How to encrypt String in Java

Question

What I need is to encrypt string which will show up in 2D barcode(PDF-417) so when someone get an idea to scan it will get nothing readable.

Other requirements:

Answer 1

Here is a copy/paste solution. I also recommend reading and voting for @Konstantino's answer even though it doesn't provider any code. The initialization vector (IV) is like a salt - it doesn't have to be kept secret. I am new to GCM and apparently AAD is optional and only used in certain circumstances. Set the key in the environment variable SECRET_KEY_BASE. Use something like KeePass to generate a 32 character password. This solution is modeled after my Ruby solution.

    public static String encrypt(String s) {
        try {
            byte[] input = s.getBytes("UTF-8");
            String keyString = System.getProperty("SECRET_KEY_BASE", System.getenv("SECRET_KEY_BASE"));
            if (keyString == null || keyString.length() == 0) {
                Logger.error(Utils.class, "encrypt()", "$SECRET_KEY_BASE is not set.");
                return null;
            }
            byte[] keyBytes = keyString.getBytes("UTF-8");
            SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "AES");
            // generate IV
            SecureRandom secureRandom = SecureRandom.getInstanceStrong();
            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/GCM/NoPadding");
            byte[] ivBytes = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
            secureRandom.nextBytes(ivBytes);
            GCMParameterSpec gcmSpec = new GCMParameterSpec(96, ivBytes); // 96 bit tag length
            cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, keySpec, gcmSpec);
            // generate AAD
//          byte[] aadBytes = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
//          secureRandom.nextBytes(aadBytes);
//          cipher.updateAAD(aadBytes);
            // encrypt
            byte[] encrypted = cipher.doFinal(input);
            byte[] returnBytes = new byte[ivBytes.length + encrypted.length];
//          byte[] returnBytes = new byte[ivBytes.length + aadBytes.length + encrypted.length];
            System.arraycopy(ivBytes, 0, returnBytes, 0, ivBytes.length);
//          System.arraycopy(aadBytes, 0, returnBytes, ivBytes.length, aadBytes.length);
            System.arraycopy(encrypted, 0, returnBytes, ivBytes.length, encrypted.length);
//          System.arraycopy(encrypted, 0, returnBytes, ivBytes.length+aadBytes.length, encrypted.length);
            String encryptedString = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(returnBytes);
            return encryptedString;
        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException | NoSuchAlgorithmException | NoSuchPaddingException | InvalidKeyException | 
                InvalidAlgorithmParameterException | IllegalBlockSizeException | BadPaddingException e) {
            Logger.error(Utils.class, "encrypt()", "Could not encrypt string: " + e.getMessage());
            return null;
        }
    }

    public static String decrypt(String s) {
        if (s == null || s.length() == 0) return "";
        try {
            byte[] encrypted = Base64.getDecoder().decode(s);
            String keyString = System.getProperty("SECRET_KEY_BASE", System.getenv("SECRET_KEY_BASE"));
            if (keyString == null || keyString.length() == 0) {
                Logger.error(Utils.class, "encrypt()", "$SECRET_KEY_BASE is not set.");
                return null;
            }
            byte[] keyBytes = keyString.getBytes("UTF-8");
            SecretKeySpec keySpec = new SecretKeySpec(keyBytes, "AES");
            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/GCM/NoPadding");
            byte[] ivBytes = new byte[cipher.getBlockSize()];
            System.arraycopy(encrypted, 0, ivBytes, 0, ivBytes.length);
            GCMParameterSpec gcmSpec = new GCMParameterSpec(96, ivBytes);
            cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, keySpec, gcmSpec);
//          cipher.updateAAD(encrypted, ivBytes.length, cipher.getBlockSize());
            byte[] decrypted = cipher.doFinal(encrypted, cipher.getBlockSize(), encrypted.length - cipher.getBlockSize());
//          byte[] decrypted = cipher.doFinal(encrypted, cipher.getBlockSize()*2, encrypted.length - cipher.getBlockSize()*2);
            String decryptedString = new String(decrypted, "UTF-8");
            return decryptedString;
        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException | NoSuchPaddingException | UnsupportedEncodingException | InvalidKeyException | 
                InvalidAlgorithmParameterException | IllegalBlockSizeException | BadPaddingException e) {
            Logger.error(Utils.class, "decrypt()", "Could not decrypt string: " + e.getMessage());
            return null;
        }
    }

Here is an example:

    String s = "This is a test.";
    String enc = Utils.encrypt(s);
    System.out.println(enc);
    // fQHfYjbD+xAuN5XzH2ojk/EWNeKXUrKRSfx8LU+5dpuKkM/pueCMBjKCZw==
    String dec = Utils.decrypt(enc);
    System.out.println(dec);
    // This is a test.