Name: iiR10263 Date: 11/20/2003



The specification describes exceptions that are throw by
javax.crypto.Cipher.init(int, Certificate) as follows:

Throws:
InvalidKeyException - if the public key in the given certificate is
inappropriate for initializing this cipher, or this cipher is being
initialized for decryption or unwrapping keys and requires algorithm
parameters that cannot be determined from the public key in the given
certificate, or the keysize of the public key in the given certificate
has a keysize that exceeds the maximum allowable keysize (as determined
by the configured jurisdiction policy files).

The above means that InvalidKeyException is thrown when a key is
inappropriate, but exists. There is no any key in null Certificate so
InvalidKeyException is inappropriate. NullPointerException is more
appliciable here, because the specification mentions a key that is
derived from the argument - the situation fits for
NullPointerException: "Applications should throw instances of this
class to indicate other illegal uses of the null object."

The one hand such behaviour may be documented and specification
may be updated, but on the other hand jdk1.4.2 specification says
the same as 1.5 specification. So it is reasonable not to change the
specification but change implementation.


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