MLKEM Class

Properties Methods Events Config Settings Errors

The MLKEM class can be used to establish a shared secret key through Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism (ML-KEM) cryptography.

Syntax

ipworksencrypt.MLKEM

Remarks

The MLKEM component can be used to establish a shared secret key through Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism (ML-KEM) cryptography. Includes support for ML-KEM-512, ML-KEM-768, and ML-KEM-1024 parameter sets.

Note that by default the component uses ML-KEM-512. You may specify the parameter set by setting ParamSet.

Property List

The following is the full list of the properties of the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


CipherText	The cipher text.
Key	The ML-KEM key.
SharedSecret	The computed shared secret.
UseHex	Whether binary values are hex encoded.

Method List

The following is the full list of the methods of the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Config	Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.
CreateKey	Creates a new key.
Decapsulate	Decapsulates a shared secret.
Encapsulate	Encapsulates a shared secret.
Reset	Resets the class.

Event List

The following is the full list of the events fired by the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Error	Fired when information is available about errors during data delivery.

Config Settings

The following is a list of config settings for the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


ParamSet	The ML-KEM parameter set.
BuildInfo	Information about the product's build.
GUIAvailable	Whether or not a message loop is available for processing events.
LicenseInfo	Information about the current license.
MaskSensitiveData	Whether sensitive data is masked in log messages.
UseDaemonThreads	Whether threads created by the class are daemon threads.
UseFIPSCompliantAPI	Tells the class whether or not to use FIPS certified APIs.
UseInternalSecurityAPI	Whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation.
UseVirtualThreads	Whether threads created by the class use virtual threads instead of platform threads.

CipherText Property (MLKEM Class)

The cipher text.

Syntax

public byte[] getCipherText();
public void setCipherText(byte[] cipherText);

Default Value

Remarks

This property holds the ML-KEM ciphertext.

It is populated by Encapsulate and must be set before calling Decapsulate.

Key Property (MLKEM Class)

The ML-KEM key.

Syntax

public MLKEMKey getKey();
public void setKey(MLKEMKey key);

Remarks

This property specifies the ML-KEM public or private key.

The public key is required before calling Encapsulate, and the private key is required before calling Decapsulate.

ML-KEM keys are made up of raw private key and public key fields.

PublicKey holds the public key.

PrivateKey holds the private key.

Please refer to the MLKEMKey type for a complete list of fields.

SharedSecret Property (MLKEM Class)

The computed shared secret.

Syntax

public byte[] getSharedSecret();

Default Value

Remarks

This property holds the shared secret computed by Encapsulate or Decapsulate.

This property is read-only.

UseHex Property (MLKEM Class)

Whether binary values are hex encoded.

Syntax

public boolean isUseHex();
public void setUseHex(boolean useHex);

Default Value

False

Remarks

This property specifies whether CipherText and SharedSecret are hex encoded when Encapsulate is called.

If set to False (default), values are provided as-is with no encoding.

When Decapsulate is called and this property is set to True, CipherText is treated as hex encoded and SharedSecret is hex encoded when populated.

Config Method (MLKEM Class)

Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.

Syntax

public String config(String configurationString);

Remarks

Config is a generic method available in every class. It is used to set and retrieve configuration settings for the class.

These settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the class, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

To set a configuration setting named PROPERTY, you must call Config("PROPERTY=VALUE"), where VALUE is the value of the setting expressed as a string. For boolean values, use the strings "True", "False", "0", "1", "Yes", or "No" (case does not matter).

To read (query) the value of a configuration setting, you must call Config("PROPERTY"). The value will be returned as a string.

CreateKey Method (MLKEM Class)

Creates a new key.

Syntax

public void createKey();

Remarks

CreateKey creates a new ML-KEM public and private key pair.

When this method is called, Key is populated with the generated raw public and private key values. The parameter set is controlled by the ParamSet configuration setting.

Decapsulate Method (MLKEM Class)

Decapsulates a shared secret.

Syntax

public void decapsulate();

Remarks

This method uses the private key in Key and the ciphertext in CipherText to recover the shared secret.

The shared secret is available from SharedSecret.

Encapsulate Method (MLKEM Class)

Encapsulates a shared secret.

Syntax

public void encapsulate();

Remarks

This method uses the public key in Key to generate a shared secret and ciphertext.

The generated shared secret is available from SharedSecret, and the ciphertext is available from CipherText.

Reset Method (MLKEM Class)

Resets the class.

Syntax

public void reset();

Remarks

When called, the class will reset all of its properties to their default values.

Error Event (MLKEM Class)

Fired when information is available about errors during data delivery.

Syntax

public class DefaultMLKEMEventListener implements MLKEMEventListener {
  ...
  public void error(MLKEMErrorEvent e) {}
  ...
}

public class MLKEMErrorEvent {
  public int errorCode;
  public String description;
}

Remarks

The Error event is fired in case of exceptional conditions during message processing. Normally the class throws an exception.

The ErrorCode parameter contains an error code, and the Description parameter contains a textual description of the error. For a list of valid error codes and their descriptions, please refer to the Error Codes section.

MLKEMKey Type

Contains a raw ML-KEM key.

Remarks

This type contains the raw public and private key values used by the MLKEM component.

The following fields are available:

PrivateKey
PublicKey

Fields

PrivateKey
String
Default Value: ""

The raw ML-KEM private key.

PrivateKeyB
byte[]
Default Value: ""

The raw ML-KEM private key.

PublicKey
String
Default Value: ""

The raw ML-KEM public key.

PublicKeyB
byte[]
Default Value: ""

The raw ML-KEM public key.

