How do I use 3DES encryption/decryption in Java?

Question

Every method I write to encode a string in Java using 3DES can't be decrypted back to the original string. Does anyone have a simple code snippet that can just encode and then decode the string back to the original string?

I know I'm making a very silly mistake somewhere in this code. Here's what I've been working with so far:

** note, I am not returning the BASE64 text from the encrypt method, and I am not base64 un-encoding in the decrypt method because I was trying to see if I was making a mistake in the BASE64 part of the puzzle.

public class TripleDESTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        String text = "kyle boon";

        byte[] codedtext = new TripleDESTest().encrypt(text);
        String decodedtext  = new TripleDESTest().decrypt(codedtext);

        System.out.println(codedtext);
        System.out.println(decodedtext);
    }

    public byte[] encrypt(String message) {
        try {
            final MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("md5");
            final byte[] digestOfPassword = md.digest("HG58YZ3CR9".getBytes("utf-8"));
            final byte[] keyBytes = Arrays.copyOf(digestOfPassword, 24);
            for (int j = 0,  k = 16; j < 8;)
            {
                keyBytes[k++] = keyBytes[j++];
            }

            final SecretKey key = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "DESede");
            final IvParameterSpec iv = new IvParameterSpec(new byte[8]);
            final Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESede/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
            cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key, iv);

            final byte[] plainTextBytes = message.getBytes("utf-8");
            final byte[] cipherText = cipher.doFinal(plainTextBytes);
            final String encodedCipherText = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(cipherText);

            return cipherText;    
        }
        catch (java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Algorithm"); }
        catch (javax.crypto.NoSuchPaddingException e) { System.out.println("No Such Padding"); }
        catch (java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException e) { System.out.println("No Such Algorithm"); }
        catch (java.security.InvalidKeyException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key"); }
        catch (BadPaddingException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key");}
        catch (IllegalBlockSizeException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key");}
        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key");}

        return null;
    }

    public String decrypt(byte[] message) {
        try
        {
            final MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("md5");
            final byte[] digestOfPassword = md.digest("HG58YZ3CR9".getBytes("utf-8"));
            final byte[] keyBytes = Arrays.copyOf(digestOfPassword, 24);
            for (int j = 0,  k = 16; j < 8;)
            {
                keyBytes[k++] = keyBytes[j++];
            }

            final SecretKey key = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "DESede");
            final IvParameterSpec iv = new IvParameterSpec(new byte[8]);
            final Cipher decipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESede/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
            decipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key, iv);

            //final byte[] encData = new sun.misc.BASE64Decoder().decodeBuffer(message);
            final byte[] plainText = decipher.doFinal(message);

            return plainText.toString();            
        }
        catch (java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Algorithm"); }
        catch (javax.crypto.NoSuchPaddingException e) { System.out.println("No Such Padding"); }
        catch (java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException e) { System.out.println("No Such Algorithm"); }
        catch (java.security.InvalidKeyException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key"); }
        catch (BadPaddingException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key");}
        catch (IllegalBlockSizeException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key");}
        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) { System.out.println("Invalid Key");}     
        catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return null;
    }
}

Answer 1

Here's a very simply static encrypt/decrypt class biased on the Bouncy Castle no padding example by Jose Luis Montes de Oca. This one is using "DESede/ECB/PKCS7Padding" so I don't have to bother manually padding.

    package com.zenimax.encryption;

    import java.security.InvalidKeyException;
    import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
    import java.security.NoSuchProviderException;
    import java.security.Security;
    import javax.crypto.BadPaddingException;
    import javax.crypto.Cipher;
    import javax.crypto.IllegalBlockSizeException;
    import javax.crypto.NoSuchPaddingException;
    import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
    import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
    import org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider;

    /**
     * 
     * @author Matthew H. Wagner
     */
    public class TripleDesBouncyCastle {
        private static String TRIPLE_DES_TRANSFORMATION = "DESede/ECB/PKCS7Padding";
        private static String ALGORITHM = "DESede";
        private static String BOUNCY_CASTLE_PROVIDER = "BC";

        private static void init()
        {
            Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
        }

        public static byte[] encode(byte[] input, byte[] key)
                throws IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException,
                NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchProviderException,
                NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException {
            init();
            SecretKey keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(key, ALGORITHM);
            Cipher encrypter = Cipher.getInstance(TRIPLE_DES_TRANSFORMATION,
                    BOUNCY_CASTLE_PROVIDER);
            encrypter.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, keySpec);
            return encrypter.doFinal(input);
        }

        public static byte[] decode(byte[] input, byte[] key)
                throws IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException,
                NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchProviderException,
                NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException {
            init();
            SecretKey keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(key, ALGORITHM);
            Cipher decrypter = Cipher.getInstance(TRIPLE_DES_TRANSFORMATION,
                    BOUNCY_CASTLE_PROVIDER);
            decrypter.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, keySpec);
            return decrypter.doFinal(input);
        }
    }

Answer 2

I had hard times figuring it out myself and this post helped me to find the right answer for my case. When working with financial messaging as ISO-8583 the 3DES requirements are quite specific, so for my especial case the "DESede/CBC/PKCS5Padding" combinations wasn't solving the problem. After some comparative testing of my results against some 3DES calculators designed for the financial world I found the the value "DESede/ECB/Nopadding" is more suited for the the specific task.

