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Recently i came across two SSL-related exceptions when writing a testing Spring-based client application using RestTemplate. Because both of them are related to an untrusted connection when making HTTPS calls (as a result of self-signed SSL certificate configured in Tomcat), and both have one common solution, i thought i’ll share it with You.

Exceptions thrown:

• java.security.cert.CertificateException: No name matching my.company.com found; nested exception is 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

Solution:

• disabling SSL certificate validation (unless you want to go the “hard way” of installing a correct/SSL Authority-signed certificate)
• This is how i did it in Java:

import javax.net.ssl.*;
import java.security.cert.CertificateException;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;

public class SSLCertificateValidation {

    public static void disable() {
        try {
            SSLContext sslc = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
            TrustManager[] trustManagerArray = { new NullX509TrustManager() };
            sslc.init(null, trustManagerArray, null);
            HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(sslc.getSocketFactory());
            HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultHostnameVerifier(new NullHostnameVerifier());
        } catch(Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private static class NullX509TrustManager implements X509TrustManager {
        public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType) throws CertificateException {
            System.out.println();
        }
        public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType) throws CertificateException {
            System.out.println();
        }
        public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
            return new X509Certificate[0];
        }
    }

    private static class NullHostnameVerifier implements HostnameVerifier {
        public boolean verify(String hostname, SSLSession session) {
            return true;
        }
    }

}

The complete example is available as a Gist.

What you now have to do, is to invoke SSLCertificateValidation.disable() prior to making a HTTPS call using RestClient. Simple as that.