Develop Reference

SSLServerSocket and certificate setup

I wrote a client/server Java program using ServerSocket and Socket objects. I then modified the code to use SSLServerSocket and 'SSLSocket` however I am getting different Exceptions thrown including:
javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: no cipher suites in common
I am hoping to do as much programmatically as I can. I am also okay with self signed certificates.
One tutorial I followed suggested creating a certificate with the keytool java application, then moving that file into your java project. I have done that with the terminal command keytool -genkey -alias zastore -keyalg RSA -keystore za.store. I assigned the password to be password.
I then call the function System.setProperty in hopes of the SSLSockets working but it still does not.
Here is my server code
public class Server implements Runnable
{
private SSLServerSocket serverSocket;
private int portNumber;
private Thread acceptThread;
private LinkedList<Connection> connections;
private ConnectionListener connectionListener;
public Server(int port, ConnectionListener connectionListener)
{
this.connectionListener = connectionListener;
portNumber = port;
connections = new LinkedList<Connection>();
try
{
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "za.store");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword", "password");
SSLServerSocketFactory sslssf = (SSLServerSocketFactory) SSLServerSocketFactory.getDefault();
serverSocket = (SSLServerSocket) sslssf.createServerSocket(portNumber,15);
}
catch (IOException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void startListening()
{
acceptThread = new Thread(this);
acceptThread.start();
}
public void stopListening()
{
for(Connection c:connections)
{
c.stopListeningAndDisconnect();
}
try
{
serverSocket.close();
}
catch (IOException e)
{
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
#Override
public void run()
{
try
{
while(true)
{
SSLSocket s = (SSLSocket) serverSocket.accept();
Connection c = new Connection(s,connectionListener);
connections.add(c);
System.out.println("New Connection Established From"+s.getInetAddress().toString());
}
}
catch(java.net.SocketException e)
{
System.out.println("Listening thread terminated with exception.");
}
catch(IOException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void removeConnection(Connection c)
{
connections.remove(c);
}
public void printConnections()
{
System.out.println("Number of connections "+connections.toString());
for(int i=0; i<connections.size(); i++)
{
System.out.println(connections.toString());
}
}
}
And then a snipbit of my client code that connects when a button is pressed:
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
if(e.getSource() == connect)
{
try
{
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "za.store");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword", "password");
SSLSocketFactory sslsf = (SSLSocketFactory)SSLSocketFactory.getDefault();
SSLSocket s = (SSLSocket)sslsf.createSocket(ipBox.getText(), Integer.parseInt(portBox.getText()));
Connection c = new Connection(s,parent);
parent.connectionSuccessful(c);
}
catch (NumberFormatException e1)
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "Error! Port number must be a number", "Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
}
catch (UnknownHostException e1)
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "Error! Unable to find that host", "Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
}
catch (IOException e1)
{
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
One Stackoverflow article suggested that my server "doesn't have a certificate." I don't know what that means or how to go about getting one and locating it in the right place.