Constructors

public MLKEMKey();

The default constructor creates a new MLKEMKey instance but does not assign a public or private key.

public MLKEMKey(byte[] publicKey);

The public key constructor assigns an existing public key.

public MLKEMKey(byte[] publicKey, byte[] privateKey);

The private key constructor assigns an existing private key.

Config Settings (MLKEM Class)

The class accepts one or more of the following configuration settings. Configuration settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the class, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

MLKEM Config Settings

ParamSet: The ML-KEM parameter set.

This setting specifies the ML-KEM parameter set to use when creating keys, encapsulating, and decapsulating. Possible values are:

512 (default)
768
1024

Base Config Settings

BuildInfo: Information about the product's build.

When queried, this setting will return a string containing information about the product's build.

GUIAvailable: Whether or not a message loop is available for processing events.

In a GUI-based application, long-running blocking operations may cause the application to stop responding to input until the operation returns. The class will attempt to discover whether or not the application has a message loop and, if one is discovered, it will process events in that message loop during any such blocking operation.

In some non-GUI applications, an invalid message loop may be discovered that will result in errant behavior. In these cases, setting GUIAvailable to false will ensure that the class does not attempt to process external events.

LicenseInfo: Information about the current license.

When queried, this setting will return a string containing information about the license this instance of a class is using. It will return the following information:

Product: The product the license is for.
Product Key: The key the license was generated from.
License Source: Where the license was found (e.g., RuntimeLicense, License File).
License Type: The type of license installed (e.g., Royalty Free, Single Server).
Last Valid Build: The last valid build number for which the license will work.

MaskSensitiveData: Whether sensitive data is masked in log messages.

In certain circumstances it may be beneficial to mask sensitive data, like passwords, in log messages. Set this to true to mask sensitive data. The default is true.

UseDaemonThreads: Whether threads created by the class are daemon threads.

If set to True (default), when the class creates a thread, the thread's Daemon property will be explicitly set to True. When set to False, the class will not set the Daemon property on the created thread. The default value is True.

UseFIPSCompliantAPI: Tells the class whether or not to use FIPS certified APIs.

When set to true, the class will utilize the underlying operating system's certified APIs. Java editions, regardless of OS, utilize Bouncy Castle Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), while all other Windows editions make use of Microsoft security libraries.

The Java edition requires installation of the FIPS-certified Bouncy Castle library regardless of the target operating system. This can be downloaded from https://www.bouncycastle.org/fips-java/. Only the "Provider" library is needed. The jar file should then be installed in a JRE search path.

The following classes must be imported in the application in which the component will be used:

import java.security.Security; import org.bouncycastle.jcajce.provider.BouncyCastleFipsProvider;

The Bouncy Castle provider must be added as a valid provider and must also be configured to operate in FIPS mode:

System.setProperty("org.bouncycastle.fips.approved_only","true"); Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleFipsProvider());

When UseFIPSCompliantAPI is true, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)-enabled classes can optionally be configured to use the Transport Layer Security (TLS) Bouncy Castle library. When SSLProvider is set to sslpAutomatic (default) or sslpInternal, an internal TLS implementation is used, but all cryptographic operations are offloaded to the Bouncy Castle FIPS provider to achieve FIPS-compliant operation. If SSLProvider is set to sslpPlatform, the Bouncy Castle JSSE will be used in place of the internal TLS implementation.

To enable the use of the Bouncy Castle JSSE take the following steps in addition to the steps above. Both the Bouncy Castle FIPS provider and the Bouncy Castle JSSE must be configured to use the Bouncy Castle TLS library in FIPS mode. Obtain the Bouncy Castle TLS library from https://www.bouncycastle.org/fips-java/. The jar file should then be installed in a JRE search path.

The following classes must be imported in the application in which the component will be used:

import java.security.Security; import org.bouncycastle.jcajce.provider.BouncyCastleFipsProvider; //required to use BCJSSE when SSLProvider is set to sslpPlatform import org.bouncycastle.jsse.provider.BouncyCastleJsseProvider;

The Bouncy Castle provider must be added as a valid provider and also must be configured to operate in FIPS mode:

System.setProperty("org.bouncycastle.fips.approved_only","true"); Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleFipsProvider()); //required to use BCJSSE when SSLProvider is set to sslpPlatform Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleJsseProvider("fips:BCFIPS")); //optional - configure logging level of BCJSSE Logger.getLogger("org.bouncycastle.jsse").setLevel(java.util.logging.Level.OFF); //configure the class to use BCJSSE component.setSSLProvider(1); //platform component.config("UseFIPSCompliantAPI=true"); NOTE: TLS 1.3 support requires the Bouncy Castle TLS library version 1.0.14 or later.

FIPS mode can be enabled by setting the UseFIPSCompliantAPI configuration setting to true. This is a static setting that applies to all instances of all classes of the toolkit within the process. It is recommended to enable or disable this setting once before the component has been used to establish a connection. Enabling FIPS while an instance of the component is active and connected may result in unexpected behavior.

For more details, please see the FIPS 140-2 Compliance article.

NOTE: Enabling FIPS compliance requires a special license; please contact sales@nsoftware.com for details.

UseInternalSecurityAPI: Whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation.

When set to false, the class will use the system security libraries by default to perform cryptographic functions where applicable.

Setting this configuration setting to true tells the class to use the internal implementation instead of using the system security libraries.

This setting is set to false by default on all platforms.

UseVirtualThreads: Whether threads created by the class use virtual threads instead of platform threads.

If set to true, when the class creates a thread, it will be created as a virtual thread instead of a platform thread. Virtual threads are lightweight threads managed by the JVM that are multiplexed onto a small pool of carrier threads, significantly reducing memory usage and platform thread count under high-concurrency workloads. Requires Java 24 or later. The default value is false.

Trappable Errors (MLKEM Class)

MLKEM Errors

102	No Key specified.
120	Invalid parameter set.