How to implement Java 256-bit AES encryption with CBC

Question

Hi, I've read the following threads and they've helped a little, but I'm looking for a little more info.

How to write AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding encryption and decryption with Initialization Vector Parameter for BlackBerry

Java 256bit AES Encryption

Basically, what I am doing is writing a program that will encrypt a request to be sent over TCP/IP, and then decrypted by a server program. The encryption will need to be AES, and doing some research I found out I need to use CBC and PKCS5Padding. So basically I need a secret key and an IV as well.

The application I'm developing is for a phone, so I want to use the java security packages to keep the size down. I've got the design done, but unsure of the implementation of the IV and the shared key.

Here's some code:

// My user name
byte[] loginId = "login".getBytes();

byte[] preSharedKey128 = "ACME-1234AC".getBytes();
byte[] preSharedKey192 = "ACME-1234ACME-1234A".getBytes();
// 256 bit key
byte[] preSharedKey256 = "ACME-1234ACME-1234ACME-1234".getBytes();
byte[] preSharedKey = preSharedKey256;

// Initialization Vector
// Required for CBC
byte[] iv ={0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00};
IvParameterSpec ips = new IvParameterSpec(iv);


byte[] encodedKey = new byte[loginId.length + preSharedKey.length];

System.arraycopy(loginId, 0, encodedKey, 0, loginId.length);
System.arraycopy(preSharedKey, 0, encodedKey, loginId.length, preSharedKey.length);

// The SecretKeySpec provides a mechanism for application-specific generation
// of cryptography keys for consumption by the Java Crypto classes.

// Create a key specification first, based on our key input.
SecretKey aesKey = new SecretKeySpec(encodedKey, "AES");

// Create a Cipher for encrypting the data using the key we created.
Cipher encryptCipher;

encryptCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
// Initialize the Cipher with key and parameters
encryptCipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, aesKey, ips);

// Our cleartext
String clearString = "33,8244000,9999,411,5012022517,0.00,0,1,V330";
byte[] cleartext = clearString.getBytes();

// Encrypt the cleartext
byte[] ciphertext = encryptCipher.doFinal(cleartext);

// Now decrypt back again...
// Decryption cipher
Cipher decryptCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding");
// Initialize PBE Cipher with key and parameters
decryptCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, aesKey, ips);

// Decrypt the cleartext
byte[] deciphertext = decryptCipher.doFinal(ciphertext);

In a nutshell what it should do is encrypt some message that can decrypted by the server without the server needing to get a key or IV from the phone. Is there a way I could do this where I could secure the IV and key on the phone, and still have the key and IV known by the server as well? Feel free to tell me to make things more clear if they're not.

Answer 1

Done similar projects in a midlet before, I have following advice for you:

1. There is no secure way to store shared secret on the phone. You can use it but this falls into a category called Security through Obscurity. It's like a "key under mat" kind of security.
2. Don't use 256-bit AES, which is not widely available. You might have to install another JCE. 128-bit AES or TripleDES are still considered secure. Considering #1, you shouldn't worry about this.
3. Encryption using a password (different for each user) is much more secure. But you shouldn't use password as the key like you are showing in the example. Please use PBEKeySpec (password-based encryption) to generate the keys.
4. If you are just worried about MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks, use SSL.