The following error may come due to various reasons:
javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: no cipher suites in common
The points to check while debugging:
The keystore and truststore are correctly loaded and used to create the socket connections
The certificate is compatible with the enabled cipher suites
At least one common cipher suite should be enabled in the client and the server and that cipher suite should be also compatible with the certificate
For e.g. in the following example, I am using Java 8 with the default set of cipher suites. The certificate I have generated is using ECDSA and SHA384, and hence when the TLS connection is established between the server and the client, I can see the negotiated cipher suite is TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 by enabling the debug (System.setProperty("javax.net.debug", "ssl");).
Following is a working example:
As a first step, a key pair and a certificate need to be created. For testing purpose, let's create a self-signed certificate and let's use the same certificate for both the server and the client:
keytool -genkeypair -alias server -keyalg EC \
-sigalg SHA384withECDSA -keysize 256 -keystore servercert.p12 \
-storetype pkcs12 -v -storepass abc123 -validity 10000 -ext san=ip:127.0.0.1
Let's now create the server:
package com.sapbasu.javastudy;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.security.KeyStore;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import java.util.Objects;
import javax.net.ssl.KeyManagerFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLServerSocket;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLServerSocketFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManagerFactory;
/*
* keytool -genkeypair -alias server -keyalg EC \
* -sigalg SHA384withECDSA -keysize 256 -keystore servercert.p12 \
* -storetype pkcs12 -v -storepass abc123 -validity 10000 -ext san=ip:127.0.0.1
*/
public class TLSServer {
public void serve(int port, String tlsVersion, String trustStoreName,
char[] trustStorePassword, String keyStoreName, char[] keyStorePassword)
throws Exception {
Objects.requireNonNull(tlsVersion, "TLS version is mandatory");
if (port <= 0) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
"Port number cannot be less than or equal to 0");
}
KeyStore trustStore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
InputStream tstore = TLSServer.class
.getResourceAsStream("/" + trustStoreName);
trustStore.load(tstore, trustStorePassword);
tstore.close();
TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory
.getInstance(TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
tmf.init(trustStore);
KeyStore keyStore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
InputStream kstore = TLSServer.class
.getResourceAsStream("/" + keyStoreName);
keyStore.load(kstore, keyStorePassword);
KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory
.getInstance(KeyManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
kmf.init(keyStore, keyStorePassword);
SSLContext ctx = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
ctx.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), tmf.getTrustManagers(),
SecureRandom.getInstanceStrong());
SSLServerSocketFactory factory = ctx.getServerSocketFactory();
try (ServerSocket listener = factory.createServerSocket(port)) {
SSLServerSocket sslListener = (SSLServerSocket) listener;
sslListener.setNeedClientAuth(true);
sslListener.setEnabledProtocols(new String[] {tlsVersion});
// NIO to be implemented
while (true) {
try (Socket socket = sslListener.accept()) {
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(), true);
out.println("Hello World!");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}
Now create the client:
package com.sapbasu.javastudy;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.security.KeyStore;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import java.util.Objects;
import javax.net.SocketFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.KeyManagerFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLParameters;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocket;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManagerFactory;
public class TLSClient {
public String request(InetAddress serverHost, int serverPort,
String tlsVersion, String trustStoreName, char[] trustStorePassword,
String keyStoreName, char[] keyStorePassword) throws Exception {
Objects.requireNonNull(tlsVersion, "TLS version is mandatory");
Objects.requireNonNull(serverHost, "Server host cannot be null");
if (serverPort <= 0) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
"Server port cannot be lesss than or equal to 0");
}
KeyStore trustStore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
InputStream tstore = TLSClient.class
.getResourceAsStream("/" + trustStoreName);
trustStore.load(tstore, trustStorePassword);
tstore.close();
TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory
.getInstance(TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
tmf.init(trustStore);
KeyStore keyStore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
InputStream kstore = TLSClient.class
.getResourceAsStream("/" + keyStoreName);
keyStore.load(kstore, keyStorePassword);
KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory
.getInstance(KeyManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
kmf.init(keyStore, keyStorePassword);
SSLContext ctx = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
ctx.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), tmf.getTrustManagers(),
SecureRandom.getInstanceStrong());
SocketFactory factory = ctx.getSocketFactory();
try (Socket connection = factory.createSocket(serverHost, serverPort)) {
((SSLSocket) connection).setEnabledProtocols(new String[] {tlsVersion});
SSLParameters sslParams = new SSLParameters();
sslParams.setEndpointIdentificationAlgorithm("HTTPS");
((SSLSocket) connection).setSSLParameters(sslParams);
BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
return input.readLine();
}
}
}
Finally, here's is a JUnit test to test the connection:
package com.sapbasu.javastudy;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
public class TLSServerClientTest {
private static final int SERVER_PORT = 8444;
private static final String TLS_VERSION = "TLSv1.2";
private static final int SERVER_COUNT = 1;
private static final String SERVER_HOST_NAME = "127.0.0.1";
private static final String TRUST_STORE_NAME = "servercert.p12";
private static final char[] TRUST_STORE_PWD = new char[] {'a', 'b', 'c', '1',
'2', '3'};
private static final String KEY_STORE_NAME = "servercert.p12";
private static final char[] KEY_STORE_PWD = new char[] {'a', 'b', 'c', '1',
'2', '3'};
#Test
public void whenClientSendsServerRequest_givenServerIsUp_returnsHelloWorld()
throws Exception {
TLSServer server = new TLSServer();
TLSClient client = new TLSClient();
System.setProperty("javax.net.debug", "ssl");
ExecutorService serverExecutor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(SERVER_COUNT);
serverExecutor.submit(() -> {
try {
server.serve(SERVER_PORT, TLS_VERSION, TRUST_STORE_NAME,
TRUST_STORE_PWD, KEY_STORE_NAME, KEY_STORE_PWD);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
});
try {
String returnedValue = client.request(
InetAddress.getByName(SERVER_HOST_NAME), SERVER_PORT, TLS_VERSION,
TRUST_STORE_NAME, TRUST_STORE_PWD, KEY_STORE_NAME, KEY_STORE_PWD);
assertEquals("Hello World!", returnedValue);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
throw e;
}
}
}
Note: The certificate (servercert.p12 in this example) should be in the classpath. In this example, I've kept it in the test/resources folder of Maven folder structure so that the JUnit test can get it in the classpath.
Cipher Suite Background
When using TLS/SSL, the cryptographic algorithms to be used are determined by cipher suites. The server supports a set of cipher suites (you can enable or disable certain suites as per your needs and security level you want). The client also supports a set of cipher suites. During connection setup, the cipher suite to be used is negotiated between the client and the server. The client preference will be honored given that the server supports that particular cipher suite.
You'd find the list of cipher suites supported by the Sun Providers upto Java 8 here.
A typical cipher suite name looks like this:
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
Here,
ECDHE stands for Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman Ephemeral. It's a Key exchange algorithm. The Elliptic variant (the first E) is used for performance, whereas the Ephemeral variant (the last E) is for forward secrecy. Forward secrecy means that if an attacker keeps recording all the communications over TLS and at a later point of time somehow gets hold of the private key, he/she cannot decrypt the past recorded communications.
ECDSA is a digital signature algorithm used for signing the key and is used for authenticating (verifying the integrity of) the shared secret. ECDSA is weaker and slower than the other authentication algorithms like HMAC. Yet it is used for shared key authentication because it does not need the verifier know the secret key used to create the authentication tag. The server can very well use its private key to verify the integrity of the message.
AES_128_GCM - Once a common secret key is shared between both the parties (usually a browser and a web server), a symmetric block cipher algorithm is used to encrypt the message exchanges between the parties. In this particular case, the block cipher AES with 128 bit key and GCM authentication mode is used.
SHA256 - Hashing algorithm for the PRF

