Encrypt and decrypt data for Android app-client

Question

With this way I convert an image into a String. Now I want to encrypt this string before send the data in server. Is there a simple way to encrypt and decrypt the string?

Answer 1

javax.crypto

This package provides the classes and interfaces for cryptographic applications implementing algorithms for encryption, decryption, or key agreement.

Stream ciphers are supported as well as asymmetric, symmetric and block ciphers. Cipher implementations from different providers can be integrated using the SPI (Service Provider Interface) abstract classes. With class SealedObject a programmer can secure an object by encrypting it with a cipher.

Authentication may be based on MAC (Message Authentication Code) such as HMAC (Hash MAC, i.e. with a SHA-1 hash function).

Example:

Simple helper class to encrypt and decrypt strings using AES128. The result is Ascii-encoded (actually hex, no base64), so no byte[] has to be stored. A SEED value is used as a shared secret ("Master-Password"). Only with the same SEED the stored values can be decrypted.

package com.xxx;

import java.security.SecureRandom;

import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.KeyGenerator;
import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;

/**
 * Usage:
 * <pre>
 * String crypto = SimpleCrypto.encrypt(masterpassword, cleartext)
 * ...
 * String cleartext = SimpleCrypto.decrypt(masterpassword, crypto)
 * </pre>
 * @author ferenc.hechler
 */
public class SimpleCrypto {

    public static String encrypt(String seed, String cleartext) throws Exception {
        byte[] rawKey = getRawKey(seed.getBytes());
        byte[] result = encrypt(rawKey, cleartext.getBytes());
        return toHex(result);
    }

    public static String decrypt(String seed, String encrypted) throws Exception {
        byte[] rawKey = getRawKey(seed.getBytes());
        byte[] enc = toByte(encrypted);
        byte[] result = decrypt(rawKey, enc);
        return new String(result);
    }

    private static byte[] getRawKey(byte[] seed) throws Exception {
        KeyGenerator kgen = KeyGenerator.getInstance("AES");
        SecureRandom sr = SecureRandom.getInstance("SHA1PRNG", "Crypto");
        sr.setSeed(seed);
        kgen.init(128, sr); // 192 and 256 bits may not be available
        SecretKey skey = kgen.generateKey();
        byte[] raw = skey.getEncoded();
        return raw;
    }


    private static byte[] encrypt(byte[] raw, byte[] clear) throws Exception {
        SecretKeySpec skeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(raw, "AES");
        Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
        cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, skeySpec);
        byte[] encrypted = cipher.doFinal(clear);
        return encrypted;
    }

    private static byte[] decrypt(byte[] raw, byte[] encrypted) throws Exception {
        SecretKeySpec skeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(raw, "AES");
        Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
        cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, skeySpec);
        byte[] decrypted = cipher.doFinal(encrypted);
        return decrypted;
    }

    public static String toHex(String txt) {
        return toHex(txt.getBytes());
    }
    public static String fromHex(String hex) {
        return new String(toByte(hex));
    }

    public static byte[] toByte(String hexString) {
        int len = hexString.length()/2;
        byte[] result = new byte[len];
        for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
            result[i] = Integer.valueOf(hexString.substring(2*i, 2*i+2), 16).byteValue();
        return result;
    }

    public static String toHex(byte[] buf) {
        if (buf == null)
            return "";
        StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer(2*buf.length);
        for (int i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
            appendHex(result, buf[i]);
        }
        return result.toString();
    }
    private final static String HEX = "0123456789ABCDEF";
    private static void appendHex(StringBuffer sb, byte b) {
        sb.append(HEX.charAt((b>>4)&0x0f)).append(HEX.charAt(b&0x0f));
    }

}

For more info look at Android Security How to encrypt and decrypt strings? and Encryption on Android & BouncyCastle