Appendix C. Identity-Based Key Management
In Java 1.1, the primary tool that was used for key management was
javakey
, which is based heavily on the
Identity
and IdentityScope
classes. The keytool
utility that comes with
Java 2 is a better way to implement key management, and the
KeyStore
class on whichkeytool
is based is definitely more flexible than the
classes on which javakey
is based. In addition,
the javakey database uses some classes and interfaces that have been
deprecated in Java 2 -- primarily the
java.security.Certificate
interface.
Nonetheless, for developers who are
still using 1.1, a key management system based upon the
Identity
and IdentityScope
classes is the only possible solution. In this appendix, we’ll
show how these classes can be used for key management. For each of
the techniques discussed in this appendix there is a complementary
technique in the KeyStore
class. In addition,
the Identity
and IdentityScope
classes have been deprecated in Java 2, so you should really move to
the keystore implementation as soon as possible. As we mentioned in
Chapter 10, keytool
can import
a javakey-based database.
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