You are setting the system properties wrong.
The server needs javax.net.keyStore (not trustStore) and javax.net.keyStorePassword -- and sometimes javax.net.keyStoreType but probably not in your case. For a server using self-signed cert, the client needs the truststore to contain that cert, and does not need any keystore at all. Although it's not documented, if these are on the same system you can use the server keystore (containing a privateKeyEntry) as the client truststore and JSSE automatically treats the privateKey's leaf cert as a trustedCert. In any other situation you need to extract the server's cert (not key), copy/send it to the client, and use keytool -importcert to put the cert (not key) into a keystore file which is used as truststore; this can be either a custom file (identified with the sysprops) or the default truststore at JRE/lib/security/cacerts (except on current Windows if JRE is under \Program Files[ (x86)] as is the installer default, because Windows now messes with people who try to change files there).
And these sysprops (when used) must be set BEFORE THE JSSE CLASSES ARE LOADED -- setting them when you call SSL[Server]SocketFactory is usually far too late. Usually they are set on the commandline that invokes Java with the -Dname=value option; that is guaranteed to be done early enough. If you can't do that, put the setProperty calls at the beginning of your main method, or the equivalent for a GUI.
This manifests as 'no common/shared cipher' because without a key+cert the server cannot support the ciphersuites that do server authentication, and Java/JSSE by default only enables ciphersuites that do server authentication because the others are insecure in many/most situations.
I'm sure I've answered the second part before, but can't find a dupe. The first part has occurred in many answers, but is usually not clearly presented in the question.

