Why set a password using Jasypt when encrypting text?

encryption, jasypt, java

Solution

It does work and it does require password for encryption and decryption. To simplify the example I have initiated two sessions of StandardPBEStringEncryptor as encryptor and decryptor

public static void main(String[] args) {
    StandardPBEStringEncryptor encryptor = new StandardPBEStringEncryptor();
    encryptor.setPassword("mySecretPassword");        
    String encryptedText = encryptor.encrypt("Hello World");
    System.out.println("Encrypted text is: " + encryptedText);

    StandardPBEStringEncryptor decryptor = new StandardPBEStringEncryptor();
    decryptor.setPassword("mySecretPassword");  
    String decryptedText = decryptor.decrypt(encryptedText);
    System.out.println("Decrypted text is: " + decryptedText);
    }

output:

Encrypted text is: +pBbr+KOb7D6Ap/5vYJIUoHbhOruls+L
Decrypted text is: Hello World

Problem

To encrypt a password I use (modified from http://www.jasypt.org/encrypting-texts.html): ``` BasicTextEncryptor textEncryptor = new BasicTextEncryptor(); textEncryptor.setPassword(myEncryptionPassword); String myEncryptedText = textEncryptor.encrypt(myText); String plainText = textEncryptor.decrypt(myEncryptedText); ``` Why is a password required to be set on `BasicTextEncryptor`? I may be not understanding something fundamental here but does this not make sense, although it does not work : ``` BasicTextEncryptor textEncryptor = new BasicTextEncryptor(); String myEncryptedText = textEncryptor.encrypt(myText); String plainText = textEncryptor.decrypt(myEncryptedText); ```

Original source