[java] Load RSA public key from file

I've generated a private key with:

openssl genrsa [-out file] –des3

After this I've generated a public key with:

openssl rsa –pubout -in private.key [-out file]

I want to sign some messages with my private key, and verify some other messages with my public key, using code like this:

public String sign(String message) throws SignatureException{
    try {
        Signature sign = Signature.getInstance("SHA1withRSA");
        sign.initSign(privateKey);
        sign.update(message.getBytes("UTF-8"));
        return new String(Base64.encodeBase64(sign.sign()),"UTF-8");
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        throw new SignatureException(ex);
    }
}

public boolean verify(String message, String signature) throws SignatureException{
    try {
        Signature sign = Signature.getInstance("SHA1withRSA");
        sign.initVerify(publicKey);
        sign.update(message.getBytes("UTF-8"));
        return sign.verify(Base64.decodeBase64(signature.getBytes("UTF-8")));
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        throw new SignatureException(ex);
    }
}

I found a solution to convert my private key to PKCS8 format and load it. It works with some code like this:

public PrivateKey getPrivateKey(String filename) throws Exception {

    File f = new File(filename);
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(f);
    DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(fis);
    byte[] keyBytes = new byte[(int) f.length()];
    dis.readFully(keyBytes);
    dis.close();
    PKCS8EncodedKeySpec spec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(keyBytes);
    KeyFactory kf =
            KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
    return kf.generatePrivate(spec);
}

And finally my question is: How do I load my RSA Public Key from a file?

I think maybe I need to convert my public key file to x509 format, and use X509EncodedKeySpec. But how can I do this?

This program is doing almost everything with Public and private keys. The der format can be obtained but saving raw data ( without encoding base64). I hope this helps programmers.

import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintStream;
import java.security.InvalidKeyException;
import java.security.KeyFactory;
import java.security.KeyPair;
import java.security.KeyPairGenerator;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.security.PrivateKey;
import java.security.PublicKey;
import java.security.Signature;
import java.security.SignatureException;

import sun.misc.BASE64Decoder;
import sun.misc.BASE64Encoder;
import sun.security.pkcs.PKCS8Key;
import sun.security.pkcs10.PKCS10;
import sun.security.x509.X500Name;

import java.security.spec.PKCS8EncodedKeySpec;
import java.security.spec.X509EncodedKeySpec;



/**
 * @author Desphilboy
 * DorOd bar shomA barobach
 *
 */
public class csrgenerator {

    private static PublicKey publickey= null;
    private static PrivateKey privateKey=null;
    //private static PKCS8Key privateKey=null;
    private static KeyPairGenerator kpg= null;
    private static ByteArrayOutputStream bs =null;
    private static csrgenerator thisinstance;
    private KeyPair keypair;
    private static PKCS10 pkcs10;
    private String signaturealgorithm= "MD5WithRSA";

    public String getSignaturealgorithm() {
        return signaturealgorithm;
    }



    public void setSignaturealgorithm(String signaturealgorithm) {
        this.signaturealgorithm = signaturealgorithm;
    }



    private csrgenerator() {
        try {
           kpg = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA");
        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.out.print("No such algorithm RSA in constructor csrgenerator\n");
        }
        kpg.initialize(2048);
        keypair = kpg.generateKeyPair();
        publickey = keypair.getPublic();
        privateKey = keypair.getPrivate();
    }



    /** Generates a new key pair 
    *
    * @param int bits 
    *   this is the number of bits in modulus must be 512, 1024, 2048  or so on 
    */
    public KeyPair generateRSAkys(int bits)
    {
          kpg.initialize(bits);
            keypair = kpg.generateKeyPair();
            publickey = keypair.getPublic();
            privateKey = keypair.getPrivate();
            KeyPair dup= keypair;
     return dup;
    }

     public static csrgenerator getInstance() {
            if (thisinstance == null)
                thisinstance = new csrgenerator();
            return thisinstance;
        }


     /**
      *  Returns a CSR as string  
      * @param cn  Common Name
      * @param OU  Organizational Unit 
      * @param Org  Organization
      * @param LocName Location name
      * @param Statename  State/Territory/Province/Region
      * @param Country    Country
      * @return     returns  csr as string.
      * @throws Exception
      */
     public String getCSR(String commonname, String organizationunit, String organization,String localname, String statename, String country ) throws Exception {
            byte[] csr = generatePKCS10(commonname, organizationunit, organization, localname, statename, country,signaturealgorithm);
            return new String(csr);
        }

