My JWS application jar is signed1 and when I launch that certificate it does not ask for anything and simply throws an exception saying your application has been blocked.
If I install that certificate it works, but how I force my application to give a message to install certificate so that it is installed automatically? I want something like as shown below.
I have created a certificate using keytool -genkey and then using jarsigner signed that jar file.
I have created a certificate..
These days, signed code needs to be signed using a digital certificate issued by a certification authority. There is really no way around it (or if there was, it would be a security bug - and be quickly fixed).
The digital certificate created by us as developers has no 'key chain' that points back to a Certification Authority that issues certificates after verifying the identity of the person that requested the certificate. Because CAs are trusted to check these details, Sun/Oracle imports some of their 'root certificates' into the JRE security system. Any certificate that has a key chain that points back to one of those certificates will show the dialog as seen in the screen shot.
It is all about security for the end user. Since I can generate a certificate with the JDK claiming I am you, the JRE won't accept the certificate no matter who makes it - unless the certificate has been issued by a CA.
Related
UPDATE: After I have found a solution, I edited the question to be more clear for future reference.
I've got a corporate (ie not well known) CA certificate from a company which provides us a web services to be called from Java. I added this CA certificate to default cacerts trust store (keytool -import -file cert.cer -alias myca -keystore jre/lib/security/cacerts), but connection to the service still fails with the dreaded "PKIX path building failed" message. I have checked that issuer field of the end server certificate is the same as in the CA certificate and also validity dates is ok.
I don't know how to explain this. I can think of the following reasons but I don't know which one is true:
I have noticed that when I add also the end server certificate to trust store, the connection is OK. Maybe cacerts by design don't work as I expect (ie all the certificates signed by an authority added there are considered valid), but instead I have to add all the end server certificates to a trust store including CA certificate of their issuer.
I have to add CA certificate in some other way - by different command, to different file etc.
Maybe the CA certificate is not correct and keytool refuses to consider it a certificate authority.
Maybe PKIX path building fails for other reason.
How can I debug this problem more to find an answer?
Details:
The end server certificate is wildcard certificate
There is no intermediate certificate, just root and the end certificate
I was facing the same problem with "PKIX path building failed" with Let's Encrypt signed certificates at a time Java didn't incorporate the Let's encrypt CA certificate in its default trust store.
My story is written in detail here: http://blog.novoj.net/2016/02/29/how-to-make-apache-httpclient-trust-lets-encrypt-certificate-authority/
At the end I was able to make Java trust "the end of the chain" server certificate by creating internal trust store embedded in my application that contains only root CA certificate (and the backup one).
I much more prefer creating internal application truststore than importing certificate in main Java trust store for two reasons:
you don't need another extra step in install procedure for initializing the global trust store
you limit "the trust" to you application and don't affect another applications running on the same JVM (or better you can even limit the trust to the certain instances of client objects in your application if required)
Maybe I had a different scenario than you're facing, so downvote me if I didn't get the point.
The trust store needs to contain the root certificate (the CA's cert).
I'm not sure if that's what you mean by "the last one I'm the chain", but the CA certificate should be the last one in the certificate chain presented by the server.
If your certificate is signed by a well-known CA, then the CA cert should be in the trust store, and if the server's certificate chain is set up properly, everything should just work.
If yours is a self-signed certificate, then the root certificate will not be in the trust store, and you will have to add it.
Thanks to #pedrofb comment I found out that the reason PKIX path fails is simply that the CA certificate I got is not the CA that signed the end certificate. What made it so complicated is the monstrous incompetence of company that gave me the CA certificate which obviously has two CAs with almost the same description (cn, o, st, c) which differs only in SN and which both issued the same wildcard certificate. Only after I became super paranoid and compared the SNs, I understood the problem.
The server has changed from http to https. Instead of modifying client code (of course the host which was http is now https), we use keytool to save server CA. When I used keytool, I see a list of all stored CA (about 100 pieces).
