Interface java.security.Key
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Interface java.security.Key
- public interface Key
- extends Serializable
The Key interface is the top-level interface for all keys. It
defines the functionality shared by all key objects. All keys
have three characteristics:
- An Algorithm
This is the key algorithm for that key. The key algorithm is usually
an encryption or asymmetric operation algorithm (such as DSA or
RSA), which will work with those algorithms and with related
algorithms (such as MD5 with RSA, SHA-1 with RSA, Raw DSA, etc.)
The name of the algorithm of a key is obtained using the
getAlgorithm method.
- An Encoded Form
This is an external encoded form for the key used when a standard
representation of the key is needed outside the Java Virtual Machine,
as when transmitting the key to some other party. The key
is encoded according to a standard format (such as X.509
or PKCS#8), and is returned using the
getEncoded method.
- A Format
This is the name of the format of the encoded key. It is returned
by the getFormat method.
Keys are generally obtained through key generators, certificates,
or various Identity classes used to manage keys. There are no
provisions in this release for the parsing of encoded keys and
certificates.
- Version:
- 1.28, 97/01/29
- Author:
- Benjamin Renaud
- See Also:
- PublicKey, PrivateKey, KeyPair, KeyPairGenerator, Identity, IdentityScope, Signer
-
getAlgorithm()
- Returns the standard algorithm name this key is for.
-
getEncoded()
- Returns the encoded key.
-
getFormat()
- Returns the format used to encode the key or null if the key does not
support encoding.
getAlgorithm
public abstract java.lang.String getAlgorithm()
- Returns the standard algorithm name this key is for. For
example, "DSA" would indicate that this key is a DSA key.
Note that this method may return null, when the
algorithm this key is for is unknown.
See Appendix A in the
Java Cryptography Architecture API Specification & Reference
for information about standard algorithm names.
- Returns:
- the name of the algorithm this key is for, or null
if the algorithm this key is for is unknown.
getEncoded
public abstract byte[] getEncoded()
- Returns the encoded key.
- Returns:
- the encoded key, or null if the key does not support
encoding.
getFormat
public abstract java.lang.String getFormat()
- Returns the format used to encode the key or null if the key does not
support encoding.
- Returns:
- the format used to encode the key.
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