     /** This function generates a new Certificate 
      * Signing Request. 
     *
     * @param CN
     *            Common Name, is X.509 speak for the name that distinguishes
     *            the Certificate best, and ties it to your Organization
     * @param OU
     *            Organizational unit
     * @param O
     *            Organization NAME
     * @param L
     *            Location
     * @param S
     *            State
     * @param C
     *            Country
     * @return    byte stream of generated request
     * @throws Exception
     */
    private static byte[] generatePKCS10(String CN, String OU, String O,String L, String S, String C,String sigAlg) throws Exception {
        // generate PKCS10 certificate request

        pkcs10 = new PKCS10(publickey);
       Signature   signature = Signature.getInstance(sigAlg);
        signature.initSign(privateKey);
        // common, orgUnit, org, locality, state, country
        //X500Name(String commonName, String organizationUnit,String organizationName,Local,State, String country)
        X500Name x500Name = new X500Name(CN, OU, O, L, S, C);
        pkcs10.encodeAndSign(x500Name,signature);
        bs = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        PrintStream ps = new PrintStream(bs);
        pkcs10.print(ps);
        byte[] c = bs.toByteArray();
        try {
            if (ps != null)
                ps.close();
            if (bs != null)
                bs.close();
        } catch (Throwable th) {
        }
        return c;
    }

    public  PublicKey getPublicKey() {
        return publickey;
    }




    /**
     * @return
     */
    public PrivateKey getPrivateKey() {
        return privateKey;
    }

    /**
     * saves private key to a file
     * @param filename
     */
    public  void SavePrivateKey(String filename)
    {
        PKCS8EncodedKeySpec pemcontents=null;
        pemcontents= new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec( privateKey.getEncoded());
        PKCS8Key pemprivatekey= new  PKCS8Key( );
        try {
            pemprivatekey.decode(pemcontents.getEncoded());
        } catch (InvalidKeyException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        File file=new File(filename);
        try {

            file.createNewFile();
            FileOutputStream fos=new FileOutputStream(file);
            fos.write(pemprivatekey.getEncoded());
            fos.flush();
            fos.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }



    }



    /**
     * Saves Certificate Signing Request to a file;
     * @param filename  is a String containing full path to the file which will be created containing the CSR.
     */
    public void SaveCSR(String filename)
    {
        FileOutputStream fos=null;
        PrintStream ps=null;
        File file;
        try {

            file = new File(filename);
            file.createNewFile();
            fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
            ps= new PrintStream(fos);
        }catch (IOException e)
        {
            System.out.print("\n could not open the file "+ filename);
        }

        try {
            try {
                pkcs10.print(ps);
            } catch (SignatureException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            ps.flush();
            ps.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            System.out.print("\n cannot write to the file "+ filename);
            e.printStackTrace();

        }

        }


    /**
     * Saves both public key and private  key to file names specified
     * @param fnpub  file name of public key
     * @param fnpri  file name of private key
     * @throws IOException
     */
    public static void SaveKeyPair(String fnpub,String fnpri) throws IOException { 

// Store Public Key.
X509EncodedKeySpec x509EncodedKeySpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(
publickey.getEncoded());
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(fnpub);
fos.write(x509EncodedKeySpec.getEncoded());
fos.close();

// Store Private Key.
PKCS8EncodedKeySpec pkcs8EncodedKeySpec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(privateKey.getEncoded());
fos = new FileOutputStream(fnpri);
fos.write(pkcs8EncodedKeySpec.getEncoded());
fos.close();
}


    /**
     * Reads a Private Key from a pem base64 encoded file.
     * @param filename name of the file to read.
     * @param algorithm Algorithm is usually "RSA"
     * @return returns the privatekey which is read from the file;
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public  PrivateKey getPemPrivateKey(String filename, String algorithm) throws Exception {
          File f = new File(filename);
          FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(f);
          DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(fis);
          byte[] keyBytes = new byte[(int) f.length()];
          dis.readFully(keyBytes);
          dis.close();

          String temp = new String(keyBytes);
          String privKeyPEM = temp.replace("-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----", "");
          privKeyPEM = privKeyPEM.replace("-----END PRIVATE KEY-----", "");
          //System.out.println("Private key\n"+privKeyPEM);

          BASE64Decoder b64=new BASE64Decoder();
          byte[] decoded = b64.decodeBuffer(privKeyPEM);

