Generates signatures for Java ARchive (JAR) files, and verifies the signatures of signed JAR files.
jarsigner [ options ] jar-file alias jarsigner -verify [ options ] jar-file
The jarsigner tool is used for two purposes:
- to sign Java ARchive (JAR) files, and
- to verify the signatures and integrity of signed JAR files.
The JAR feature enables the packaging of class files, images, sounds, and other digital data in a single file for faster and easier distribution. A tool named jar enables developers to produce JAR files. (Technically, any zip file can also be considered a JAR file, although when created by jar or processed by jarsigner, JAR files also contain a META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file.)
A digital signature is a string of bits that is computed from some data (the data being "signed") and the private key of an entity (a person, company, etc.). Like a handwritten signature, a digital signature has many useful characteristics:
- Its authenticity can be verified, via a computation that uses the public key corresponding to the private key used to generate the signature.
- It cannot be forged, assuming the private key is kept secret.
- It is a function of the data signed and thus can't be claimed to be the signature for other data as well.
- The signed data cannot be changed; if it is, the signature will no longer verify as being authentic.
In order for an entity's signature to be generated for a file, the entity must first have a public/private key pair associated with it, and also one or more certificates authenticating its public key. A certificate is a digitally signed statement from one entity, saying that the public key of some other entity has a particular value.
jarsigner uses key and certificate information from a keystore to generate digital signatures for JAR files. A keystore is a database of private keys and their associated X.509 certificate chains authenticating the corresponding public keys. The keytool utility is used to create and administer keystores.
jarsigner uses an entity's private key to generate a signature. The signed JAR file contains, among other things, a copy of the certificate from the keystore for the public key corresponding to the private key used to sign the file. jarsigner can verify the digital signature of the signed JAR file using the certificate inside it (in its signature block file).
At this time, jarsigner can only sign JAR files created by the JDK jar tool or zip files. (JAR files are the same as zip files, except they also have a META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file. Such a file will automatically be created when jarsigner signs a zip file.)
The default jarsigner behavior is to sign a JAR (or zip) file. Use the
-verify
option to instead have it verify a signed JAR file.Compatibility with JDK 1.1
The keytool and jarsigner tools completely replace the javakey tool provided in JDK 1.1. These new tools provide more features than javakey, including the ability to protect the keystore and private keys with passwords, and the ability to verify signatures in addition to generating them.
The new keystore architecture replaces the identity database that javakey created and managed. There is no backwards compatibility between the keystore format and the database format used by javakey in 1.1. However,
The following table explains how JAR files that were signed in JDK 1.1.x are treated in JDK 1.2.
- It is possible to import the information from an identity database into a keystore, via the keytool
-identitydb
command.
- jarsigner can sign JAR files also previously signed using javakey.
- jarsigner can verify JAR files signed using javakey. Thus, it recognizes and can work with signer aliases that are from a JDK 1.1 identity database rather than a JDK 1.2 keystore.
JAR File Type
Identity in 1.1 database
Trusted Identity imported into 1.2 keystore from 1.1 database (4)
Policy File grants privileges to Identity/Alias
Privileges Granted
Signed JAR
NO
NO
NO
Default privileges granted to all code.
Unsigned JAR
NO
NO
NO
Default privileges granted to all code.
Signed JAR
NO
YES
NO
Default privileges granted to all code.
Signed JAR
YES/Untrusted
NO
NO
Default privileges granted to all code. (3)
Signed JAR
YES/Untrusted
NO
YES
Default privileges granted to all code. (1,3)
Signed JAR
NO
YES
YES
Default privileges granted to all code plus privileges granted in policy file.
Signed JAR
YES/Trusted
YES
YES
Default privileges granted to all code plus privileges granted in policy file. (2)
Signed JAR
YES/Trusted
NO
NO
All privileges
Signed JAR
YES/Trusted
YES
NO
All privileges (1)
Signed JAR
YES/Trusted
NO
YES
All privileges (1)
Notes:
- If an identity/alias is mentioned in the policy file, it must be imported into the keystore for the policy file to have any effect on privileges granted.
