Getting GPG Decryption To Work In Java (Bouncy Castle)

Question 1

I've decided to go with a much different approach, which is to forego the use of bouncy castle altogether and simply use a runtime process instead. For me this solution is working and completely removes the complexity surrounding bouncy castle:

String[] gpgCommands = new String[] {
        "gpg",
        "--passphrase",
        "password",
        "--decrypt",
        "test-files/accounts.txt.gpg"
};

Process gpgProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(gpgCommands);
BufferedReader gpgOutput = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(gpgProcess.getInputStream()));
BufferedReader gpgError = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(gpgProcess.getErrorStream()));

After doing that you need to remember to drain your input stream as your process is execing or your program will probably hang depending on how much you're outputing. See my answer in this thread (and also that of Cameron Skinner and Matthew Wilson who got me on the proper path) for a bit more context: Calling GnuPG in Java via a Runtime Process to encrypt and decrypt files - Decrypt always hangs

Question 2

If anyone is interested to know how to encrypt and decrypt gpg files using bouncy castle openPGP library, check the below java code:

The below are the 4 methods you going to need:

The below method will read and import your secret key from .asc file:

public static PGPSecretKey readSecretKeyFromCol(InputStream in, long keyId) throws IOException, PGPException {
    in = PGPUtil.getDecoderStream(in);
    PGPSecretKeyRingCollection pgpSec = new PGPSecretKeyRingCollection(in, new BcKeyFingerprintCalculator());

    PGPSecretKey key = pgpSec.getSecretKey(keyId);

    if (key == null) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't find encryption key in key ring.");
    }
    return key;
}

The below method will read and import your public key from .asc file:

@SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
    public static PGPPublicKey readPublicKeyFromCol(InputStream in) throws IOException, PGPException {
        in = PGPUtil.getDecoderStream(in);
        PGPPublicKeyRingCollection pgpPub = new PGPPublicKeyRingCollection(in, new BcKeyFingerprintCalculator());
        PGPPublicKey key = null;
        Iterator rIt = pgpPub.getKeyRings();
        while (key == null && rIt.hasNext()) {
            PGPPublicKeyRing kRing = (PGPPublicKeyRing) rIt.next();
            Iterator kIt = kRing.getPublicKeys();
            while (key == null && kIt.hasNext()) {
                PGPPublicKey k = (PGPPublicKey) kIt.next();
                if (k.isEncryptionKey()) {
                    key = k;
                }
            }
        }
        if (key == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't find encryption key in key ring.");
        }
        return key;
    }

The below 2 methods to decrypt and encrypt gpg files:

public void decryptFile(InputStream in, InputStream secKeyIn, InputStream pubKeyIn, char[] pass) throws IOException, PGPException, InvalidCipherTextException {
        Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());

        PGPPublicKey pubKey = readPublicKeyFromCol(pubKeyIn);

        PGPSecretKey secKey = readSecretKeyFromCol(secKeyIn, pubKey.getKeyID());

        in = PGPUtil.getDecoderStream(in);

        JcaPGPObjectFactory pgpFact;


        PGPObjectFactory pgpF = new PGPObjectFactory(in, new BcKeyFingerprintCalculator());

        Object o = pgpF.nextObject();
        PGPEncryptedDataList encList;

        if (o instanceof PGPEncryptedDataList) {

            encList = (PGPEncryptedDataList) o;

        } else {

            encList = (PGPEncryptedDataList) pgpF.nextObject();

        }

        Iterator<PGPPublicKeyEncryptedData> itt = encList.getEncryptedDataObjects();
        PGPPrivateKey sKey = null;
        PGPPublicKeyEncryptedData encP = null;
        while (sKey == null && itt.hasNext()) {
            encP = itt.next();
            secKey = readSecretKeyFromCol(new FileInputStream("PrivateKey.asc"), encP.getKeyID());
            sKey = secKey.extractPrivateKey(new BcPBESecretKeyDecryptorBuilder(new BcPGPDigestCalculatorProvider()).build(pass));
        }
        if (sKey == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Secret key for message not found.");
        }

