Trying to convert private and public keys to String format

Question

import java.security.*; public class MyKeyGenerator { private KeyPairGenerator keyGen; private KeyPair pair; private PrivateKey privateKey; private PublicKey publicKey; private Context context; public MyKeyGenerator(Context context, int length)throws Exception{ this.context =context; this.keyGen = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("RSA"); this.keyGen.initialize(length); } public void createKeys(){ this.pair = this.keyGen.generateKeyPair(); this.privateKey = pair.getPrivate(); this.publicKey = pair.getPublic(); } public PrivateKey getPrivateKey(){ return this.privateKey; } public PublicKey getPublicKey(){ return this.publicKey; } public String getPrivateKeyStr(){ byte b [] = this.getPrivateKey().getEncoded(); return new String(b)); } public String getPublicKeyStr(){ byte b [] = this.getPublicKey().getEncoded(); return new String(b)); } }

Hello, I have searched SO for how to convert or get the String representation of a public key or private key, most of the answers were very old and only for how to convert String pubKey ="...."; into a key. I tried to generate the keys and get the encoded bytes and I tried to convert the byte to String as my code shows above, but I am not sure if I am doing it in the right way by simply converting the encoded bytes into a String.

Claudiu Voinescu · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-03 19:37:58Z

The Private/Public Key bytes: byte[] theBytes = key.getEncoded();
Using new String(theBytes) is not so good, because it uses the default Charset (based on OS). Better is to pass the Charset you want (e.g UTF-8) a be consistent in that.
I would suggest to have a HEX representation of the Private/Public keys . There are multiple ways to convert a byte[] into HEX string ( Java code To convert byte to Hexadecimal ). Having the HEX format makes also the key easier to read in some UI. E.g: AA BB CC 22 24 C1 ..
Other option is Base64 format e.g: Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(theBytes). (Java 8)

Thank you, I've checked d link out and learned from it. I think option 2 seems straightforward, so I'd now have new String(b,"utf-8");

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