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## Package gnu.crypto.keyring

Provides a basic API for managing private and public authentication credentials stored in file objects.

See:
Description

Interface Summary
IKeyring | The top-level interface to a keyring: a file that is used to store and protect public and private cryptographic keys.
IPrivateKeyring | An interface to private, or "personal", keyrings, which contain private credentials.
IPublicKeyring | An interface for keyrings that contain trusted (by the owner) public credentials (incl.
PasswordProtectedEntry |

Class Summary
AuthenticatedEntry |
BaseKeyring |
BinaryDataEntry | A binary data entry is a primitive entry that simply contains some amount of arbitrary binary data and an optional content type.
CertificateEntry | An immutable class representing a trusted certificate entry.
CertPathEntry | A primitive entry that contains a path of X.509 certificates.
CompressedEntry |
EncryptedEntry |
Entry | An immutable class representing a single entry in a keyring.
EnvelopeEntry | An envelope entry is a generic container for some number of primitive and other envelope entries.
GnuPrivateKeyring | .
GnuPublicKeyring |
MaskableEnvelopeEntry | An envelope entry that can be "masked" -- placed in a state where the envelope's contents cannot be accessed, due to the envelope not being fully decoded, for example.
PasswordAuthenticatedEntry | An entry authenticated with a password-based MAC.
PasswordEncryptedEntry | An envelope that is encrypted with a password-derived key.
PrimitiveEntry | A primitive entry is an entry that contains a single cryptographic entity.
PrivateKeyEntry | An immutable class representing a private or secret key entry.
Properties | A set of `(name => value)` pairs used in keyring entries.
PublicKeyEntry |

Exception Summary
MalformedKeyringException |

## Package gnu.crypto.keyring Description

Provides a basic API for managing private and public authentication credentials stored in file objects.

## Package overview

The GNU Keyring file format is a proposed standard file format for the long-term storage of cryptographic data, such as private keys and digital certificates. This format is being designed with the following goals:

- Protection of trusted credentials, through the use of a password-based MAC (message authentication code) over these credentials.
- Protection of secret credentials, through the use of a password-based MAC over the data, which is encrypted with a strong, password-based cipher.
- Management of disparate types of cryptographic data, such as different types of digital certificate.
- Extensibility. It should be possible to extend the file format when new requirements arise, without undo breakage of existing applications.
- Compatibility with the JDK. This means that it should be possible to use this format as a keystore, so GNU implementations of the Java platform can provide the same functionality as the JDK.

The following two diagrams show the important classes participating in this package. The first one showing the toplevel objects (files) , while the second shows the classes representinf their contents:

The latest draft copy of the GNU Keyring proposal is available from the GNU Crypto home page.

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