- The policy file/keystore combination has precedence over a trusted identity in the identity database.
- Untrusted identities are ignored in JDK 1.2.
- Only trusted identities can be imported into JDK 1.2 keystores.
Keystore Aliases
All keystore entities are accessed via unique aliases.
When using jarsigner to sign a JAR file, you must specify the alias for the keystore entry containing the private key needed to generate the signature. For example, the following will sign the JAR file named "MyJARFile.jar", using the private key associated with the alias "duke" in the keystore named "mystore" in the "working" directory. Since no output file is specified, it overwrites MyJARFile.jar with the signed JAR file.
jarsigner -keystore /working/mystore -storepass myspass -keypass dukekeypasswd MyJARFile.jar dukeKeystores are protected with a password, so the store password (in this case "myspass") must be specified. You will be prompted for it if you don't specify it on the command line. Similarly, private keys are protected in a keystore with a password, so the private key's password (in this case "dukekeypasswd") must be specified, and you will be prompted for it if you don't specify it on the command line and it isn't the same as the store password.
Keystore Location
jarsigner has a-keystore
option for specifying the URL of the keystore to be used. The keystore is by default stored in a file named .keystore in the user's home directory, as determined by the "user.home" system property. On Solaris systems "user.home" defaults to the user's home directory.Keystore Implementation
TheKeyStore
class provided in thejava.security
package supplies well-defined interfaces to access and modify the information in a keystore. It is possible for there to be multiple different concrete implementations, where each implementation is that for a particular type of keystore.Currently, there are two command-line tools that make use of keystore implementations (keytool and jarsigner), and also a GUI-based tool named Policy Tool. Since
KeyStore
is publicly available, JDK users can write additional security applications that use it.There is a built-in default implementation, provided by Sun Microsystems. It implements the keystore as a file, utilizing a proprietary keystore type (format) named "JKS". It protects each private key with its individual password, and also protects the integrity of the entire keystore with a (possibly different) password.
Keystore implementations are provider-based. More specifically, the application interfaces supplied by
KeyStore
are implemented in terms of a "Service Provider Interface" (SPI). That is, there is a corresponding abstractKeystoreSpi
class, also in thejava.security
package, which defines the Service Provider Interface methods that "providers" must implement. (The term "provider" refers to a package or a set of packages that supply a concrete implementation of a subset of services that can be accessed by the Java Security API.) Thus, to provide a keystore implementation, clients must implement a provider and supply a KeystoreSpi subclass implementation, as described in How to Implement a Provider for the Java Cryptography Architecture.Applications can choose different types of keystore implementations from different providers, using the "getInstance" factory method supplied in the
KeyStore
class. A keystore type defines the storage and data format of the keystore information, and the algorithms used to protect private keys in the keystore and the integrity of the keystore itself. Keystore implementations of different types are not compatible.keytool works on any file-based keystore implementation. (It treats the keytore location that is passed to it at the command line as a filename and converts it to a FileInputStream, from which it loads the keystore information.) The jarsigner and policytool tools, on the other hand, can read a keystore from any location that can be specified using a URL.
For jarsigner and keytool, you can specify a keystore type at the command line, via the -storetype option. For Policy Tool, you can specify a keystore type via the "Change Keystore" command in the Edit menu.
If you don't explicitly specify a keystore type, the tools choose a keystore implementation based simply on the value of the
keystore.type
property specified in the security properties file. The security properties file is called java.security, and it resides in the JDK security properties directory,java.home/lib/security
, where java.home is the runtime environment's directory (the jre directory in the SDK or the top-level directory of the Java 2 Runtime Environment).Each tool gets the
keystore.type
value and then examines all the currently-installed providers until it finds one that implements keystores of that type. It then uses the keystore implementation from that provider.The
KeyStore
class defines a static method namedgetDefaultType
that lets applications and applets retrieve the value of thekeystore.type
property. The following line of code creates an instance of the default keystore type (as specified in thekeystore.type
property):KeyStore keyStore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());The default keystore type is "jks" (the proprietary type of the keystore implementation provided by Sun). This is specified by the following line in the security properties file:
keystore.type=jksTo have the tools utilize a keystore implementation other than the default, change that line to specify a different keystore type.
