The default encryption plug‑in provides classes that can be used to generate different encryption keys. The classes names are SymmetricKeyGenerator and PublicKeyPairGenerator. SymmetricKeyGenerator generates private keys, which are also known as symmetric keys. PublicKeyPairGenerator generates public keys. Both classes require acdefaultsecurity.jar in the classpath.

Both classes take two parameters, the encryption algorithm and the output file, where the generated encrypted key is written. The encryption algorithm is a required parameter. The output file is an optional parameter. If you do not provide the second parameter, the output file is named key.properties and is saved in the current folder. The encryption algorithm values are shown in Table 26‑4.