I have code that has been working fine for some time, or so we
thought. We recently discovered that at times the decryption is
failing. I should say that are using Sun JCE1.2.2.

Below is an example of a clear text string that will fail
consistently:
String clearText = "ss=078388601&ts=20040210195639";

Ok, Here is my test class that I run. It executes the CipherTest
class, enclosed further down:
public class JCEDebug {
/**
* Constructor for JCEDebug.
*/
public JCEDebug() {
    super();
}

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String clearText = "ss=078388601&ts=20040210195639";
         
    try
    {
        CipherTest cipher1 = new CipherTest();
        System.out.println("Start value = " + clearText);
        cipherText = cipher1.encrypt(clearText);
        System.out.println("Encrypted value = " + cipherText);
           
        CipherTest cipher2 = new CipherTest();
        clearText = cipher2.decrypt(cipherText);
        System.out.println("Decrypted value = " + clearText);
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        System.out.println("Caught Exception msg = " + e.getMessage());
    }
}
}

Here is the source for CipherTest:

import java.security.*;
import java.security.spec.*;
import javax.crypto.*;
import javax.crypto.spec.*;
import java.io.IOException;

public class CipherTest
{
   final private static String CRYPTO_ALGORITHM = "DESede";
   final private static String CRYPTO_BLOCK_MODE = "CBC";
   final private static String CRYPTO_PADDING = "PKCS5Padding";

   private static String keyData1 = "qTqE0Fgy";
   private static String keyData2 = "G5h2NERs";
   private static String keyData3 = "NiFNj4Vg";
   private static String initVector = "h8sNq4lJ";
   private static String keyData = null;
   private static byte[] desedeKeyData = null;
   private static IvParameterSpec ivParamSpec = null;
   private static DESedeKeySpec secretKeySpec = null;
   private static SecretKeyFactory keyFactory = null;
   private static SecretKey secretKey = null;
   private boolean initialized=false;

/**
* CipherTest constructor comment.
*/
public CipherTest() {
   super();
   try{
       initData();
   }
   catch(NoSuchAlgorithmException nsae){
   }
   catch(InvalidKeyException ike){
   }
   catch(InvalidKeySpecException ikse){
   }
   catch(java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException uee){
   }
}

/**
* Insert the method's description here.
* Creation date: (1/16/2003 4:29:47 PM)
* @return java.lang.String
* @param passedString java.lang.String
* @param cipherMode int
*/
protected String cipher(String passedString, int cipherMode)
   throws InvalidKeyException, NoSuchAlgorithmException,
       ExceptionInInitializerError, InvalidKeySpecException,
       NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidAlgorithmParameterException,
       IllegalStateException, IllegalBlockSizeException,
       BadPaddingException, NoClassDefFoundError
{
   if (!isInitialized()){
       throw new java.lang.IllegalStateException();
   }
   
   // Create the encryption cipher
   Cipher desCipher = null;
   desCipher = Cipher.getInstance(CRYPTO_ALGORITHM+"/"+CRYPTO_BLOCK_MODE+"/"+CRYPTO_PADDING);

   // Initialize the cipher for encryption
   desCipher.init(cipherMode, secretKey, ivParamSpec);

   byte[] passedBytes = passedString.getBytes();

   // Cipher the data
   byte[] resultBytes = null;
   resultBytes = desCipher.doFinal(passedBytes);

   if( resultBytes != null )
   {
       return new String(resultBytes);
   }
   else
   {
       return null;
   }
}

/**
* Insert the method's description here.
* Creation date: (1/16/2003 4:29:47 PM)
* @return java.lang.String
* @param clearText java.lang.String
*/
public  String decrypt(String cipherText)
   throws InvalidKeyException, NoSuchAlgorithmException,
       ExceptionInInitializerError, InvalidKeySpecException,
       NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidAlgorithmParameterException,
       IllegalStateException, IllegalBlockSizeException,
       BadPaddingException, NoClassDefFoundError
{
   // Pass the string and the correct mode
   return cipher(cipherText, Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE);
}

/**
* Insert the method's description here.
* Creation date: (1/16/2003 4:29:47 PM)
* @return java.lang.String
* @param clearText java.lang.String
*/
public  String encrypt(String clearText)
   throws InvalidKeyException, NoSuchAlgorithmException,
       ExceptionInInitializerError, InvalidKeySpecException,
       NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidAlgorithmParameterException,
       IllegalStateException, IllegalBlockSizeException,
       BadPaddingException, NoClassDefFoundError
{
   // Pass the string and the correct mode
   return cipher(clearText, Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE);
}

/**
* Insert the method's description here.
* Creation date: (1/16/2003 4:08:42 PM)
*/
public void initData()
   throws InvalidKeyException, NoSuchAlgorithmException,
ExceptionInInitializerError,
   InvalidKeySpecException, NoClassDefFoundError
{
   Security.insertProviderAt( new com.sun.crypto.provider.SunJCE(),
2);
   System.setProperty("java.protocol.handler.pkgs",
"sun.net.www.protocol");
   
   keyData = keyData1 + keyData2 + keyData3;
   desedeKeyData = keyData.getBytes();

   // Create the initialization vector paramater spec      
   ivParamSpec = new IvParameterSpec(initVector.getBytes());

   // Create the key spec
   secretKeySpec = new DESedeKeySpec(desedeKeyData);

   // Create the key factory
   keyFactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance(CRYPTO_ALGORITHM);

   // Generate the encryption key
   secretKey = keyFactory.generateSecret(secretKeySpec);

   // Mark it as initialized
   initialized = true;
}

/**
* Insert the method's description here.
* Creation date: (5/6/2003 1:53:22 PM)
* @return boolean
*/
public boolean isInitialized() {
   return initialized;
}

public void setInitialized(boolean newInitialized) {
   initialized = newInitialized;
}
}

What I see for results are:
Start value = ss=078388601&ts=20040210195639
Encrypted value = ¦Í?+s²þy8{d
gƒ?çè‚P½:Õ]/Á?½ö"î
Decrypted value = ¼"™Hu¼^
^#ëvÅt200402?0195639

This type of behavior doesn't occur all of the time, only when certain
results are produced by the encryption. So, that along with other
posts, is why I suspect it may be related to the string to byte[] and
byte[] to string conversions. But, I have attempted to perform these
conversions using string.getBytes("ASCII"), as well as
string.getBytes("UTF-8"). Furthermore, I have attempted to serialize
the string prior to encryption, then deserialize it after encryption
using the ByteArrayOutputStream, all to no avail.

Any help that you all can provide with solving this riddle would be
greatly appreciated.   Thank you!