Keystore: delete password

Question

I have a keystore (keytool key storage), which is used for signing .apk's from Eclipse-ADT. Due to the extremely annoying password requests at each export, I'm trying to figure out how to avoid reentering password.

My current options are:

• by using Perl/X1::::XTEST, automate password entering (insecure)
• hack Eclipse to cache passwords (potentially insecure, explicit timeloss)
• remove keystore password, which seems to be the best possible idea

Attempt to set empty password failed:

>> keytool -keystore /work/X/googleplay.key -alias X -keypasswd
Enter keystore password:  
New key password for <X>: 
Password is too short - must be at least 6 characters
New key password for <X>: 
Password is too short - must be at least 6 characters
New key password for <X>: 
Password is too short - must be at least 6 characters
keytool error: java.lang.Exception: Too many failures - try later

Solution

JKS keystores can't be used without a password. The best option is to pass your keystore password on the command line somehow - for example, instead of using the ADT to sign your files, trigger an ant build like in this answer.

If you really want to have a passwordless keystore your only option is to write your own implementation of KeyStore (although you still have to be able to tell your signing tools to use it) - see the Oracle documentation for more details.

Comments

[Miloslav Raus]

Well, you can save / load JKS keystores without password. Using the java API, .store(<stream>, <empty char array>), and .open(<stream>, null). Of course, eclipse & other apps usually won't convert empty strings to null (so the load on their side will fail) - so you can use this mostly in yous own apps.