So how does JRE know which CA to use? And what is the story behind this, like why when JRE is configured with a CA the client code could remain the same?
Thanks.
I'm trying to answer the basic questions you pose.
Java and Keytool know which CAs to trust by consulting a special file named cacerts which is shipped with the JRE and it's placed in <JRE_HOME>/lib/security.
This kind of file is usually called KeyStore or TrustStore.
This file is shipped by default by the "creator" of the JRE (e.g. Oracle) and contains list of Certificate Authority certificates to be trusted (usually updated at every release).
It's not that different from the same process for browsers.
As for the story behind this, if I understand correctly, we are talking about PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) which, in you case, very roughly, means that when your JRE keystore gets updated with the new CA certificate, then entities (such as SSL Sites, applets,etc) presenting a certificate provided (usually sold) by that CA are now basically valid and trusted, since now a trusted third party (the new CA) can guarantee (by means of encryption and digital signature) that "you are effectively you" in a digital scenario.
Also worth noting that, Keytool can be instructed to use a user-defined keystore with the -keystore <keystore_path> command line option (and even the JVM can configure a specific non-default truststore for SSL connection via a system property like this)
I have a small javafx2 application that is used in the office. Some guys run it from Firefox, some run it as a desktop app. Webstart is great.
The current approach is that I have added this to the jnlp file:
<security>
<all-permissions/>
</security>
Then created a key in a keystore using the keytool:
keytool -genkey -keystore yourKeystore -alias keyname
And I sign all jar files that are to be on the user's PC using jarsigner:
jarsigner -keystore ./myapp.keystore -storepass xxx -keypass yyy <path to jar file> keyname
So the user either starts the app using the shortcut file (the jnlp file) on their desktop, or they browse to the app in Firefox. This works great, except nowadays we get this dialog that says:
Running applications by UNKNOWN publishers will be blocked in a future
release
and I am worried about what will happen when that future release is out.
I do not have a deep understanding about all this code signing thing. I know that it works by embedding some binary data into files that is used to prove that the releaser of the app is a company/individual that is recognized by the Certificate Authority (and this is what jarsigner does AFAIK). Certificates are recognized by OSes like Windows and Linux, by webbrowsers like Firefox and Safari and Java also recognizes certificates at 2 levels, user and system. There are widely accepted Certificate Authorities (like Verisign) that are recognized by default in OSes like Windows and Linux. I know that webbrowsers also recognize some Certificate Authorities, but I think the list they recognize can be different from the list the OS recognizes. I guess Java also recognizes some but I do not know what. I also know that I can have system level configured keystores in Java by specifying the keystore in ~/.java/deployment/deployment.properties, deployment.system.security.trusted.certs. If I do not want to pay for a certificate, I can create my own (this is what I was doing) so my certificate is from an UNKNOWN publisher. What I was hoping for that if I specify my keystore via deployment.system.security.trusted.certs then it will solve this problem for the office but apparently it does not, which I do not understand because in this case the system administrator says that he recognizes this certificate. So now I am thinking about making a certificate using makecert in windows which can then be pushed down to client PCs via GPO. My understanding is that this will create certificates that are recognized by the OS, but I do not know if makecert made certificates would be treated the same way as e.g. verisign certificates in Windows, in Firefox and also in Java. And I do not know if UNKNOWN refers to a list within java or it refers to the fact that the Certificate Authority is not recognized by the OS.
My questions:
If someone could fix the mistakes I made in the above description I would appreciate it. I believe I am misunderstanding something, but I do not know what.
I just cannot believe that Webstart won't work unless we pay for a certificate. I guess what we need is a mechanism that a sysadmin can say that he wants the office PCs to recognize a given certificate. Does anyone have an idea how to do this in the future?
If we have to purchase a certificate, could someone please let me know what to watch out for or how that works in general? Can I use jarsigner the same way?
If we have to purchase a certificate, is there a list of Certificate Authorities out there that we can pick from? Obviously I want to go for the cheapest as I find this an administrative overhead.
