How to get key from decrypted byte[]

[Mumtaz Khan]

Hi,
I am very new to java security. I am trying some encryption and decryption.
I have two key, k1 and k2. I am encrypting k1 using k2 which generates cipher-text. Before encrypting k1,I got the byte[] for k1 using k1.getEncoded(). I then decrypt cipher-text by using k2 which returns me byte[] object. How can I get back the original key k1? Here is the code

 Key k1 = getNewKey();
   Key k2 = getNewKey();
   cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, k2);
   byte[] keyencoded = k1.getEncoded();
   byte[] ciphertextKey = cipher.doFinal(keyencoded);
   // decrypting the key
   cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, k2);

   // Perform the decryption
   byte[] decryptedTextkey = cipher.doFinal(ciphertextKey);

getNewKey() is another method thats generates a key. I tried to use unwrap method, but since I am not wrapping the key, its giving exception. I am not able to generate the original key k1 back from byte[] object decryptedTextkey .
Could anyone please tell me how can I get k1 back?

[Ulf Dittmer]

The parameter passed to doFinal should be the data to encrypt (or decrypt), not they key. Or are you trying to encrypt an encryption key?

[Henry Wong]

Also, it really doesn't make sense to encrypt the key with another key. The only reason to encrypt a key is so that you can place it in an unsecured location, but what are you going to do with the new key? The one use to encrypt the first key? Are you going to place that in an secured location? If so, why didn't you just place the first key in the secured location?


Anyway, to answer your question, I don't think you can. You forgot about the algorithm. A key contains the encoding, the algorithm, and in some cases, other stuff. Just having an encoding, without the algorithm, isn't enough to recreate the key.

To instantiate a key, look into the java.security.spec.KeySpec class.

Henry

[Mumtaz Khan]

My bad, didn't explain the whole problem. I have a message which I am encrypting with k1 and then encrypting k1 with a symmetric key k2 which is shared with another program. After encryption both encrypted message and encrypted key is being passed to another program which has access to k2. so after decrypting "encrypted key" with k2, I am getting byte[] but now how can I get the original message which has been encrypted using k1? To generate the key I am using "blowfish" algorithm. Now can you help me to recover Key k1 from byte[] object?
Ulf: yes I am trying to encrypt encryption key using a symmetric key.

[Henry Wong]

As already mentioned, have you taken a look at the KeySpec class? For symmetric keys, specifically, the SecretKeySpec class?

Henry

[Mumtaz Khan]

Thanks Henry, it worked