Difference between keystore file and jks file

Question

I have tried to find the difference between  keystore files and  jks files  yet I could not find it  I know jks is for  Java keystore  and both are a way to store key value pairs   Is there any difference or a preference to use one over another

User · Answer

You are confused on this     A keystore is a container of certificates  private keys etc     There are specifications of what should be the format of this keystore and the predominant is the  PKCS12    JKS is Java s keystore implementation  There is also BKS etc     These are all keystore types     So to answer your question        difference between  keystore files and  jks files   There is none  JKS are keystore files   There is difference though between keystore types  E g  JKS vs  PKCS12

User · Answer

One reason to choose  keystore over  jks is that Unity recognizes the former but not the latter when you re navigating to select your keystore file  Unity 2017 3  macOS

User · Answer

Ultimately   keystore and  jks are just file extensions  it s up to you to name your files sensibly  Some application use a keystore file stored in  HOME  keystore  it s usually implied that it s a JKS file  since JKS is the default keystore type in the Sun Oracle Java security provider  Not everyone uses the  jks extension for JKS files  because it s implied as the default  I d recommend using the extension  just to remember which type to specify  if you need    In Java  the word keystore can have either of the following meanings  depending on the context    the API  http   docs oracle com javase 6 docs api java security KeyStore html a file  or other mechanism  that can be used to back this API a keystore as opposed to a truststore  as described here  https   stackoverflow com a 6341566 372643   When talking about the file and storage  this is not really a storage facility for key value pairs  there are plenty or other formats for this   Rather  it s a container to store cryptographic keys and certificates  I believe some of them can also store passwords   Generally  these files are encrypted and password-protected so as not to let this data available to unauthorized parties   Java uses its KeyStore class and related API to make use of a keystore  whether it s file based or not   JKS is a Java-specific file format  but the API can also be used with other file types  typically PKCS 12  When you want to load a keystore  you must specify its keystore type  The conventional extensions would be     jks for type  JKS    p12 or  pfx for type  PKCS12   the specification name is PKCS 12  but the   is not used in the Java keystore type name     In addition  BouncyCastle also provides its implementations  in particular BKS  typically using the  bks extension   which is frequently used for Android applications

[keystore] Difference between .keystore file and .jks file

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