Inside Java™ 2 Platform Security: Architecture, API Design, and Implementation, Second Edition

12.8. Security Tools

To assist developers, the Java 2 SDK is delivered with these security tools: the keytool and jarsigner command line tools and the Policy Tool utility, which is a graphical tool invoked via the policytool command. We first describe keystore databases that may be used by the tools and then the keytool and jarsigner security tools. The use of the Policy Tool is not covered in this book.

12.8.1. Keystore Databases

Recall from Section 12.6.2 that a keystore is a protected database that holds certificates and private keys. The default Keystore implementation implements the keystore as a file, as depicted in Figure 12.1. Access to a keystore is guarded by a password, which is chosen at the time the keystore is created. A keystore ...