Here is a demo implementation of my TripleDes class (using the Bouncy Castle provider)

    import java.security.InvalidKeyException;
    import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
    import java.security.NoSuchProviderException;
    import java.security.Security;
    import javax.crypto.BadPaddingException;
    import javax.crypto.Cipher;
    import javax.crypto.IllegalBlockSizeException;
    import javax.crypto.NoSuchPaddingException;
    import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
    import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
    import org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider;


    /**
     *
     * @author Jose Luis Montes de Oca
     */
    public class TripleDesCipher {
       private static String TRIPLE_DES_TRANSFORMATION = "DESede/ECB/Nopadding";
       private static String ALGORITHM = "DESede";
       private static String BOUNCY_CASTLE_PROVIDER = "BC";
       private Cipher encrypter;
       private Cipher decrypter;

       public TripleDesCipher(byte[] key) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchProviderException, NoSuchPaddingException,
             InvalidKeyException {
          Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
          SecretKey keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(key, ALGORITHM);
          encrypter = Cipher.getInstance(TRIPLE_DES_TRANSFORMATION, BOUNCY_CASTLE_PROVIDER);
          encrypter.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, keySpec);
          decrypter = Cipher.getInstance(TRIPLE_DES_TRANSFORMATION, BOUNCY_CASTLE_PROVIDER);
          decrypter.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, keySpec);
       }

       public byte[] encode(byte[] input) throws IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {
          return encrypter.doFinal(input);
       }

       public byte[] decode(byte[] input) throws IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {
          return decrypter.doFinal(input);
       }
    }

Answer 3

Here is a solution using the javax.crypto library and the apache commons codec library for encoding and decoding in Base64:

import java.security.spec.KeySpec;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
import javax.crypto.SecretKeyFactory;
import javax.crypto.spec.DESedeKeySpec;
import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;

public class TrippleDes {

    private static final String UNICODE_FORMAT = "UTF8";
    public static final String DESEDE_ENCRYPTION_SCHEME = "DESede";
    private KeySpec ks;
    private SecretKeyFactory skf;
    private Cipher cipher;
    byte[] arrayBytes;
    private String myEncryptionKey;
    private String myEncryptionScheme;
    SecretKey key;

    public TrippleDes() throws Exception {
        myEncryptionKey = "ThisIsSpartaThisIsSparta";
        myEncryptionScheme = DESEDE_ENCRYPTION_SCHEME;
        arrayBytes = myEncryptionKey.getBytes(UNICODE_FORMAT);
        ks = new DESedeKeySpec(arrayBytes);
        skf = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance(myEncryptionScheme);
        cipher = Cipher.getInstance(myEncryptionScheme);
        key = skf.generateSecret(ks);
    }


    public String encrypt(String unencryptedString) {
        String encryptedString = null;
        try {
            cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key);
            byte[] plainText = unencryptedString.getBytes(UNICODE_FORMAT);
            byte[] encryptedText = cipher.doFinal(plainText);
            encryptedString = new String(Base64.encodeBase64(encryptedText));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return encryptedString;
    }


    public String decrypt(String encryptedString) {
        String decryptedText=null;
        try {
            cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key);
            byte[] encryptedText = Base64.decodeBase64(encryptedString);
            byte[] plainText = cipher.doFinal(encryptedText);
            decryptedText= new String(plainText);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return decryptedText;
    }


    public static void main(String args []) throws Exception
    {
        TrippleDes td= new TrippleDes();

        String target="imparator";
        String encrypted=td.encrypt(target);
        String decrypted=td.decrypt(encrypted);

        System.out.println("String To Encrypt: "+ target);
        System.out.println("Encrypted String:" + encrypted);
        System.out.println("Decrypted String:" + decrypted);

    }

}

Running the above program results with the following output:

String To Encrypt: imparator
Encrypted String:FdBNaYWfjpWN9eYghMpbRA==
Decrypted String:imparator

Answer 4

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.security.Key;
import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.SecretKeyFactory;
import javax.crypto.spec.DESedeKeySpec;
import javax.crypto.spec.IvParameterSpec;
import java.util.Base64;
import java.util.Base64.Encoder;


/**
 * 
 * @author shivshankar pal
 * 
 *         this code is working properly. doing proper encription and decription
           note:- it will work only with jdk8

 * 

 * 
 */

public class TDes {
    private static byte[] key = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
            0x00, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x02, 0x02,
            0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02 };

    private static byte[] keyiv = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
            0x00 };



     public static String encode(String args) {


        System.out.println("plain data==>  " + args);

        byte[] encoding;
        try {
            encoding = Base64.getEncoder().encode(args.getBytes("UTF-8"));

