1 /* 2 * Copyright (c) 1997, 2007, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 3 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. 4 * 5 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it 6 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as 7 * published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this 8 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided 9 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. 10 * 11 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 12 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 13 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License 14 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that 15 * accompanied this code). 16 * 17 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version 18 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 19 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. 20 * 21 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA 22 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any 23 * questions. 24 */ 25 26 package javax.crypto; 27 28 /** 29 * A secret (symmetric) key. 30 * 31 * <p>This interface contains no methods or constants. 32 * Its only purpose is to group (and provide type safety for) secret keys. 33 * 34 * <p>Provider implementations of this interface must overwrite the 35 * <code>equals</code> and <code>hashCode</code> methods inherited from 36 * <code>java.lang.Object</code>, so that secret keys are compared based on 37 * their underlying key material and not based on reference. 38 * 39 * <p>Keys that implement this interface return the string <code>RAW</code> 40 * as their encoding format (see <code>getFormat</code>), and return the 41 * raw key bytes as the result of a <code>getEncoded</code> method call. (The 42 * <code>getFormat</code> and <code>getEncoded</code> methods are inherited 43 * from the <code>java.security.Key</code> parent interface.) 44 * 45 * @author Jan Luehe 46 * 47 * @see SecretKeyFactory 48 * @see Cipher 49 * @since 1.4 50 */ 51 52 public interface SecretKey extends java.security.Key { 53 /** 54 * The class fingerprint that is set to indicate serialization 55 * compatibility since J2SE 1.4. 56 */ 57 static final long serialVersionUID = -4795878709595146952L; 58 } 59