How can I get BouncyCastle to decrypt a GPG-encrypted message?
I have created a GPG key pair at the CentOS 7 command line using gpg --gen-key
. I chose RSA RSA as the encryption types, and I exported the keys using gpg --export-secret-key -a "User Name" > /home/username/username_private.key
and gpg --armor --export 66677FC6 > /home/username/username_pubkey.asc
I am able to import username_pubkey.asc
into a remote Thunderbird client of another email account and successfully send an encrypted email to username@mydomain.com. But when my Java/BouncyCastle code running at mydomain.com tries to decrypt the GPG-encoded data, it gives the following error:
org.bouncycastle.openpgp.PGPException:
Encrypted message contains a signed message - not literal data.
If you look at the code below, you will see this corresponds with the line in PGPUtils.decryptFile()
which states else if (message instanceof PGPOnePassSignatureList) {throw new PGPException("Encrypted message contains a signed message - not literal data.");
The original code for this came from the blog entry at this link, though I made minor changes to get it to compile in Eclipse Luna with Java 7. A user of the linked blog reported the same error, and the blog author replied by saying that it does not work with GPG. So how do I fix this to make it work with GPG?
The Java decryption code starts when the GPG-encoded-file and the GPG-secret-key are passed into Tester.testDecrypt()
as follows:
Tester.java contains:
public InputStream testDecrypt(String input, String output, String passphrase, String skeyfile) throws Exception {
PGPFileProcessor p = new PGPFileProcessor();
p.setInputFileName(input);//this is GPG-encoded data sent from another email address using Thunderbird
p.setOutputFileName(output);
p.setPassphrase(passphrase);
p.setSecretKeyFileName(skeyfile);//this is the GPG-generated key
return p.decrypt();//this line throws the error
}
PGPFileProcessor.java includes:
public InputStream decrypt() throws Exception {
FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(inputFileName);
FileInputStream keyIn = new FileInputStream(secretKeyFileName);
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(outputFileName);
PGPUtils.decryptFile(in, out, keyIn, passphrase.toCharArray());//error thrown here
in.close();
out.close();
keyIn.close();
InputStream result = new FileInputStream(outputFileName);//I changed return type from boolean on 1/27/15
Files.deleteIfExists(Paths.get(outputFileName));//I also added this to accommodate change of return type on 1/27/15
return result;
}
PGPUtils.java includes:
/**
* decrypt the passed in message stream
*/
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static void decryptFile(InputStream in, OutputStream out, InputStream keyIn, char[] passwd)
throws Exception
{
Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
in = org.bouncycastle.openpgp.PGPUtil.getDecoderStream(in);
//1/26/15 added Jca prefix to avoid eclipse warning, also used https://www.bouncycastle.org/docs/pgdocs1.5on/index.html
PGPObjectFactory pgpF = new JcaPGPObjectFactory(in);
PGPEncryptedDataList enc;
Object o = pgpF.nextObject();
//
// the first object might be a PGP marker packet.
//
if (o instanceof PGPEncryptedDataList) {enc = (PGPEncryptedDataList) o;}
else {enc = (PGPEncryptedDataList) pgpF.nextObject();}
//
// find the secret key
//
Iterator<PGPPublicKeyEncryptedData> it = enc.getEncryptedDataObjects();
PGPPrivateKey sKey = null;
PGPPublicKeyEncryptedData pbe = null;
while (sKey == null && it.hasNext()) {
pbe = it.next();
sKey = findPrivateKey(keyIn, pbe.getKeyID(), passwd);
}
if (sKey == null) {throw new IllegalArgumentException("Secret key for message not found.");}
InputStream clear = pbe.getDataStream(new BcPublicKeyDataDecryptorFactory(sKey));
//1/26/15 added Jca prefix to avoid eclipse warning, also used https://www.bouncycastle.org/docs/pgdocs1.5on/index.html
PGPObjectFactory plainFact = new JcaPGPObjectFactory(clear);
Object message = plainFact.nextObject();
if (message instanceof PGPCompressedData) {
PGPCompressedData cData = (PGPCompressedData) message;
//1/26/15 added Jca prefix to avoid eclipse warning, also used https://www.bouncycastle.org/docs/pgdocs1.5on/index.html
PGPObjectFactory pgpFact = new JcaPGPObjectFactory(cData.getDataStream());
message = pgpFact.nextObject();
}
if (message instanceof PGPLiteralData) {
PGPLiteralData ld = (PGPLiteralData) message;
InputStream unc = ld.getInputStream();
int ch;
while ((ch = unc.read()) >= 0) {out.write(ch);}
} else if (message instanceof PGPOnePassSignatureList) {
throw new PGPException("Encrypted message contains a signed message - not literal data.");
} else {
throw new PGPException("Message is not a simple encrypted file - type unknown.");
}
if (pbe.isIntegrityProtected()) {
if (!pbe.verify()) {throw new PGPException("Message failed integrity check");}
}
}
/**
* Load a secret key ring collection from keyIn and find the private key corresponding to
* keyID if it exists.