WSImport over SSL with fake (dev) certificate

Recently I spent couple of hours trying to get WSImport working on web service that is hosted over HTTPS, with fake certificate (dev deployment).
I tried to use windows version of wsimport.exe, from Java 8 jdk.
I specified option -XdisableSSLHostnameVerification, but it kept complaining about wrong certificate.
That is true, certificate is not valid, but in dev environment it should be acceptable.
I did not find easy way to make wsimport to skip certificate check.

Finally I got a solution, using wrapper class.
I think it makes sense to share the solution.
Hope it will save some someone's time for better purposes.
The solution (assuming that java is installed in c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_40):
How to compile
"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_40\bin\javac" -cp "c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_40\lib\tools.jar" WSImportSSLByPass.java
How to use
"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_40\bin\java" -cp "c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_40\lib\tools.jar";. WSImportSSLByPass %wsimport args%
The code
to be put into WSImportSSLByPass.java
import java.security.KeyManagementException;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.security.SecureRandom;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;
import javax.net.ssl.HostnameVerifier;
import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSession;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManager;
import javax.net.ssl.X509TrustManager;
public class WSImportSSLByPass {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Throwable{
configureBypassSSL();
com.sun.tools.internal.ws.WsImport.main(args);
}
private static void configureBypassSSL() throws NoSuchAlgorithmException,
KeyManagementException {
SSLContext ssl_ctx = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
TrustManager[] trust_mgr = get_trust_mgr();
ssl_ctx.init(null, // key manager
trust_mgr, // trust manager
new SecureRandom()); // random number generator
SSLSocketFactory sf = ssl_ctx.getSocketFactory();
HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(sf);
HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultHostnameVerifier(new DummyHostVerifier());
}
private static TrustManager[] get_trust_mgr() {
TrustManager[] certs = new TrustManager[] { new X509TrustManager() {
public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
return null;
}
public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs, String t) {
}
public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs, String t) {
}
} };
return certs;
}
}
class DummyHostVerifier implements HostnameVerifier {
public boolean verify(String name, SSLSession sess) {
return true;
}
}

In case of 2-way ssl handshake, we can modify the WSImportSSLByPass class like this
import com.sun.tools.internal.ws.WsImport;
public class OCBWSImport {
/**
* #param args the command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String[] args) throws Throwable {
// TODO code application logic here
//System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.8.0_131\\jre\\lib\\security\\cacerts");
//System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword", "changeit");
//System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStoreType", "pkcs12");
//Certificate for 2-way handshake
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStore", "D:\\tuanpa\\yourp12file.p12");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword", "password of p12 file");
//Hostname checking bypass
javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultHostnameVerifier(
new javax.net.ssl.HostnameVerifier() {
public boolean verify(String hostname,
javax.net.ssl.SSLSession sslSession) {
//return hostname.equals("192.168.1.10");
return true;
}
});
WsImport.main(args);
}
}

javax.net.ssl.trustStore not getting updated

Below is the sample code which invoke 1st web service using dev keystore
and invoke 2nd web service using stage keystore.
public static void main(String args[]) {
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore",
"C:\\Users\\shahire\\Desktop\\Keystores\\Keystores\\dev\\dev.keystore");
System.out.println("1st web service call");
// 1st axis2 web service call code
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore",
"C:\\Users\\shahire\\Desktop\\Keystores\\Keystores\\stage\\stage.keystore");
System.out.println("2nd web service call");
// 2nd axis2 web service call code
}
I am able to call first web service call however i have been getting below error while accessing 2nd web service call
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at org.apache.axis2.AxisFault.makeFault(AxisFault.java:417)
By looking at the exception i feel that it caching "javax.net.ssl.trustStore" location.
When i comment 1st web service call then i can able access the 2nd web service.

Just to be clear. I don't know if Axis2 actually for some reason "reuses" or caches as you say the truststore system property that you have provided; my best guess is that it initializes some object under the hood which reads the property and after it has been configured does not need to read it again.
But you can work arround this by putting all your trusted certificates in the same truststore. This will definetely solve your problem since as you say you actually can connect succesfully to the 2nd web service.
Why are you using different truststores in the first place?
If you have to, due to some security requirement (do you have one?) you should look into whether there are other ssl properties for Axis specifically that you are not using.

