How to connect to a secure website using SSL in Java with a pkcs12 file?

Question

I have a pkcs12 file. I need to use this to connect to a webpage using https protocol. I came across some code where in order to connect to a secure web page i need to set the following system properties:

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "myTrustStore");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword", "changeit");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStoreType", "pkcs12");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStore", "new_cert.p12");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword", "newpass");

I have the p12(pkcs12) file. All I need is a truststore file.

I extracted the certificates using:

openssl.exe pkcs12 -in c:/mykey.p12 -out c:/cert.txt -nokeys -clcerts

Now converted the cert PEM file to der

openssl.exe x509 -in c:/cert.txt -outform DER -out c:/CAcert.der 

Now adding the der file to a keystore

keytool -import -file C:/Cacert.der -keystore mytruststore

Now I have the truststore, but when I use it, I get the following error

Exception in thread "main" java.net.SocketException: java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException: Error constructing implementation (algorithm: Default, provider: SunJSSE, class: com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.DefaultSSLContextImpl)

Update: After removing certain properties and setting only the "trustStore", "trustStorePassword" and "trustStoreType" property, I got the following exception

java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException: the trustAnchors parameter must be non-empty

Please Help.

Answer 1

For anyone encountering a similar situation I was able to solve the issue above as follows:

1. Regenerate your pkcs12 file as follows:

   openssl pkcs12 -in oldpkcs.p12 -out keys -passout pass:tmp
   openssl pkcs12 -in keys -export -out new.p12 -passin pass:tmp -passout pass:newpasswd
   

2. Import the CA certificate from server into a TrustStore ( either your own, or the java keystore in $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts, password: changeit).

3. Set the following system properties:

   System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "myTrustStore");
   System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword", "changeit");
   System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStoreType", "pkcs12");
   System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStore", "new.p12");
   System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword", "newpasswd");
   

4. Test ur url.

Courtesy@ http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5296333

Answer 2

I cannot comment because of the 50pts threshhold, but I don't think that the answer provided in https://stackoverflow.com/a/537344/1341220 is correct. What you are actually describing is how you insert server certificates into the systems default truststore:

$JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts, password: changeit)

This works, indeed, but it means that you did not really specify a trust store local to your project, but rather accepted the certificate universially in your system.

You actually never use your own truststore that you defined here:

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "myTrustStore");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword", "changeit");