        System.out.println("Base64.encodeBase64==>" + new String(encoding));
        byte[] str5 = des3EncodeCBC(key, keyiv, encoding);

        System.out.println("des3EncodeCBC==>  " + new String(str5));

        byte[] encoding1 = Base64.getEncoder().encode(str5);
        System.out.println("Base64.encodeBase64==> " + new String(encoding1));
        return new String(encoding1);
        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return null;
    }


    public static String decode(String args) {
        try {
            System.out.println("encrypted data==>" + new String(args.getBytes("UTF-8")));


        byte[] decode = Base64.getDecoder().decode(args.getBytes("UTF-8"));
        System.out.println("Base64.decodeBase64(main encription)==>" + new String(decode));

        byte[] str6 = des3DecodeCBC(key, keyiv, decode);
        System.out.println("des3DecodeCBC==>" + new String(str6));
        String data=new String(str6);
        byte[] decode1 = Base64.getDecoder().decode(data.trim().getBytes("UTF-8"));
        System.out.println("plaintext==>  " + new String(decode1));
        return new String(decode1);
        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return "u mistaken in try block";

        }



    private static byte[] des3EncodeCBC(byte[] key, byte[] keyiv, byte[] data) {
        try {
            Key deskey = null;
            DESedeKeySpec spec = new DESedeKeySpec(key);
            SecretKeyFactory keyfactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("desede");
            deskey = keyfactory.generateSecret(spec);

            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("desede/ CBC/PKCS5Padding");
            IvParameterSpec ips = new IvParameterSpec(keyiv);
            cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, deskey, ips);
            byte[] bout = cipher.doFinal(data);
            return bout;

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("methods qualified name" + e);
        }
        return null;

    }

    private static byte[] des3DecodeCBC(byte[] key, byte[] keyiv, byte[] data) {
        try {
            Key deskey = null;
            DESedeKeySpec spec = new DESedeKeySpec(key);
            SecretKeyFactory keyfactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("desede");
            deskey = keyfactory.generateSecret(spec);

            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("desede/ CBC/NoPadding");//PKCS5Padding NoPadding
            IvParameterSpec ips = new IvParameterSpec(keyiv);
            cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, deskey, ips);

            byte[] bout = cipher.doFinal(data);


            return bout;

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("methods qualified name" + e);
        }

        return null;

    }

}

Answer 5

Your code was fine except for the Base 64 encoding bit (which you mentioned was a test), the reason the output may not have made sense is that you were displaying a raw byte array (doing toString() on a byte array returns its internal Java reference, not the String representation of the contents). Here's a version that's just a teeny bit cleaned up and which prints "kyle boon" as the decoded string:

import java.security.MessageDigest;
import java.util.Arrays;

import javax.crypto.Cipher;
import javax.crypto.SecretKey;
import javax.crypto.spec.IvParameterSpec;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;

public class TripleDESTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        String text = "kyle boon";

        byte[] codedtext = new TripleDESTest().encrypt(text);
        String decodedtext = new TripleDESTest().decrypt(codedtext);

        System.out.println(codedtext); // this is a byte array, you'll just see a reference to an array
        System.out.println(decodedtext); // This correctly shows "kyle boon"
    }

    public byte[] encrypt(String message) throws Exception {
        final MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("md5");
        final byte[] digestOfPassword = md.digest("HG58YZ3CR9"
                .getBytes("utf-8"));
        final byte[] keyBytes = Arrays.copyOf(digestOfPassword, 24);
        for (int j = 0, k = 16; j < 8;) {
            keyBytes[k++] = keyBytes[j++];
        }

        final SecretKey key = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "DESede");
        final IvParameterSpec iv = new IvParameterSpec(new byte[8]);
        final Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESede/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
        cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key, iv);

        final byte[] plainTextBytes = message.getBytes("utf-8");
        final byte[] cipherText = cipher.doFinal(plainTextBytes);
        // final String encodedCipherText = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder()
        // .encode(cipherText);

        return cipherText;
    }

    public String decrypt(byte[] message) throws Exception {
        final MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("md5");
        final byte[] digestOfPassword = md.digest("HG58YZ3CR9"
                .getBytes("utf-8"));
        final byte[] keyBytes = Arrays.copyOf(digestOfPassword, 24);
        for (int j = 0, k = 16; j < 8;) {
            keyBytes[k++] = keyBytes[j++];
        }

        final SecretKey key = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "DESede");
        final IvParameterSpec iv = new IvParameterSpec(new byte[8]);
        final Cipher decipher = Cipher.getInstance("DESede/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
        decipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key, iv);

        // final byte[] encData = new
        // sun.misc.BASE64Decoder().decodeBuffer(message);
        final byte[] plainText = decipher.doFinal(message);

        return new String(plainText, "UTF-8");
    }
}