Thank you for your help.
My setup that works with JRE7u40 and JRE8 is this:
I have a self-signed cert for my certificate authority (CA). This cert must be trusted by the system (e.g. add it to Java Control Panel / Security / Certificates / Signer CA, but there may be other ways to make your CA trusted).
Then I have a code publisher certificate, signed by my CA. I use this cert to sign all my code (jars).
Furthermore, if you want all permissions for your code, I suggest these MANIFEST.MF attributes as QDH minimum (since JRE7u40, if I remember):
Permissions: all-permissions
Codebase: *
Trusted-Library: true
Trusted-Only: true
First time you run such application, you will still see the security warning because runtime is unable to ensure that code signer certificate was not revoked by its CA.
However, now you have the option to permanently accept this publisher (code signer certificate), and if you do, the code signer certificate will be added to trusted publishers (Java Control Panel / Security / Certificates / Trusted Certificates) and you won't see such warning again.
If you want to avoid this step, I guess you have to setup your CA infrastructure properly to support certificate revocation verification. I assume that includes some extra attributes in your CA certificate and availability of special certificate revocation service. For intranet deployment, you may skip that.
I signed my applet using .pfx file. But when I run my web page it shows "UNKNOWN publisher warning".
I also have another certificate .cer (How to check that its a code signing certificate)[I got it from another person and he is also not sure].
So to sign applet, do I need special certificate say "Code Signing" certificate? Or I'm missing something?
A digital certificate that is generated by me or you will read UNKNOWN in that dialog. The reason is that if you can make a certificate claiming that you are you, I can just as easily make a certificate claiming that I am you.
In order to avoid lying to the end-user, Oracle just reports 'unknown' for those 'self signed' applications.
Get a code-signing certificate with a key-chain pointing back to a Certification Authority (who take steps to verify the identity claimed by the applicant - and overcharge to do it), and the dialog will show the author.
See also this answer to Signing a jar file with trusted certificate for JWS deployment for the intricacies of showing the author.
I created a self signed certificate but the browser tells me "This CA Root Certificate is not trusted. To enable trust, install this certificate in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store".
I did by going into IE --> Internet Options --> Content --> Certificates --> ect... I actually had to export the self signed certificate and then import it into the Trusted Root Certification. Only after the certificate was located under the ROOT store in the users machine that IE did not display any WARNINGS.
This will be deployed in a production environment, so having the users manually do the above steps is unacceptable.
How can I automatically do this? I just want them to accept and not have that "Certificate Error" and have the URL bar turned "RED" in IE.
I'm using Tomcat 5.5. I also followed the same steps as in the Tomcat SSL How To Tutorial http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/ssl-howto.html
Thanks in advance.
Java 6 provides a cryptographic provider named SunMSCAPI to access the windows cryptography libraries API. This provider implements a keystore "Windows-Root" containing all Trust Anchors certificates.
It is possible to insert a certificate in this keystore.
KeyStore root = KeyStore.getInstance("Windows-ROOT");
root.load(null);
/* certificate must be DER-encoded */
FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("C:/path/to/root/cert/root.der");
X509Certificate cacert = (X509Certificate)CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509").generateCertificate(in);
root.setCertificateEntry("CACert Root CA", cacert);
The user will be prompted if for confirmation. If the operation is canceled by the user then a KeyStoreException is thrown.
Some technotes about the provider can be found here: http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/security/SunProviders.html#SunMSCAPI
Think about it. If this were possible, what would stop any fraudulent site from doing the same thing and making it look like their site was trusted? The whole point is that the user HAS to OK the certificate installation.
First of all, possibility to do this would compromise user's security, so it would be a security hole, so no, there's no easy way to do this.
Next, different software has different certificate stores. Microsoft and Chrome browser use CryptoAPI stores, Firefox has it's own store (Chrome can also use firefox's one AFAIK). Adobe's software has it's own store (in addition to CryptoAPI one).