The JavaTM Tutorial

| Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson | Search Feedback Form

Trail: Security in Java 2 SDK 1.2
Lesson: Summaries

## What Does the JDK Security API Provide?

> The JDK Security API is a Java core API, built around the `java.security` package (and its subpackages).

> ## API Methods

> > Clients can call API methods to incorporate security functionality into their applications, including for

> > - using cryptography services implemented by the built-in "SUN" provider and/or other provider packages. These services include digital signature, message digest, key generation, and random number generation algorithms; keystore creation and management services; algorithm parameter generation and management services; and key and certificate "factories" for creating keys or certificates from existing material (e.g., encodings).

> > - adding security checks to ensure a caller has a specified customized permission (see Customizing the Security Features).

> > - marking code "privileged" so it can exercise more permissions than the caller has.

> > - getting or setting values of system-wide security properties.

> > The Generating and Verifying Signatures lesson shows how to write programs using the cryptography aspects of the JDK Security API to generate (or import) keys, generate a digital signature for data using the private key, and verify the authenticity of a signature.

> > The Implementing Your Own Permission lesson illustrates defining your own permission, adding security checks to your code to ensure a caller has the specified permission, and marking code as "privileged".

> > The Quick Tour of Controlling Applications lesson includes a `GetProps` program that gets the values of the `"user.home"` and `"java.home"` properties.

> ## Customization of the Security Features

> > The API enables clients to define and integrate their own

> > - new Permissions.

> > - cryptography service implementations (in one or more provider packages).

> > - `SecurityManager` implementation (to replace the default implementation otherwise automatically loaded for applets, and for applications whose execution was requested to have a security manager).

> > - `Policy` implementation (to replace the default built-in implementation).
> > The Implementing Your Own Permission lesson illustrates defining your own permission and adding security checks to your code to ensure a caller has the specified permission.

> > The latter two (`SecurityManager` and `Policy`) implementation replacements will be done rarely (e.g., by virtual machine implementors) and are beyond the scope of this tutorial.

> > Adding a cryptography service implementation is something that is expected to be done by a larger number of developers, but it also is beyond the scope of this tutorial. See How to Implement a Provider for the Java Cryptography Architecture on the public `java.sun.com` web site for a detailed description of the clearly-defined steps required to implement a provider package supplying one or more cryptography services.

> ## What about Encryption and Decryption?

> > APIs for data encryption and decryption, together with some default algorithm implementations, are released separately in a "Java Cryptography Extension" (JCE) as an add-on package to the JDK, in accordance with U.S. export control regulations. They are not covered by this trail.

| Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson | Search Feedback Form

Copyright 1995-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.