Upgrading to Crowd 4.2 or later throws missing keysjavax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec_* error
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Problem
When attempting to upgrade to Crowd 4.2 it fails and the following appears in the atlassian-crowd.log:
Cause:
java.lang.RuntimeException: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /var/atlassian/application-data/crowd/shared/keys/javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec_1620133793202 (No such file or directory)
Environment
Crowd 4.2 and above
Diagnosis
The error indicates that the SecretKeySpec file does not exist.
Cause
Starting from Crowd 4.2, all passwords for external systems stored in Crowd are encrypted by default.
It is crucial to make sure you backup your encryption keys. Without them you won't be able to properly restore Crowd from backup.
Solution
The encryption keys are stored in the shared folder {crowdHome}/shared/keys. To backup the keys, copy the {crowdHome}/shared/keys directory to the secure place.
To correctly restore from backup with encrypted passwords, corresponding keys must be present in the {crowdHome}/shared/keys, otherwise, Crowd won't be able to decrypt passwords.
For more information, see Password encryption.