        InputStream clear = encP.getDataStream(new BcPublicKeyDataDecryptorFactory(sKey));

        pgpFact = new JcaPGPObjectFactory(clear);

        PGPCompressedData c1 = (PGPCompressedData) pgpFact.nextObject();

        pgpFact = new JcaPGPObjectFactory(c1.getDataStream());

        PGPLiteralData ld = (PGPLiteralData) pgpFact.nextObject();
        ByteArrayOutputStream bOut = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

        InputStream inLd = ld.getDataStream();

        int ch;
        while ((ch = inLd.read()) >= 0) {
            bOut.write(ch);
        }

        //System.out.println(bOut.toString());

        bOut.writeTo(new FileOutputStream(ld.getFileName()));
        //return bOut;

    }

    public static void encryptFile(OutputStream out, String fileName, PGPPublicKey encKey) throws IOException, NoSuchProviderException, PGPException {
        Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());

        ByteArrayOutputStream bOut = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

        PGPCompressedDataGenerator comData = new PGPCompressedDataGenerator(PGPCompressedData.ZIP);

        PGPUtil.writeFileToLiteralData(comData.open(bOut), PGPLiteralData.BINARY, new File(fileName));

        comData.close();

        PGPEncryptedDataGenerator cPk = new PGPEncryptedDataGenerator(new BcPGPDataEncryptorBuilder(SymmetricKeyAlgorithmTags.TRIPLE_DES).setSecureRandom(new SecureRandom()));

        cPk.addMethod(new BcPublicKeyKeyEncryptionMethodGenerator(encKey));

        byte[] bytes = bOut.toByteArray();

        OutputStream cOut = cPk.open(out, bytes.length);

        cOut.write(bytes);

        cOut.close();

        out.close();
    }

Now here is how to invoke/run the above:

try {
             decryptFile(new FileInputStream("encryptedFile.gpg"), new FileInputStream("PrivateKey.asc"), new FileInputStream("PublicKey.asc"), "yourKeyPassword".toCharArray());

            PGPPublicKey pubKey = readPublicKeyFromCol(new FileInputStream("PublicKey.asc"));

            encryptFile(new FileOutputStream("encryptedFileOutput.gpg"), "fileToEncrypt.txt", pubKey);




        } catch (PGPException e) {
            fail("exception: " + e.getMessage(), e.getUnderlyingException());
        }

Question 3

To any one looking for an alternative solution, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/42176529/7550201

final InputStream plaintextStream = BouncyGPG
           .decryptAndVerifyStream()
           .withConfig(keyringConfig)
           .andRequireSignatureFromAllKeys("sender@example.com")
           .fromEncryptedInputStream(cipherTextStream)

Long story short: Bouncycastle is programming is often a lot of cargo cult programming and I wrote a library to change that.

Question 4

The first Google result is this. It looks like you are trying to decrypt ElGamal data, but you are not passing in an ElGamal key.

There are two easy possibilities:

Your keyring collection has multiple keyrings.
Your keyring has subkeys.

You've picked DSA with ElGamal encryption, so I suspect at least the latter: Subkeys are signed by the master key; ElGamal is not a signing algorithm (I don't know if DSA and ElGamal can use the same key, but it's generally seen as a good idea to use different keys for different purposes).

I think you want something like this (also, secretKeyRing should probably be renamed to secretKeyRingCollection):

PGPSecretKey secretKey = secretKeyRing.getSecretKey(publicKeyEncryptedData.getKeyID());

Question 5

The error message is difficult because it's not completely accurate. Besides the illegal key size or default parameters the exception doesn't says it could be failing because of crypto permission check fails. That means you haven't setup the JCE permissions properly. You'll need to install the JCE Unlimited Strength Policy.

You can see the debug messages by setting the system property on the jvm

java -Djava.security.debug=access ....