Υou could try an alternative way without modifying the properties provided by the JVM.
Here is a sample example:
package test.ssl;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.URL;
import java.security.KeyStore;
import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
import javax.net.ssl.KeyManagerFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManagerFactory;
public class SSLClient {
public void provider() throws Exception {
// first call
invokeWebServiceSSL(".../.../.../name.keystore", "changeit",
"https://../../");
// second call
// invokeWebServiceSSL(String keystorePath, String pass, String
// endpointURL)
}
public static void invokeWebServiceSSL(String keystorePath, String pass, String endpointURL) {
HttpsURLConnection conn = null;
try {
char[] password = pass.toCharArray();
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(keystorePath);
KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
ks.load(fis, password);
KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
kmf.init(ks, password);
TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory.getInstance(TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
tmf.init(ks);
fis.close();
SSLContext ctx = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
ctx.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), tmf.getTrustManagers(), null);
SSLSocketFactory sf = ctx.getSocketFactory();
URL url = new URL(endpointURL);
conn = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
conn.setSSLSocketFactory(sf);
InputStream inputstream = conn.getInputStream();
InputStreamReader inputstreamreader = new InputStreamReader(inputstream);
BufferedReader bufferedreader = new BufferedReader(inputstreamreader);
String rs = null;
while ((rs = bufferedreader.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("Received: " + rs);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
conn.getInputStream().close();
} catch (Exception e) {
}
}
}
}
I hope this helps.

How to get server certificate chain then verify it's valid and trusted in Java

I need to create an Https connection with a remote server then retrieve and verify the certificate.
I have established the connection fine:
try {
url = new URL(this.SERVER_URL);
HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
HttpsURLConnection secured = (HttpsURLConnection) con;
secured.connect();
}
But it seems getServerCertificateChain() method is undefined by the type HttpsURLConnection.
So how do I retrieve the server certificate chain? My understanding is that getServerCertificateChain() should return an array of X509Certificate objects and that this class has methods I can use to interrogate the certificate.
I need to verify that:
the certificate is valid and trusted,
check the Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point against the certificate serial number
make sure it isn't expired and
check that the URL in the certificate is matches another (which I already have retrieved ).
I'm lost and would really appreciate any help!

The method you want is getServerCertificates, not getServerCertificateChain. There is some nice sample code here.
EDIT
Added some sample code of my own. Good starting point for you. Don't forget to look at the Javadocs for HttpsURLConnection and X509Certificate.
import java.net.URL;
import java.security.cert.Certificate;
import java.security.cert.CertificateExpiredException;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;
import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
public class TestSecuredConnection {
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
TestSecuredConnection tester = new TestSecuredConnection();
try {
tester.testConnectionTo("https://www.google.com");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public TestSecuredConnection() {
super();
}
public void testConnectionTo(String aURL) throws Exception {
URL destinationURL = new URL(aURL);
HttpsURLConnection conn = (HttpsURLConnection) destinationURL
.openConnection();
conn.connect();
Certificate[] certs = conn.getServerCertificates();
for (Certificate cert : certs) {
System.out.println("Certificate is: " + cert);
if(cert instanceof X509Certificate) {
try {
( (X509Certificate) cert).checkValidity();
System.out.println("Certificate is active for current date");
} catch(CertificateExpiredException cee) {
System.out.println("Certificate is expired");
}
}
}
}
}

Quick googling brought me to this example using BouncyCastle. I think it better answers the question.
http://www.nakov.com/blog/2009/12/01/x509-certificate-validation-in-java-build-and-verify-chain-and-verify-clr-with-bouncy-castle/

This sample code mentioned by Kirby and arulraj.net has been removed from Apache CXF in 2011 and did not support OCSP. The Apache PDFBox project "resurrected" this code and added OCSP support and more features that were missing in the original code, e.g. CRL signature check. Since release 2.0.13 the improved source code is available in the examples subproject, in the CertificateVerifier class. It is also available online with small improvements.
The code is not claiming to be perfect, and does not yet check whether the root is trusted. Development is tracked in JIRA issue PDFBOX-3017.