For example, if you have a provider package that supplies a keystore implementation for a keystore type called "pkcs12", change the line to
keystore.type=pkcs12Note: case doesn't matter in keystore type designations. For example, "JKS" would be considered the same as "jks".Supported Algorithms
At this time, jarsigner can sign a JAR file using either
- DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm) with the SHA-1 digest algorithm, or
- the RSA algorithm with the MD5 digest algorithm.
That is, if the signer's public and private keys are DSA keys, jarsigner will sign the JAR file using the "SHA1withDSA" algorithm. If the signer's keys are RSA keys, jarsigner will attempt to sign the JAR file using the "MD5withRSA" algorithm. This is only possible if there is a statically installed provider supplying an implementation for the "MD5withRSA" algorithm. (There is always a "SHA1withDSA" algorithm available, from the default "SUN" provider.)
The Signed JAR File
When jarsigner is used to sign a JAR file, the output signed JAR file is exactly the same as the input JAR file, except that it has two additional files placed in the META-INF directory:
The base file names for these two files come from the value of the
- a signature file, with a .SF extension, and
- a signature block file, with a .DSA extension.
-sigFile
option. For example, if the option appears as-sigFile MKSIGNthe files are named "MKSIGN.SF" and "MKSIGN.DSA".If no
-sigfile
option appears on the command line, the base file name for the .SF and .DSA files will be the first 8 characters of the alias name specified on the command line, all converted to upper case. If the alias name has fewer than 8 characters, the full alias name is used. If the alias name contains any characters that are not allowed in a signature file name, each such character is converted to an underscore ("_") character in forming the file name. Legal characters include letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens.The Signature (.SF) File
A signature file (the .SF file) looks similar to the manifest file that is always included in a JAR file when jarsigner is used to sign the file. That is, for each source file included in the JAR file, the .SF file has three lines, just as in the manifest file, listing the following:In the manifest file, the SHA digest value for each source file is the digest (hash) of the binary data in the source file. In the .SF file, on the other hand, the digest value for a given source file is the hash of the three lines in the manifest file for the source file.
- the file name,
- the name of the digest algorithm used (SHA), and
- a SHA digest value.
The signature file also, by default, includes a header containing a hash of the whole manifest file. The presence of the header enables verification optimization, as described in JAR File Verification.
The Signature Block (.DSA) File
The .SF file is signed and the signature is placed in the .DSA file. The .DSA file also contains, encoded inside it, the certificate or certificate chain from the keystore which authenticates the public key corresponding to the private key used for signing.JAR File Verification
A successful JAR file verification occurs if the signature(s) are valid, and none of the files that were in the JAR file when the signatures were generated have been changed since then. JAR file verification involves the following steps:
- Verify the signature of the .SF file itself.
That is, the verification ensures that the signature stored in each signature block (.DSA) file was in fact generated using the private key corresponding to the public key whose certificate (or certificate chain) also appears in the .DSA file. It also ensures that the signature is a valid signature of the corresponding signature (.SF) file, and thus the .SF file has not been tampered with.
- Verify the digest listed in each entry in the .SF file with each corresponding section in the manifest.
The .SF file by default includes a header containing a hash of the entire manifest file. When the header is present, then the verification can check to see whether or not the hash in the header indeed matches the hash of the manifest file. If that is the case, verification proceeds to the next step.
If that is not the case, a less optimized verification is required to ensure that the hash in each source file information section in the .SF file equals the hash of its corresponding section in the manifest file (see The Signature (.SF) File).
One reason the hash of the manifest file that is stored in the .SF file header may not equal the hash of the current manifest file would be because one or more files were added to the JAR file (using the
jar
tool) after the signature (and thus the .SF file) was generated. When thejar
tool is used to add files, the manifest file is changed (sections are added to it for the new files), but the .SF file is not. A verification is still considered successful if none of the files that were in the JAR file when the signature was generated have been changed since then, which is the case if the hashes in the non-header sections of the .SF file equal the hashes of the corresponding sections in the manifest file.
