Configuration

The algorithm, password and key-obtention iterations can take values in any of these ways:

• Using its default values (except for password).
• Setting an org.jasypt.encryption.pbe.config.PBEConfig object which provides new configuration values. Learn More.
• Calling the corresponding setAlgorithm(...), setProvider(...), setProviderName(...), setPassword(...), setKeyObtentionIterations(...) or setSaltGenerator(...) methods.

And the actual values to be used for initialization will be established by applying the following priorities:

• First, the default values are considered (except for password).
• Then, if a link org.jasypt.encryption.pbe.config.PBEConfig object has been set with setConfig(...), the non-null values returned by its getX() methods override the default values.
• Finally, if the corresponding setX(...) method has been called on the encryptor itself for any of the configuration parameters, the values set by these calls override all of the above.

Initialization

Before it is ready to encrypt, an object of this class has to be initialized. Initialization happens:

• When initialize() is called.
• When encrypt(...) or decrypt(...) are called for the first time, if initialize() has not been called before
• Once an encryptor has been initialized, trying to change its configuration willresult in an AlreadyInitializedException being thrown.

Usage

An encryptor may be used for:

• Encrypting messages, by calling the encrypt(..) method.
• Decrypting messages, by calling the decrypt(...) method.

When using a random salt generator, two encryption results for the same message will always be different (except in the case of random salt coincidence). This enforces security by difficulting brute force attacks on sets of data at a time and forcing attackers to perform a brute force attack on each separate piece of encrypted data.

Learn more

To learn more about the mechanisms involved in encryption, read PKCS #5: Password-Based Cryptography Standard.