Creating a boot password

When you encrypt a database, you usually specify a boot password, which is an alphanumeric string used to generate the encryption key. (You can also specify an encryption key directly.)

The length of the encryption key depends on the algorithm used:

• AES (128, 192, and 256 bits)
• DES (the default) (56 bits)
• DESede (168 bits)
• All other algorithms (128 bits)

It is a good idea not to use words that would be easily guessed, such as a login name or simple words or numbers. A boot password, like any password, should be a mix of numbers and uppercase and lowercase letters.

You turn on and configure encryption and specify the corresponding boot password on the connection URL for a database when you create it:

jdbc:derby:encryptionDB1;create=true;dataEncryption=true;
bootPassword=clo760uds2caPe

• Specifying an alternate encryption provider
  You can specify an alternate provider when you create the database with the encryptionProvider=providerName attribute.
• Specifying an alternate encryption algorithm
  Derby supports the following encryption algorithms.