Java: Problem connecting to HTTPS host with self signed certificate

[Sureshot324]

I have set up a tomcat server with SSL running in a vmware on my machine using a self signed certificate. I can connect to this no problem with a browser from my main machine with the url https://myserver:8443.

However, I am not able to connect with a Java client. I always get the below exception. I read that I need to add it as a trusted certificate in the keystore. I went to the site with firefox and saved the certificate as a .cer file, and imported it into the default keystore at c:\users\louis\.keystore. I still have the same problem. I think the problem is the client is not using the keystore, and I don't know how to make it do so. I tried adding the following argument to the run command:

-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=c:\users\louis\.keystore -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=changeit

but it doesn't help.

Here is the exception I'm getting:

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:174)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(SSLSocketImpl.java:1611)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:187)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:181)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1035)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(ClientHandshaker.java:124)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Handshaker.java:516)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Handshaker.java:454)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:884)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1112)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1139)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1123)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(HttpsClient.java:434)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegate...t(AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.java:166)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1049)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:234)
at Test.main(Test.java:39)
Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:285)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.engineValidate(PKIXValidator.java:191)
at sun.security.validator.Validator.validate(Validator.java:218)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.validate(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:126)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:209)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:249)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1014)
... 12 more
Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.engineBuild(SunCertPathBuilder.java:174)
at java.security.cert.CertPathBuilder.build(CertPathBuilder.java:238)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:280)
... 18 more

 

[kedlav]

switch the argument to keystore, not trust store and try

 

[Sureshot324]

switch the argument to keystore, not trust store and try

Same error. I think it is supposed to be truststore though.

 

[ArsenHazzard]

Same error. I think it is supposed to be truststore though.

Not sure what's going wrong with setting the trustStore vars (those are the correct ones), but you can bypass the check entirely by overriding the X509TrustManager http://code.google.com/p/misc-utils/wiki/JavaHttpsUrl. That site also contains the instructions for adding the cert to the keystore and setting the JVM vars (it does it in the client code, but setting it via the command-line works fine too), so you can double check what you did against that.

 

[Sureshot324]

The problem was keytool was I didn't put the hostname for common name (CN) in the certificate. Keytool says to put your first and last name there for some reason. It's working fine now.