iaik.smime.ess.utils
Interface KeyDatabase

All Superinterfaces:

CertificateDatabase

All Known Implementing Classes:

EncryptedKeyStoreDatabase, KeyStoreDatabase

public interface KeyDatabase
extends CertificateDatabase

A simple key database allowing to query for (private, secret) keys based on their key identifiers. The key maybe required to, for instance, decrypt an encrypted S/MIME message (content encryption key).
If private keys are held by this key database it also may allow to access the corresponding certificate chain.

Method Summary

java.security.Key

getKey(KeyIdentifier keyID) Gets the key belonging to the given key identidier.

Methods inherited from interface iaik.smime.ess.utils.CertificateDatabase

getCertificate, getCertificateChain

Method Detail

getKey

java.security.Key getKey(KeyIdentifier keyID)
                         throws KeyDatabaseException

Gets the key belonging to the given key identidier. An application implementing this interface may decide about the way the (e.g. private) key is accessed; e.g. by poping up a dialog asking to enter a password for decrypting the a PBE protected key.

Parameters:

keyID - the key identifier identifying the entity to which the requested key belongs to

Returns:

the key belonging to the given key identifier or null if there is no key for this identifier

Throws:

KeyDatabaseException - if there occurs some problem when trying to fetch the key