Java

Export a PKCS #8 Private Key as Encoded Text

Demonstrates the Chilkat PrivateKey.GetPkcs8ENC method, which exports the key as unencrypted PKCS #8 DER and encodes the DER bytes as text. The only argument names the binary encoding, such as base64 or hex.

Note: The file paths are relative to the application's current working directory. Absolute paths may also be used. Supply the paths appropriate to your own environment.

Background: DER is the compact binary form of a key; this method hands it back as encoded text so it can travel through channels that expect a string — a JSON field, a database column, a config value. It is the string-returning alternative to writing raw DER bytes, and choosing base64 versus hex is just a matter of what the consumer expects. The DER itself is unencrypted, so the encoded text is still sensitive.

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import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.ChilkatException;
import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.PrivateKey;

public class ChilkatExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Load a private key to export.
        PrivateKey privKey = new PrivateKey();
        String encoded;
        try {
            privKey.loadPemFile("qa_data/private.pem");

            // Export as unencrypted PKCS #8 DER, then encode the DER bytes as text.  The only argument names
            // the binary encoding, such as "base64" or "hex".
            encoded = privKey.getPkcs8ENC("base64");
        } catch (ChilkatException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getLastErrorText());
            return;
        }

        System.out.println(encoded);
    }
}