- Read each file in the JAR file that has an entry in the .SF file. While reading, compute the file's digest, and then compare the result with the digest for this file in the manifest section. The digests should be the same, or verification fails.
If any serious verification failures occur during the verification process, the process is stopped and a security exception is thrown. It is caught and displayed by jarsigner.
Multiple Signatures for a JAR File
A JAR file can be signed by multiple people simply by running the jarsigner tool on the file multiple times, specifying the alias for a different person each time, as in:jarsigner myBundle.jar susan jarsigner myBundle.jar kevinWhen a JAR file is signed multiple times, there are multiple .SF and .DSA files in the resulting JAR file, one pair for each signature. Thus, in the example above, the output JAR file includes files with the following names:SUSAN.SF SUSAN.DSA KEVIN.SF KEVIN.DSANote: It is also possible for a JAR file to have mixed signatures, some generated by the JDK 1.1 javakey tool and others by jarsigner. That is, jarsigner can be used to sign JAR files already previously signed using javakey.
The various jarsigner options are listed and described below. Note:
- All option names are preceded by a minus sign (-).
- The options may be provided in any order.
- Items in italics (option values) represent the actual values that must be supplied.
- The
-keystore
,-storepass
,-keypass
,-sigfile
, and-signedjar
options are only relevant when signing a JAR file, not when verifying a signed JAR file. Similarly, an alias is only specified on the command line when signing a JAR file.
-keystore
url- Specifies the URL that tells the keystore location. This defaults to the file .keystore in the user's home directory, as determined by the "user.home" system property.
A keystore is required when signing, so you must explicitly specify one if the default keystore does not exist (or you want to use one other than the default).
A keystore is not required when verifying, but if one is specified, or the default exists, and the
-verbose
option was also specified, additional information is output regarding whether or not any of the certificates used to verify the JAR file are contained in that keystore.Note: the
-keystore
argument can actually be a file name (and path) specification rather than a URL, in which case it will be treated the same as a "file:" URL. That is,-keystore filePathAndNameis treated as equivalent to-keystore file:filePathAndName
-storetype
storetype- Specifies the type of keystore to be instantiated. The default keystore type is the one that is specified as the value of the "keystore.type" property in the security properties file, which is returned by the static
getDefaultType
method injava.security.KeyStore
.
-storepass
password- Specifies the password which is required to access the keystore. This is only needed when signing (not verifying) a JAR file. In that case, if a
-storepass
option is not provided at the command line, the user is prompted for the password.Note: The password shouldn't be specified on the command line or in a script unless it is for testing purposes, or you are on a secure system. Also, when typing in a password at the password prompt, the password is echoed (displayed exactly as typed), so be careful not to type it in front of anyone.
-keypass
password- Specifies the password used to protect the private key of the keystore entry addressed by the alias specified on the command line. The password is required when using jarsigner to sign a JAR file. If no password is provided on the command line, and the required password is different from the store password, the user is prompted for it.
Note: The password shouldn't be specified on the command line or in a script unless it is for testing purposes, or you are on a secure system. Also, when typing in a password at the password prompt, the password is echoed (displayed exactly as typed), so be careful not to type it in front of anyone.
-sigfile
file- Specifies the base file name to be used for the generated .SF and .DSA files. For example, if file is "DUKESIGN", the generated .SF and .DSA files will be named "DUKESIGN.SF" and "DUKESIGN.DSA", and will be placed in the "META-INF" directory of the signed JAR file.
The characters in file must come from the set "a-zA-Z0-9_-". That is, only letters, numbers, underscore, and hyphen characters are allowed. Note: All lowercase characters will be converted to uppercase for the .SF and .DSA file names.
If no
-sigfile
option appears on the command line, the base file name for the .SF and .DSA files will be the first 8 characters of the alias name specified on the command line, all converted to upper case. If the alias name has fewer than 8 characters, the full alias name is used. If the alias name contains any characters that are not legal in a signature file name, each such character is converted to an underscore ("_") character in forming the file name.
-signedjar
file- Specifies the name to be used for the signed JAR file.
