Android pem cert inside keystore

Question

I have project not made by me but right now I need to fix some things, Someone added an pem certificate (private key and certificate) inside a project which allows app to communicate with server (used inside network_security_config trust anchor), the problem is that I need to build signed release apk, build process is crashing because pem cert is inside a project which is obvious rule violation, how can I add this pem cert inside a keystore(or create new one) or is there any other solution for this problem? Maybe the way of communication is bad. Thank you for any answers!

I tried to create new keystore with cert inside but no success

Answer 1

To include the private key and certificate from the PEM file into a keystore, you can use the keytool command-line tool that comes with the Java Development Kit (JDK). Here are the general steps:

Convert PEM to PKCS12:

openssl pkcs12 -export -out keystore.p12 -inkey private-key.pem -in certificate.pem

This command will prompt you for a password for the keystore. Make sure to remember it, as you'll need it later.

Convert PKCS12 to JKS (Java Keystore):

keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore keystore.p12 -srcstoretype PKCS12 -destkeystore keystore.jks -deststoretype JKS

You'll need to provide the keystore password and set a new password for the JKS keystore.

Add Keystore to your App:

Move the generated keystore.jks file to a secure location in your project. Update your build configuration to use this keystore for signing the release APK. For example, in your build.gradle file, you might have something like this:

android {
    ...
    signingConfigs {
        release {
            storeFile file('path/to/your/keystore.jks')
            storePassword 'your_keystore_password'
            keyAlias 'your_key_alias'
            keyPassword 'your_key_password'
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            signingConfig signingConfigs.release
            ...
        }
    }
    ...
}

Replace 'path/to/your/keystore.jks', 'your_keystore_password', 'your_key_alias', and 'your_key_password' with your actual values.

After making these changes, you should be able to build a signed release APK without violating any security rules.

Note: Always handle keystore files, passwords, and keys securely. Ensure they are not shared or stored in public repositories.