          PKCS8EncodedKeySpec spec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(decoded);
          KeyFactory kf = KeyFactory.getInstance(algorithm);
          return kf.generatePrivate(spec);
          }



    /**
     * Saves the private key to a pem file.
     * @param filename  name of the file to write the key into 
     * @param key the Private key to save.
     * @return  String representation of the pkcs8 object.
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public  String  SavePemPrivateKey(String filename) throws Exception {
        PrivateKey key=this.privateKey;
          File f = new File(filename);
          FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(f);
          DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(fos);


          byte[] keyBytes = key.getEncoded();
          PKCS8Key pkcs8= new PKCS8Key();
          pkcs8.decode(keyBytes);
          byte[] b=pkcs8.encode();

          BASE64Encoder b64=new BASE64Encoder();
          String  encoded = b64.encodeBuffer(b);

          encoded= "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\r\n" + encoded + "-----END PRIVATE KEY-----";

         dos.writeBytes(encoded);
         dos.flush();
         dos.close();

          //System.out.println("Private key\n"+privKeyPEM);
        return pkcs8.toString();

          }


    /**
     * Saves a public key to a base64 encoded pem file
     * @param filename  name of the file 
     * @param key public key to be saved 
     * @return string representation of the pkcs8 object.
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public  String  SavePemPublicKey(String filename) throws Exception {
        PublicKey key=this.publickey;  
        File f = new File(filename);
          FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(f);
          DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(fos);


          byte[] keyBytes = key.getEncoded();
          BASE64Encoder b64=new BASE64Encoder();
          String  encoded = b64.encodeBuffer(keyBytes);

          encoded= "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\r\n" + encoded + "-----END PUBLIC KEY-----";

         dos.writeBytes(encoded);
         dos.flush();
         dos.close();

          //System.out.println("Private key\n"+privKeyPEM);
      return  encoded.toString();

          }





       /**
     * reads a public key from a file
     * @param filename name of the file to read
     * @param algorithm is usually RSA
     * @return the read public key
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public  PublicKey getPemPublicKey(String filename, String algorithm) throws Exception {
          File f = new File(filename);
          FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(f);
          DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(fis);
          byte[] keyBytes = new byte[(int) f.length()];
          dis.readFully(keyBytes);
          dis.close();

          String temp = new String(keyBytes);
          String publicKeyPEM = temp.replace("-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\n", "");
          publicKeyPEM = publicKeyPEM.replace("-----END PUBLIC KEY-----", "");


          BASE64Decoder b64=new BASE64Decoder();
          byte[] decoded = b64.decodeBuffer(publicKeyPEM);

          X509EncodedKeySpec spec =
                new X509EncodedKeySpec(decoded);
          KeyFactory kf = KeyFactory.getInstance(algorithm);
          return kf.generatePublic(spec);
          }




    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        csrgenerator gcsr = csrgenerator.getInstance();
        gcsr.setSignaturealgorithm("SHA512WithRSA");
        System.out.println("Public Key:\n"+gcsr.getPublicKey().toString());

        System.out.println("Private Key:\nAlgorithm: "+gcsr.getPrivateKey().getAlgorithm().toString());
        System.out.println("Format:"+gcsr.getPrivateKey().getFormat().toString());
        System.out.println("To String :"+gcsr.getPrivateKey().toString());
        System.out.println("GetEncoded :"+gcsr.getPrivateKey().getEncoded().toString());
        BASE64Encoder encoder= new BASE64Encoder();
        String s=encoder.encodeBuffer(gcsr.getPrivateKey().getEncoded());
        System.out.println("Base64:"+s+"\n");

        String csr = gcsr.getCSR( "[email protected]","baxshi az xodam", "Xodam","PointCook","VIC" ,"AU");
        System.out.println("CSR Request Generated!!");
        System.out.println(csr);
        gcsr.SaveCSR("c:\\testdir\\javacsr.csr");
        String p=gcsr.SavePemPrivateKey("c:\\testdir\\java_private.pem");
        System.out.print(p);
        p=gcsr.SavePemPublicKey("c:\\testdir\\java_public.pem");
        privateKey= gcsr.getPemPrivateKey("c:\\testdir\\java_private.pem", "RSA");
        BASE64Encoder encoder1= new BASE64Encoder();
        String s1=encoder1.encodeBuffer(gcsr.getPrivateKey().getEncoded());
        System.out.println("Private Key in Base64:"+s1+"\n");
        System.out.print(p);