If no name is specified on the command line, the name used is the same as the input JAR file name (the name of the JAR file to be signed); in other words, that file is overwritten with the signed JAR file.
-verify
- If this appears on the command line, the specified JAR file will be verified, not signed. If the verification is successful, "jar verified" will be displayed. If you try to verify an unsigned JAR file, or a JAR file signed with an unsupported algorithm (e.g., RSA when you don't have an RSA provider installed), the following is displayed: "jar is unsigned. (signatures missing or not parsable)"
It is possible to verify JAR files signed using either jarsigner or the JDK 1.1 javakey tool, or both.
For further information on verification, see JAR File Verification.
-certs
- If this appears on the command line, along with the
-verify
and-verbose
options, the output includes certificate information for each signer of the JAR file. This information includes
- the name of the type of certificate (stored in the .DSA file) that certifies the signer's public key
- if the certificate is an X.509 certificate (more specifically, an instance of
java.security.cert.X509Certificate
): the distinguished name of the signerThe keystore is also examined. If no keystore value is specified on the command line, the default keystore file (if any) will be checked. If the public key certificate for a signer matches an entry in the keystore, then the following information will also be displayed:
- in parentheses, the alias name for the keystore entry for that signer. If the signer actually comes from a JDK 1.1 identity database instead of from a keystore, the alias name will appear in brackets instead of parentheses.
-verbose
- If this appears on the command line, it indicates "verbose" mode, which causes jarsigner to output extra information as to the progress of the JAR signing or verification.
-internalsf
- In the past, the .DSA (signature block) file generated when a JAR file was signed used to include a complete encoded copy of the .SF file (signature file) also generated. This behavior has been changed. To reduce the overall size of the output JAR file, the .DSA file by default doesn't contain a copy of the .SF file anymore. But if
-internalsf
appears on the command line, the old behavior is utilized. This option is mainly useful for testing; in practice, it should not be used, since doing so eliminates a useful optimization.
-sectionsonly
- If this appears on the command line, the .SF file (signature file) generated when a JAR file is signed does not include a header containing a hash of the whole manifest file. It just contains information and hashes related to each individual source file included in the JAR file, as described in The Signature (.SF) File .
By default, this header is added, as an optimization. When the header is present, then whenever the JAR file is verified, the verification can first check to see whether or not the hash in the header indeed matches the hash of the whole manifest file. If so, verification proceeds to the next step. If not, it is necessary to do a less optimized verification that the hash in each source file information section in the .SF file equals the hash of its corresponding section in the manifest file.
For further information, see JAR File Verification.
This option is mainly useful for testing; in practice, it should not be used, since doing so eliminates a useful optimization.
-J
javaoption- Passes through the specified javaoption string directly to the Java interpreter. (jarsigner is actually a "wrapper" around the interpreter.) This option should not contain any spaces. It is useful for adjusting the execution environment or memory usage. For a list of possible interpreter options, type
java -h
orjava -X
at the command line.