Simple Java HTTPS server

I need to set up a really lightweight HTTPS server for a Java application. It's a simulator that's being used in our development labs to simulate the HTTPS connections accepted by a piece of equipment in the wild. Because it's purely a lightweight development tool and isn't used in production in any way at all, I'm quite happy to bypass certifications and as much negotiation as I can.
I'm planning on using the HttpsServer class in Java 6 SE but I'm struggling to get it working. As a test client, I'm using wget from the cygwin command line (wget https://[address]:[port]) but wget reports that it was "Unable to establish SSL connection".
If I run wget with the -d option for debugging it tells me "SSL handshake failed".
I've spent 30 minutes googling this and everything seems to just point back to the fairly useless Java 6 documentation that describes the methods but doesn't actually talk about how to get the darn thing talking or provide any example code at all.
Can anyone nudge me in the right direction?

What I eventually used was this:
try {
// Set up the socket address
InetSocketAddress address = new InetSocketAddress(InetAddress.getLocalHost(), config.getHttpsPort());
// Initialise the HTTPS server
HttpsServer httpsServer = HttpsServer.create(address, 0);
SSLContext sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
// Initialise the keystore
char[] password = "simulator".toCharArray();
KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("lig.keystore");
ks.load(fis, password);
// Set up the key manager factory
KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
kmf.init(ks, password);
// Set up the trust manager factory
TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
tmf.init(ks);
// Set up the HTTPS context and parameters
sslContext.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), tmf.getTrustManagers(), null);
httpsServer.setHttpsConfigurator(new HttpsConfigurator(sslContext) {
public void configure(HttpsParameters params) {
try {
// Initialise the SSL context
SSLContext c = SSLContext.getDefault();
SSLEngine engine = c.createSSLEngine();
params.setNeedClientAuth(false);
params.setCipherSuites(engine.getEnabledCipherSuites());
params.setProtocols(engine.getEnabledProtocols());
// Get the default parameters
SSLParameters defaultSSLParameters = c.getDefaultSSLParameters();
params.setSSLParameters(defaultSSLParameters);
} catch (Exception ex) {
ILogger log = new LoggerFactory().getLogger();
log.exception(ex);
log.error("Failed to create HTTPS port");
}
}
});
LigServer server = new LigServer(httpsServer);
joinableThreadList.add(server.getJoinableThread());
} catch (Exception exception) {
log.exception(exception);
log.error("Failed to create HTTPS server on port " + config.getHttpsPort() + " of localhost");
}
To generate a keystore:
$ keytool -genkeypair -keyalg RSA -alias self_signed -keypass simulator \
-keystore lig.keystore -storepass simulator
See also here.
Potentially storepass and keypass might be different, in which case the ks.load and kmf.init must use storepass and keypass, respectively.

I updated your answer for a HTTPS server (not socket-based). It might help with CSRF and AJAX calls.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
import java.lang.*;
import java.net.URL;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpsServer;
import java.security.KeyStore;
import javax.net.ssl.KeyManagerFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManagerFactory;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.*;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngine;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLParameters;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.Reader;
import java.net.URLConnection;
import javax.net.ssl.HostnameVerifier;
import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSession;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManager;
import javax.net.ssl.X509TrustManager;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpExchange;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpHandler;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpsExchange;
public class SimpleHTTPSServer {
public static class MyHandler implements HttpHandler {
#Override
public void handle(HttpExchange t) throws IOException {
String response = "This is the response";
HttpsExchange httpsExchange = (HttpsExchange) t;
t.getResponseHeaders().add("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
t.sendResponseHeaders(200, response.getBytes().length);
OutputStream os = t.getResponseBody();
os.write(response.getBytes());
os.close();
}
}
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
try {
// setup the socket address
InetSocketAddress address = new InetSocketAddress(8000);
// initialise the HTTPS server
HttpsServer httpsServer = HttpsServer.create(address, 0);
SSLContext sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
// initialise the keystore
char[] password = "password".toCharArray();
KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("testkey.jks");
ks.load(fis, password);
// setup the key manager factory
KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
kmf.init(ks, password);
// setup the trust manager factory
TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
tmf.init(ks);
// setup the HTTPS context and parameters
sslContext.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), tmf.getTrustManagers(), null);
httpsServer.setHttpsConfigurator(new HttpsConfigurator(sslContext) {
public void configure(HttpsParameters params) {
try {
// initialise the SSL context
SSLContext context = getSSLContext();
SSLEngine engine = context.createSSLEngine();
params.setNeedClientAuth(false);
params.setCipherSuites(engine.getEnabledCipherSuites());
params.setProtocols(engine.getEnabledProtocols());
// Set the SSL parameters
SSLParameters sslParameters = context.getSupportedSSLParameters();
params.setSSLParameters(sslParameters);
} catch (Exception ex) {
System.out.println("Failed to create HTTPS port");
}
}
});
httpsServer.createContext("/test", new MyHandler());
httpsServer.setExecutor(null); // creates a default executor
httpsServer.start();
} catch (Exception exception) {
System.out.println("Failed to create HTTPS server on port " + 8000 + " of localhost");
exception.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
To create a self-signed certificate:
keytool -genkeypair -keyalg RSA -alias selfsigned -keystore testkey.jks -storepass password -validity 360 -keysize 2048

