How to encrypt String in Java

Question

What I need is to encrypt string which will show up in 2D barcode(PDF-417) so when someone get an idea to scan it will get nothing readable.

Other requirements:

Answer 1

public static String encryptParams(String myTextInput) {

        String myKey = "40674244454045cb9a70040a30e1c007";
        String myVector = "@1B2c3D4e5F6g7H8";

        String encData = "";

        try{
            JavaEncryprtionUtil encUtil = new JavaEncryprtionUtil();
            encData = Base64.encodeToString(encUtil.encrypt(myTextInput.getBytes("UTF-8"), myKey.getBytes("UTF-8"), myVector.getBytes("UTF-8")),Base64.DEFAULT);
            System.out.println(encData);
        }catch(NoSuchAlgorithmException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }catch(NoSuchPaddingException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }catch(InvalidKeyException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }catch(InvalidAlgorithmParameterException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }catch(IllegalBlockSizeException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }catch(BadPaddingException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }catch(UnsupportedEncodingException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }

        return encData;
    }

Answer 2

Here is a copy/paste solution. I also recommend reading and voting for @Konstantino's answer even though it doesn't provider any code. The initialization vector (IV) is like a salt - it doesn't have to be kept secret. I am new to GCM and apparently AAD is optional and only used in certain circumstances. Set the key in the environment variable SECRET_KEY_BASE. Use something like KeePass to generate a 32 character password. This solution is modeled after my Ruby solution.

    public static String encrypt(String s) {
        try {
            byte[] input = s.getBytes("UTF-8");
            String keyString = System.getProperty("SECRET_KEY_BASE", System.getenv("SECRET_KEY_BASE"));
            if (keyString == null || keyString.length() == 0) {
                Logger.error(Utils.class, "encrypt()", "$SECRET_KEY_BASE is not set.");
                return null;
            }
            byte[] keyBytes = keyString.getBytes("UTF-8");
            SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "AES");
            // generate IV
            SecureRandom secureRandom = SecureRandom.getInstanceStrong();
            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/GCM/NoPadding");
            byte[] ivBytes = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
            secureRandom.nextBytes(ivBytes);
            GCMParameterSpec gcmSpec = new GCMParameterSpec(96, ivBytes); // 96 bit tag length
            cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, keySpec, gcmSpec);
            // generate AAD
//          byte[] aadBytes = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
//          secureRandom.nextBytes(aadBytes);
//          cipher.updateAAD(aadBytes);
            // encrypt
            byte[] encrypted = cipher.doFinal(input);
            byte[] returnBytes = new byte[ivBytes.length + encrypted.length];
//          byte[] returnBytes = new byte[ivBytes.length + aadBytes.length + encrypted.length];
            System.arraycopy(ivBytes, 0, returnBytes, 0, ivBytes.length);
//          System.arraycopy(aadBytes, 0, returnBytes, ivBytes.length, aadBytes.length);
            System.arraycopy(encrypted, 0, returnBytes, ivBytes.length, encrypted.length);
//          System.arraycopy(encrypted, 0, returnBytes, ivBytes.length+aadBytes.length, encrypted.length);
            String encryptedString = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(returnBytes);
            return encryptedString;
        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException | NoSuchAlgorithmException | NoSuchPaddingException | InvalidKeyException | 
                InvalidAlgorithmParameterException | IllegalBlockSizeException | BadPaddingException e) {
            Logger.error(Utils.class, "encrypt()", "Could not encrypt string: " + e.getMessage());
            return null;
        }
    }

    public static String decrypt(String s) {
        if (s == null || s.length() == 0) return "";
        try {
            byte[] encrypted = Base64.getDecoder().decode(s);
            String keyString = System.getProperty("SECRET_KEY_BASE", System.getenv("SECRET_KEY_BASE"));
            if (keyString == null || keyString.length() == 0) {
                Logger.error(Utils.class, "encrypt()", "$SECRET_KEY_BASE is not set.");
                return null;
            }
            byte[] keyBytes = keyString.getBytes("UTF-8");
            SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "AES");
            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/GCM/NoPadding");
            byte[] ivBytes = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
            System.arraycopy(encrypted, 0, ivBytes, 0, ivBytes.length);
            GCMParameterSpec gcmSpec = new GCMParameterSpec(96, ivBytes);
            cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, keySpec, gcmSpec);
//          cipher.updateAAD(encrypted, ivBytes.length, cipher.getBlockSize());
            byte[] decrypted = cipher.doFinal(encrypted, cipher.getBlockSize(), encrypted.length - cipher.getBlockSize());
//          byte[] decrypted = cipher.doFinal(encrypted, cipher.getBlockSize()*2, encrypted.length - cipher.getBlockSize()*2);
            String decryptedString = new String(decrypted, "UTF-8");
            return decryptedString;
        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException | NoSuchPaddingException | UnsupportedEncodingException | InvalidKeyException | 
                InvalidAlgorithmParameterException | IllegalBlockSizeException | BadPaddingException e) {
            Logger.error(Utils.class, "decrypt()", "Could not decrypt string: " + e.getMessage());
            return null;
        }
    }

Here is an example:

    String s = "This is a test.";
    String enc = Utils.encrypt(s);
    System.out.println(enc);
    // fQHfYjbD+xAuN5XzH2ojk/EWNeKXUrKRSfx8LU+5dpuKkM/pueCMBjKCZw==
    String dec = Utils.decrypt(enc);
    System.out.println(dec);
    // This is a test.

Answer 3

Here's my implementation from meta64.com as a Spring Singleton. If you want to create a ciper instance for each call that would work also, and then you could remove the 'synchronized' calls, but beware 'cipher' is not thread-safe.

import java.security.Key;

import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
import javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Scope;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
@Scope("singleton")
public class Encryptor {

    @Value("${aeskey}")
    private String keyStr;

    private Key aesKey = null;
    private Cipher cipher = null;

    synchronized private void init() throws Exception {
        if (keyStr == null || keyStr.length() != 16) {
            throw new Exception("bad aes key configured");
        }
        if (aesKey == null) {
            aesKey = new SecretKeySpec(keyStr.getBytes(), "AES");
            cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
        }
    }

    synchronized public String encrypt(String text) throws Exception {
        init();
        cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, aesKey);
        return toHexString(cipher.doFinal(text.getBytes()));
    }

    synchronized public String decrypt(String text) throws Exception {
        init();
        cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, aesKey);
        return new String(cipher.doFinal(toByteArray(text)));
    }

    public static String toHexString(byte[] array) {
        return DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(array);
    }

    public static byte[] toByteArray(String s) {
        return DatatypeConverter.parseHexBinary(s);
    }

    /*
     * DO NOT DELETE
     * 
     * Use this commented code if you don't like using DatatypeConverter dependency
     */
    // public static String toHexStringOld(byte[] bytes) {
    // StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    // for (byte b : bytes) {
    // sb.append(String.format("%02X", b));
    // }
    // return sb.toString();
    // }
    //
    // public static byte[] toByteArrayOld(String s) {
    // int len = s.length();
    // byte[] data = new byte[len / 2];
    // for (int i = 0; i < len; i += 2) {
    // data[i / 2] = (byte) ((Character.digit(s.charAt(i), 16) << 4) + Character.digit(s.charAt(i +
    // 1), 16));
    // }
    // return data;
    // }
}

Answer 4

I would consider using something like https://www.bouncycastle.org/ It is a prebuilt library that allows you to encrypt whatever you like with a number of different Ciphers I understand that you only want to protect from snooping, but if you really want to protect the information, using Base64 won't actually protect you.