com.motorola.iden.security
Interface Key

All Known Subinterfaces:

PrivateKey, PublicKey

public interface Key

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 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.

• A Format

  This is the name of the format of the encoded key. It is returned by the getFormat method.

See Also:

PublicKey, PrivateKey

Method Summary

java.lang.String	getAlgorithm() Returns the standard algorithm name for this key.
byte[]	getEncoded() Returns the key in its primary encoding format, or null if this key does not support encoding.
java.lang.String	getFormat() Returns the name of the primary encoding format of this key, or null if this key does not support encoding.

Method Detail

getAlgorithm

public java.lang.String getAlgorithm()

Returns the standard algorithm name for this key. For example, "DSA" would indicate that this key is a DSA key.

Returns:

the name of the algorithm associated with this key.

getFormat

public java.lang.String getFormat()

Returns the name of the primary encoding format of this key, or null if this key does not support encoding.

Returns:

the primary encoding format of the key.

getEncoded

public byte[] getEncoded()

Returns the key in its primary encoding format, or null if this key does not support encoding.

Returns:

the encoded key, or null if the key does not support encoding.