Does java cryptography extensions(JCE) come bundled with the JRE?

Question

I need to be certain that jce is available even in JRE environments out of the box. After furious googling I only managed to verify that jce comes bundled with the JDK after Java 1.4. Does the jce come bundled with the plain JRE download as well?

Could you point out where you found the information, so I can verify for myself and know what I missed?

Answer 1

yes, the jce is included in all versions of java these days, relevant announcement.

Answer 2

Have you had a look at $JRE_HOME/lib/jce.jar?

 ~$ jar tvf jce.jar
 6399 Thu Jul 27 16:03:42 CEST 2006 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
 6305 Thu Jul 27 16:03:42 CEST 2006 META-INF/JCE_RSA.SF
 2015 Thu Jul 27 16:03:42 CEST 2006 META-INF/JCE_RSA.RSA
    0 Thu Jul 27 16:03:26 CEST 2006 META-INF/
    0 Thu Jul 27 16:03:24 CEST 2006 javax/
    0 Thu Jul 27 16:03:24 CEST 2006 javax/crypto/
    0 Thu Jul 27 16:03:24 CEST 2006 javax/crypto/interfaces/
  210 Thu Jul 27 16:03:24 CEST 2006 javax/crypto/interfaces/DHKey.class
  330 Thu Jul 27 16:03:24 CEST 2006 javax/crypto/interfaces/DHPublicKey.class
 ...etc

Note that the unlimited strength crypto policy files is (still) a separate download.

Cheers,

Answer 3

As mentioned, the JCE does come with all versions of Java.

However, if you wish to implement certain key sizes, be aware that you will need the Java Unlimited Strength Policy files. This is due to US laws on Key sizes.