With ServerSocket
You can use the class that HttpsServer is built around to be even more light-weight: ServerSocket.
Single-threaded
The following program is a very simple, single-threaded server listening on port 8443. Messages are encrypted with TLS using the keys in ./keystore.jks:
public static void main(String... args) {
var address = new InetSocketAddress("0.0.0.0", 8443);
startSingleThreaded(address);
}
public static void startSingleThreaded(InetSocketAddress address) {
System.out.println("Start single-threaded server at " + address);
try (var serverSocket = getServerSocket(address)) {
var encoding = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
// This infinite loop is not CPU-intensive since method "accept" blocks
// until a client has made a connection to the socket
while (true) {
try (var socket = serverSocket.accept();
// Use the socket to read the client's request
var reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
socket.getInputStream(), encoding.name()));
// Writing to the output stream and then closing it sends
// data to the client
var writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(
socket.getOutputStream(), encoding.name()))
) {
getHeaderLines(reader).forEach(System.out::println);
writer.write(getResponse(encoding));
writer.flush();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Exception while handling connection");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Could not create socket at " + address);
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private static ServerSocket getServerSocket(InetSocketAddress address)
throws Exception {
// Backlog is the maximum number of pending connections on the socket,
// 0 means that an implementation-specific default is used
int backlog = 0;
var keyStorePath = Path.of("./keystore.jks");
char[] keyStorePassword = "pass_for_self_signed_cert".toCharArray();
// Bind the socket to the given port and address
var serverSocket = getSslContext(keyStorePath, keyStorePassword)
.getServerSocketFactory()
.createServerSocket(address.getPort(), backlog, address.getAddress());
// We don't need the password anymore → Overwrite it
Arrays.fill(keyStorePassword, '0');
return serverSocket;
}
private static SSLContext getSslContext(Path keyStorePath, char[] keyStorePass)
throws Exception {
var keyStore = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
keyStore.load(new FileInputStream(keyStorePath.toFile()), keyStorePass);
var keyManagerFactory = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
keyManagerFactory.init(keyStore, keyStorePass);
var sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
// Null means using default implementations for TrustManager and SecureRandom
sslContext.init(keyManagerFactory.getKeyManagers(), null, null);
return sslContext;
}
private static String getResponse(Charset encoding) {
var body = "The server says hi 👋\r\n";
var contentLength = body.getBytes(encoding).length;
return "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n" +
String.format("Content-Length: %d\r\n", contentLength) +
String.format("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=%s\r\n",
encoding.displayName()) +
// An empty line marks the end of the response's header
"\r\n" +
body;
}
private static List<String> getHeaderLines(BufferedReader reader)
throws IOException {
var lines = new ArrayList<String>();
var line = reader.readLine();
// An empty line marks the end of the request's header
while (!line.isEmpty()) {
lines.add(line);
line = reader.readLine();
}
return lines;
}
Here's a project using this socket-based approach.
Multi-threaded
To use more than one thread for the server, you can employ a thread pool:
public static void startMultiThreaded(InetSocketAddress address) {
try (var serverSocket = getServerSocket(address)) {
System.out.println("Started multi-threaded server at " + address);
// A cached thread pool with a limited number of threads
var threadPool = newCachedThreadPool(8);
var encoding = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
// This infinite loop is not CPU-intensive since method "accept" blocks
// until a client has made a connection to the socket
while (true) {
try {
var socket = serverSocket.accept();
// Create a response to the request on a separate thread to
// handle multiple requests simultaneously
threadPool.submit(() -> {
try ( // Use the socket to read the client's request
var reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
socket.getInputStream(), encoding.name()));
// Writing to the output stream and then closing it
// sends data to the client
var writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(
socket.getOutputStream(), encoding.name()))
) {
getHeaderLines(reader).forEach(System.out::println);
writer.write(getResponse(encoding));
writer.flush();
// We're done with the connection → Close the socket
socket.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Exception while creating response");
e.printStackTrace();
}
});
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Exception while handling connection");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("Could not create socket at " + address);
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private static ExecutorService newCachedThreadPool(int maximumNumberOfThreads) {
return new ThreadPoolExecutor(0, maximumNumberOfThreads,
60L, TimeUnit.SECONDS,
new SynchronousQueue<>());
}
Create a certificate
Use the keytool to create a self-signed certificate (you can get a proper certificate from Let's Encrypt for free):
keytool -genkeypair -keyalg RSA -alias selfsigned -keystore keystore.jks \
-storepass pass_for_self_signed_cert \
-dname "CN=localhost, OU=Developers, O=Bull Bytes, L=Linz, C=AT"
Contact the server
After starting the server, connect to it with curl:
curl -k https://localhost:8443
This will fetch a message from the server:
The server says hi 👋
Inspect which protocol and cipher suite were established by curl and your server with
curl -kv https://localhost:8443
Using JDK 13 and curl 7.66.0, this produced
SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
Refer to Java Network Programming by Elliotte Rusty Harold for more on the topic.

