography Architecture (JCA) and the Java Cryptography Extensions (JCE). The JCA refers to each category as an engine, which is simply another name for a Java class. JCE, builds off of the concepts and capabilities found in the JCA. The JCE extends the JCA by simply exposing more engines and including an additional provider, the “SUNJCE” provider, which includes one or more implementations for each engine.