Signing a JAR File
Suppose you have a JAR file named "bundle.jar" and you'd like to sign it using the private key of the user whose keystore alias is "jane" in the keystore named "mystore" in the "working" directory. Suppose the keystore password is "myspass" and the password for jane's private key is "j638klm". You can use the following to sign the JAR file and name the signed JAR file "sbundle.jar":
jarsigner -keystore /working/mystore -storepass myspass -keypass j638klm -signedjar sbundle.jar bundle.jar janeNote that there is no
-sigfile
specified in the command above, so the generated .SF and .DSA files to be placed in the signed JAR file will have default names based on the alias name. That is, they will be namedJANE.SF
andJANE.DSA
.If you want to be prompted for the store password and the private key password, you could shorten the above command to
jarsigner -keystore /working/mystore -signedjar sbundle.jar bundle.jar janeIf the keystore to be used is the default keystore (the one named ".keystore" in your home directory), you don't need to specify a keystore, as in:jarsigner -signedjar sbundle.jar bundle.jar janeFinally, if you want the signed JAR file to simply overwrite the input JAR file (bundle.jar
), you don't need to specify a-signedjar
option:jarsigner bundle.jar janeVerifying a Signed JAR File
To verify a signed JAR file, that is, to verify that the signature is valid and the JAR file has not been tampered with, use a command such as the following:jarsigner -verify sbundle.jarIf the verification is successful,
jar verified.is displayed. Otherwise, an error message appears.You can get more information if you use the
-verbose
option. A sample use of jarsigner with the-verbose
option is shown below, along with sample output:jarsigner -verify -verbose sbundle.jar 198 Fri Sep 26 16:14:06 PDT 1997 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF 199 Fri Sep 26 16:22:10 PDT 1997 META-INF/JANE.SF 1013 Fri Sep 26 16:22:10 PDT 1997 META-INF/JANE.DSA smk 2752 Fri Sep 26 16:12:30 PDT 1997 AclEx.class smk 849 Fri Sep 26 16:12:46 PDT 1997 test.class s = signature was verified m = entry is listed in manifest k = at least one certificate was found in keystore jar verified.Verification with Certificate Information
If you specify the-certs
option when verifying, along with the-verify
and-verbose
options, the output includes certificate information for each signer of the JAR file, including the certificate type, the signer distinguished name information (iff it's an X.509 certificate), and, in parentheses, the keystore alias for the signer if the public key certificate in the JAR file matches that in a keystore entry. For example,jarsigner -keystore /working/mystore -verify -verbose -certs myTest.jar 198 Fri Sep 26 16:14:06 PDT 1997 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF 199 Fri Sep 26 16:22:10 PDT 1997 META-INF/JANE.SF 1013 Fri Sep 26 16:22:10 PDT 1997 META-INF/JANE.DSA 208 Fri Sep 26 16:23:30 PDT 1997 META-INF/JAVATEST.SF 1087 Fri Sep 26 16:23:30 PDT 1997 META-INF/JAVATEST.DSA smk 2752 Fri Sep 26 16:12:30 PDT 1997 Tst.class X.509, CN=Test Group, OU=Java Software, O=Sun Microsystems, L=CUP, S=CA, C=US (javatest) X.509, CN=Jane Smith, OU=Java Software, O=Sun, L=cup, S=ca, C=us (jane) s = signature was verified m = entry is listed in manifest k = at least one certificate was found in keystore jar verified.If the certificate for a signer is not an X.509 certificate, there is no distinguished name information. In that case, just the certificate type and the alias are shown. For example, if the certificate is a PGP certificate, and the alias is "bob", you'd getPGP, (bob)Verification of a JAR File that Includes Identity Database Signers
If a JAR file has been signed using the JDK 1.1 javakey tool, and thus the signer is an alias in an identity database, the verification output includes an "i" symbol. If the JAR file has been signed by both an alias in an identity database and an alias in a keystore, both "k" and "i" appear.When the
-certs
option is used, any identity database aliases are shown in square brackets rather than the parentheses used for keystore aliases. For example:jarsigner -keystore /working/mystore -verify -verbose -certs writeFile.jar 198 Fri Sep 26 16:14:06 PDT 1997 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF 199 Fri Sep 26 16:22:10 PDT 1997 META-INF/JANE.SF 1013 Fri Sep 26 16:22:10 PDT 1997 META-INF/JANE.DSA 199 Fri Sep 27 12:22:30 PDT 1997 META-INF/DUKE.SF 1013 Fri Sep 27 12:22:30 PDT 1997 META-INF/DUKE.DSA smki 2752 Fri Sep 26 16:12:30 PDT 1997 writeFile.html X.509, CN=Jane Smith, OU=Java Software, O=Sun, L=cup, S=ca, C=us (jane) X.509, CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O=Sun, L=cup, S=ca, C=us [duke] s = signature was verified m = entry is listed in manifest k = at least one certificate was found in keystore i = at least one certificate was found in identity scope jar verified.Note that the alias "duke" is in brackets to denote that it is an identity database alias, not a keystore alias.
- jar tool documentation
- keytool tool documentation
- the Security in JDK 1.2 trail of the Java Tutorial for examples of the use of the jarsigner tool