Java HttpsURLConnection SSLHandshakeException

Question

I am attempting to make a HTTPS connection to a website using HttpsURLConnection, and then perform a PUT request. When I try to create the OutputStreamWriter from HttpsURLConnection.getOutputStream(), the following exception is thrown:

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

The page has just gotten its certificate (issued by StartCom) - do I need to manually do something to make Java recognise the certificate is present now? I can connect to other pages of the same website with no difficulty, but they have a different certificate.

Robert · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-11 10:58:31Z

5

You can import the root certificate of StartCom yia the tool keytool (from JDK) into a Java Key Store (JKS) and then set the key store as "trusted store".

See section "Exporting and Importing Certificates" on:

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Security/secureinternet2/

Commands mentioned in that article:

Import certifificate to trustedcerts.jks:

keytool -import -keystore trustedcerts.jks -alias qusay -file server.crt

Start Java using custom tuststore:

java -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=trustedcerts.jks com.example.MyClass

Alternatively you can set the truststore at runtime:

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore","./trustedcerts.jks");

edited Jul 11, 2011 at 10:58

answered Jul 11, 2011 at 8:58

Robert

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1 Comment

caroline Over a year ago

Thanks - for anyone else with the same issue, I saved the certificate locally, used the keytool -import ... command and added System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "path_to_keystore"); to my code.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:51:25Z

0

Please also see this question: Import StartCom CA certificates in Windows JRE

It links to a script for importing StartCom certificates into your JDK trusted store.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:51

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 1, 2012 at 11:10

Andrey Taranov

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