StackOverflow2013

Note that there are some explanatory texts on larger screens.

plurals

POHow can I use different certificates on specific connections?
text
Body
copied!<p>A module I'm adding to our large Java application has to converse with another company's SSL-secured website. The problem is that the site uses a self-signed certificate. I have a copy of the certificate to verify that I'm not encountering a man-in-the-middle attack, and I need to incorporate this certificate into our code in such a way that the connection to the server will be successful.</p> <p>Here's the basic code:</p> <pre><code>void sendRequest(String dataPacket) { String urlStr = "https://host.example.com/"; URL url = new URL(urlStr); HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection(); conn.setMethod("POST"); conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", data.length()); conn.setDoOutput(true); OutputStreamWriter o = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream()); o.write(data); o.flush(); } </code></pre> <p>Without any additional handling in place for the self-signed certificate, this dies at conn.getOutputStream() with the following exception:</p> <pre><code>Exception in thread "main" 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 .... Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target .... Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target </code></pre> <p>Ideally, my code needs to teach Java to accept this one self-signed certificate, for this one spot in the application, and nowhere else.</p> <p>I know that I can import the certificate into the JRE's certificate authority store, and that will allow Java to accept it. That's not an approach I want to take if I can help; it seems very invasive to do on all of our customer's machines for one module they may not use; it would affect all other Java applications using the same JRE, and I don't like that even though the odds of any other Java application ever accessing this site are nil. It's also not a trivial operation: on UNIX I have to obtain access rights to modify the JRE in this way.</p> <p>I've also seen that I can create a TrustManager instance that does some custom checking. It looks like I might even be able to create a TrustManager that delegates to the real TrustManager in all instances except this one certificate. But it looks like that TrustManager gets installed globally, and I presume would affect all other connections from our application, and that doesn't smell quite right to me, either.</p> <p>What is the preferred, standard, or best way to set up a Java application to accept a self-signed certificate? Can I accomplish all of the goals I have in mind above, or am I going to have to compromise? Is there an option involving files and directories and configuration settings, and little-to-no code?</p>

Querying!

Guidance

An individual column

Larger individual text columns get their own page to allow for proper reading.

SQuiL has stopped working due to an internal error.

If you are curious you may find further information in the browser console, which is accessible through the devtools (F12).

Reload