FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.8.0_66"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_66-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.66-b17, mixed mode)

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

Linux <hostname> 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Dec 19 12:09:25 EST 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux


A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
When using ARCFOUR as encryption method, the encryption and decryption works without problems on Windows. However, if the same program is used with the same text-to-be-encrypted and password on our linux servers, the output is completely different and not related to a correct output in any way.
Also, it is not possible to decrypt the encrypted text and outputs only a messy String of chars.

Enforcing a charset by using .toBytes(input, "UTF-8") and new String(bytes[], "UTF-8") did not help.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
Create a Java class and implement a basic cryptographic method (Key generation, encrypting, decrypting) using arcfour. Build the jar-file and run on Windows, should be working correctly. Run the same jar-file on Linux and the output of encrypt (and therefore the output of decrypt) should not be correct.


REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
public void main(String[] args){
String text = args[0];
String key = args[1];

System.out.println("Pre:" + text);
System.out.println("Enc:" + encrypt(text, key));
System.out.println("Dec:" + decrypt(text, key));

System.exit(0);
}


   private Key rc4Key(String key){
        try {
            Key rc4Key;
            rc4Key = new SecretKeySpec(key.getBytes(), "ARCFOUR");
            return(rc4Key);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return(null);
    }
    public String encrypt(String text, String key){
        try {
            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("ARCFOUR");
            cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, rc4Key(key));
            byte[] encrypted = cipher.doFinal(text.getBytes());
            return(new String(encrypted));
        }catch(Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return(null);
    }
    public String decrypt(String text, String key){
        if(text == null || text == ""){
            return(null);
        }
        try {
            Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("ARCFOUR");
            cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, rc4Key(key));
            String decrypted = new String(cipher.doFinal(text.getBytes()));
            return(decrypted);
        }catch(Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return(null);
    }
---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Just used another encryption method