# Secret Keys

Vishal Goenka (vgoenka@novell.com)
Tue, 05 May 1998 00:39:10 -0600

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    Message-Id: <s54e5fdf.064@novell.com>

    Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 00:39:10 -0600

    From: "Vishal Goenka" <vgoenka@novell.com>

    To: java-security@web2.javasoft.com

    Subject: Secret Keys

There are separate interfaces for PublicKey and PrivateKey, but none for =
Symmetric Secret Keys. KeyFactory has methods to generate Public/Private =
Keys from corresponding KeySpecs, how does a provider of Secret Key fit =
his generate Symmetric Secret Key from a corresponding KeySpec in this =
model.=20

One work around could be to declare=20
public interface SecretKey implements PublicKey, PrivateKey { }

Another would be more significant work consisting of defining=20
public interface SecretKey extends Key { }
followed with introducing methods in KeyFactory (and its Spi)=20
public SecretKey generateSecretKey(KeySpec spec).

Also, there is a KeyPairGenerator class to generate a pair of public/privat=
e keys, but nothing like KeyGenerator to generate Symmetric Secret Keys.

I'm surely missing something important here, since this can't be a design =
flaw, I'm sure.
Please enlighten me on this.

Regards,
Vishal Goenka
Novell.

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