A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
JavaTM Cryptography Extension (JCE) desparately needs updating with new algorithms for Password-Based Encryption (PBE)!

I have source code which determines all of the available algorithms (ask me if you want a copy and I'll give it to you). The result when executed against JDK 1.5 for SecretKeyFactory (which is used for PBE) is the following list of algorithms:
DES
DESEDE
PBE
PBEWITHMD5ANDDES
PBEWITHMD5ANDTRIPLEDES
PBEWITHSHA1ANDDESEDE
PBEWITHSHA1ANDRC2_40

This is bad--all of those algorithms are getting pretty obsolete by now.

MD5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5
and SHA1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA_hash_functions
are poor choices as digests, now that they have been cracked as mentioned in the links above; see also
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/110105-nist-crypto.html

You really need to offer the "SHA-2" varaiants of the SHA algorithm for use as digests with PBE. I would personally like to use SHA-512.

As for the encryption algorithm choices currently offered, DES has been hopelessly insecure for years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard
while DESEDE/TRIPLEDES has mediocre security and is very slow.

I would really like to see you offer AES, particularly AES-256 (256 bit keys), for use as an encryption algorithm with PBE.

Just look at all the other people who have been requesting this on your forums for years now:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=9&threadID=277910
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=9&threadID=542790
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=9&threadID=633953
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=9&threadID=458182
!!!

JUSTIFICATION :
Current algorithms supported are vulnerable and/or slow.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
Support modern algorithms.

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
None. Cannot even goto Bouncy Castle for PBE with SHA-512 as the digest and AES-256 as the encryption algorithm.