*
* @param keyIn input stream representing a key ring collection.
* @param keyID keyID we want.
* @param pass passphrase to decrypt secret key with.
* @return
* @throws IOException
* @throws PGPException
* @throws NoSuchProviderException
*/
public static PGPPrivateKey findPrivateKey(InputStream keyIn, long keyID, char[] pass)
throws IOException, PGPException, NoSuchProviderException
{
//1/26/15 added Jca prefix to avoid eclipse warning, also used https://www.bouncycastle.org/docs/pgdocs1.5on/index.html
PGPSecretKeyRingCollection pgpSec = new JcaPGPSecretKeyRingCollection(PGPUtil.getDecoderStream(keyIn));
return findPrivateKey(pgpSec.getSecretKey(keyID), pass);
}
/**
* Load a secret key and find the private key in it
* @param pgpSecKey The secret key
* @param pass passphrase to decrypt secret key with
* @return
* @throws PGPException
*/
public static PGPPrivateKey findPrivateKey(PGPSecretKey pgpSecKey, char[] pass)
throws PGPException
{
if (pgpSecKey == null) return null;
PBESecretKeyDecryptor decryptor = new BcPBESecretKeyDecryptorBuilder(new BcPGPDigestCalculatorProvider()).build(pass);
return pgpSecKey.extractPrivateKey(decryptor);
}
The complete code of all three Java files can be found on a file sharing site by clicking on this link.
The complete stack trace for the error can be found by clicking on this link.
For reference, the GUI instructions for encryption by the remote Thunderbird sender are summarized in the following screen shot:
I have read many postings and links about this. In particular, this other SO posting looks similar, but is different. My Keys use RSA RSA, but the other posting does not.
EDIT#1
As per @DavidHook's suggestion, I have read SignedFileProcessor, and I am starting to read the much longer RFC 4880. However, I need actual working code to study in order to understand this. Most people who find this via google searches will also need working code to illustrate the examples.
For reference, the SignedFileProcessor.verifyFile()
method recommended by @DavidHook is as follows. How should this be customized to fix the problems in the code above?
private static void verifyFile(InputStream in, InputStream keyIn) throws Exception {
in = PGPUtil.getDecoderStream(in);
PGPObjectFactory pgpFact = new PGPObjectFactory(in);
PGPCompressedData c1 = (PGPCompressedData)pgpFact.nextObject();
pgpFact = new PGPObjectFactory(c1.getDataStream());
PGPOnePassSignatureList p1 = (PGPOnePassSignatureList)pgpFact.nextObject();
PGPOnePassSignature ops = p1.get(0);
PGPLiteralData p2 = (PGPLiteralData)pgpFact.nextObject();
InputStream dIn = p2.getInputStream();
int ch;
PGPPublicKeyRingCollection pgpRing = new PGPPublicKeyRingCollection(PGPUtil.getDecoderStream(keyIn));
PGPPublicKey key = pgpRing.getPublicKey(ops.getKeyID());
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(p2.getFileName());
ops.initVerify(key, "BC");
while ((ch = dIn.read()) >= 0){
ops.update((byte)ch);
out.write(ch);
}
out.close();
PGPSignatureList p3 = (PGPSignatureList)pgpFact.nextObject();
if (ops.verify(p3.get(0))){System.out.println("signature verified.");}
else{System.out.println("signature verification failed.");}
}
EDIT#2
The SignedFileProcessor.verifyFile()
method recommended by @DavidHook is almost identical to the PGPUtils.verifyFile()
method in my code above, except that PGPUtils.verifyFile()
makes a copy of extractContentFile
and calls PGPOnePassSignature.init()
instead of PGPOnePassSignature.initVerify()
. This may be due to a version difference. Also, PGPUtils.verifyFile()
returns a boolean, while SignedFileProcessor.verifyFile()
gives SYSO for the two boolean values and returns void after the SYSO.
If I interpret @JRichardSnape's comments correctly, this means that the verifyFile()
method might best be called upstream to confirm the signature of the incoming file using the sender's public key, and then, if the signature on the file is verified, using another method to decrypt the file using the recipient's private key. Is this correct? If so, how do I restructure the code to accomplish this?