    }

    }

Below code works absolutely fine to me and working. This code will read RSA private and public key though java code. You can refer to http://snipplr.com/view/18368/

   import java.io.DataInputStream;
    import java.io.File;
    import java.io.FileInputStream;
    import java.io.IOException;
    import java.security.KeyFactory;
    import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
    import java.security.interfaces.RSAPrivateKey;
    import java.security.interfaces.RSAPublicKey;
    import java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException;
    import java.security.spec.PKCS8EncodedKeySpec;
    import java.security.spec.X509EncodedKeySpec;

    public class Demo {

        public static final String PRIVATE_KEY="/home/user/private.der";
        public static final String PUBLIC_KEY="/home/user/public.der";

        public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeySpecException {
            //get the private key
            File file = new File(PRIVATE_KEY);
            FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
            DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(fis);

            byte[] keyBytes = new byte[(int) file.length()];
            dis.readFully(keyBytes);
            dis.close();

            PKCS8EncodedKeySpec spec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(keyBytes);
            KeyFactory kf = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
            RSAPrivateKey privKey = (RSAPrivateKey) kf.generatePrivate(spec);
            System.out.println("Exponent :" + privKey.getPrivateExponent());
            System.out.println("Modulus" + privKey.getModulus());

            //get the public key
            File file1 = new File(PUBLIC_KEY);
            FileInputStream fis1 = new FileInputStream(file1);
            DataInputStream dis1 = new DataInputStream(fis1);
            byte[] keyBytes1 = new byte[(int) file1.length()];
            dis1.readFully(keyBytes1);
            dis1.close();

            X509EncodedKeySpec spec1 = new X509EncodedKeySpec(keyBytes1);
            KeyFactory kf1 = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA");
            RSAPublicKey pubKey = (RSAPublicKey) kf1.generatePublic(spec1);

            System.out.println("Exponent :" + pubKey.getPublicExponent());
            System.out.println("Modulus" + pubKey.getModulus());
        }
    }

Once you have your key stored in a PEM file, you can read it back easily using PemObject and PemReader classes provided by BouncyCastle, as shown in this this tutorial.

Create a PemFile class that encapsulates file handling:

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

import org.bouncycastle.util.io.pem.PemObject;
import org.bouncycastle.util.io.pem.PemReader;

public class PemFile {

    private PemObject pemObject;

    public PemFile(String filename) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
        PemReader pemReader = new PemReader(new InputStreamReader(
                new FileInputStream(filename)));
        try {
            this.pemObject = pemReader.readPemObject();
        } finally {
            pemReader.close();
        }
    }

    public PemObject getPemObject() {
        return pemObject;
    }
}

Then instantiate private and public keys as usual:

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.security.KeyFactory;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.security.NoSuchProviderException;
import java.security.PrivateKey;
import java.security.PublicKey;
import java.security.Security;
import java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException;
import java.security.spec.PKCS8EncodedKeySpec;
import java.security.spec.X509EncodedKeySpec;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider;

public class Main {

    protected final static Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(Main.class);

    public final static String RESOURCES_DIR = "src/main/resources/rsa-sample/";

    public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException,
            IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchProviderException {
        Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
        LOGGER.info("BouncyCastle provider added.");

        KeyFactory factory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA", "BC");
        try {
            PrivateKey priv = generatePrivateKey(factory, RESOURCES_DIR
                    + "id_rsa");
            LOGGER.info(String.format("Instantiated private key: %s", priv));

            PublicKey pub = generatePublicKey(factory, RESOURCES_DIR
                    + "id_rsa.pub");
            LOGGER.info(String.format("Instantiated public key: %s", pub));
        } catch (InvalidKeySpecException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private static PrivateKey generatePrivateKey(KeyFactory factory,
            String filename) throws InvalidKeySpecException,
            FileNotFoundException, IOException {
        PemFile pemFile = new PemFile(filename);
        byte[] content = pemFile.getPemObject().getContent();
        PKCS8EncodedKeySpec privKeySpec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(content);
        return factory.generatePrivate(privKeySpec);
    }

    private static PublicKey generatePublicKey(KeyFactory factory,
            String filename) throws InvalidKeySpecException,
            FileNotFoundException, IOException {
        PemFile pemFile = new PemFile(filename);
        byte[] content = pemFile.getPemObject().getContent();
        X509EncodedKeySpec pubKeySpec = new X509EncodedKeySpec(content);
        return factory.generatePublic(pubKeySpec);
    }
}

Hope this helps.