Although this question is really old, someone mentioned me this topic and asked if it could be simplified. Most of the answers demonstrate very well how to setup a simple https server with sun, but I want to provide an alternative which is hopefully a bit easier.
For this setup I am assuming you already have the keystore and truststore in place.
The rest endpoint:
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpExchange;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpHandler;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
public class HelloWorldController implements HttpHandler {
#Override
public void handle(HttpExchange exchange) throws IOException {
try (OutputStream responseBody = exchange.getResponseBody()) {
exchange.getResponseHeaders().set("Content-Type", "text/plain");
String payload = "Hello";
exchange.sendResponseHeaders(200, payload.length());
responseBody.write(payload.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
}
}
}
Server configuration:
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpsConfigurator;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpsParameters;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpsServer;
import nl.altindag.server.controller.HelloWorldController;
import nl.altindag.ssl.SSLFactory;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial("keystore.jks", "secret".toCharArray())
.withTrustMaterial("truststore.jks", "secret".toCharArray())
.build();
InetSocketAddress socketAddress = new InetSocketAddress(8443);
HttpsServer httpsServer = HttpsServer.create(socketAddress, 0);
httpsServer.setHttpsConfigurator(new HttpsConfigurator(sslFactory.getSslContext()) {
#Override
public void configure(HttpsParameters params) {
params.setSSLParameters(sslFactory.getSslParameters());
}
});
httpsServer.createContext("/api/hello", new HelloWorldController());
httpsServer.setExecutor(Executors.newCachedThreadPool());
httpsServer.start();
}
}
I need to add some disclaimer here... I use SSLFactory class from the Github - SSLContext-Kickstart library to easily construct a SSLContext. It is maintained by me. You don't need to use it as others have provided a way to construct it with just plain java.

Just a reminder to others: com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpsServer in the solutions above is not part of the Java standard. Although it is bundled with the Oracle/OpenJDK JVM, it is not included in all JVMs so this will not work out of the box everywhere.
There are several lightweight HTTP servers out there that you can embed in your application that support HTTPS and run on any JVM.
One of them is JLHTTP - The Java Lightweight HTTP Server which is a tiny one-file server (or ~50K/35K jar) with no dependencies. Setting up the keystore, SSLContext etc. is similar to the above, since it also relies on the standard JSSE implementation, or you can specify the standard system properties to configure SSL. You can see the FAQ or the code and its documentation for details.
Disclaimer: I'm the author of JLHTTP. You can check it out for yourself and determine if it suits your needs. I hope you find it useful :-)