jdk/src/share/classes/java/security/Key.java
changeset 2 90ce3da70b43
child 5506 202f599c92aa
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/jdk/src/share/classes/java/security/Key.java	Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 2007 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 1996-2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
+ * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
+ *
+ * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+ * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
+ * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this
+ * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
+ * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
+ *
+ * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
+ * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
+ * accompanied this code).
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
+ * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+ * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
+ *
+ * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
+ * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
+ * have any questions.
+ */
+
+package java.security;
+
+/**
+ * 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:
+ *
+ * <UL>
+ *
+ * <LI>An Algorithm
+ *
+ * <P>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
+ * {@link #getAlgorithm() getAlgorithm} method.<P>
+ *
+ * <LI>An Encoded Form
+ *
+ * <P>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 <code>SubjectPublicKeyInfo</code> or PKCS#8), and
+ * is returned using the {@link #getEncoded() getEncoded} method.
+ * Note: The syntax of the ASN.1 type <code>SubjectPublicKeyInfo</code>
+ * is defined as follows:
+ *
+ * <pre>
+ * SubjectPublicKeyInfo ::= SEQUENCE {
+ *   algorithm AlgorithmIdentifier,
+ *   subjectPublicKey BIT STRING }
+ *
+ * AlgorithmIdentifier ::= SEQUENCE {
+ *   algorithm OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
+ *   parameters ANY DEFINED BY algorithm OPTIONAL }
+ * </pre>
+ *
+ * For more information, see
+ * <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3280.txt">RFC 3280:
+ * Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile</a>.
+ * <P>
+ *
+ * <LI>A Format
+ *
+ * <P>This is the name of the format of the encoded key. It is returned
+ * by the {@link #getFormat() getFormat} method.<P>
+ *
+ * </UL>
+ *
+ * Keys are generally obtained through key generators, certificates,
+ * or various Identity classes used to manage keys.
+ * Keys may also be obtained from key specifications (transparent
+ * representations of the underlying key material) through the use of a key
+ * factory (see {@link KeyFactory}).
+ *
+ * <p> A Key should use KeyRep as its serialized representation.
+ * Note that a serialized Key may contain sensitive information
+ * which should not be exposed in untrusted environments.  See the
+ * <a href="../../../platform/serialization/spec/security.html">
+ * Security Appendix</a>
+ * of the Serialization Specification for more information.
+ *
+ * @see PublicKey
+ * @see PrivateKey
+ * @see KeyPair
+ * @see KeyPairGenerator
+ * @see KeyFactory
+ * @see KeyRep
+ * @see java.security.spec.KeySpec
+ * @see Identity
+ * @see Signer
+ *
+ * @author Benjamin Renaud
+ */
+
+public interface Key extends java.io.Serializable {
+
+    // Declare serialVersionUID to be compatible with JDK1.1
+
+   /**
+    * The class fingerprint that is set to indicate
+    * serialization compatibility with a previous
+    * version of the class.
+    */
+    static final long serialVersionUID = 6603384152749567654L;
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the standard algorithm name for this key. For
+     * example, "DSA" would indicate that this key is a DSA key.
+     * See Appendix A in the <a href=
+     * "../../../technotes/guides/security/crypto/CryptoSpec.html#AppA">
+     * Java Cryptography Architecture API Specification &amp; Reference </a>
+     * for information about standard algorithm names.
+     *
+     * @return the name of the algorithm associated with this key.
+     */
+    public String getAlgorithm();
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the name of the primary encoding format of this key,
+     * or null if this key does not support encoding.
+     * The primary encoding format is
+     * named in terms of the appropriate ASN.1 data format, if an
+     * ASN.1 specification for this key exists.
+     * For example, the name of the ASN.1 data format for public
+     * keys is <I>SubjectPublicKeyInfo</I>, as
+     * defined by the X.509 standard; in this case, the returned format is
+     * <code>"X.509"</code>. Similarly,
+     * the name of the ASN.1 data format for private keys is
+     * <I>PrivateKeyInfo</I>,
+     * as defined by the PKCS #8 standard; in this case, the returned format is
+     * <code>"PKCS#8"</code>.
+     *
+     * @return the primary encoding format of the key.
+     */
+    public String getFormat();
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the key in its primary encoding format, or null
+     * if this key does not support encoding.
+     *
+     * @return the encoded key, or null if the key does not support
+     * encoding.
+     */
+    public byte[] getEncoded();
+}