How to make Java 6, which fails SSL connection with "SSL peer shut down incorrectly", succeed like Java 7?

Question

I'm seeing an SSL connection from a client running Java 6 fail with an exception like:

Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host closed connection during handshake     at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:882)     at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1188)     at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1215)     at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1199)     at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(HttpsClient.java:434)     at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.java:166)     at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.connect(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:133)     ... 35 more Caused by: java.io.EOFException: SSL peer shut down incorrectly     at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.InputRecord.read(InputRecord.java:462)     at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:863)     ... 41 more 

The server is a Tomcat 7-based app, running on Java 7, Linux, and on Amazon EC2, for what that's worth.

I've found a lot of suggestions on possible casues, including connecting accidentally to a non-SSL port, etc. I believe I've ruled it all out, mostly because the exact same client works when running Java 7 with no change. (OS X in both cases.)

Below I include the debug output from Java 6's and Java 7's SSL connection procedure. My question to experts is, does this suggest that some possible cipher or protocol setting, maybe a default in Java 7, could be enabled in Java 6 to make it work?

Java 6:

Allow unsafe renegotiation: false Allow legacy hello messages: true Is initial handshake: true Is secure renegotiation: false %% No cached client session *** ClientHello, TLSv1 RandomCookie:  GMT: 1363993281 bytes = { 77, 153, 100, 72, 45, 178, 253, 243, 195, 167, 17, 151, 39, 247, 148, 102, 213, 129, 39, 17, 26, 139, 157, 154, 63, 88, 41, 160 } Session ID:  {} Cipher Suites: [SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5, SSL_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSV] Compression Methods:  { 0 } *** main, WRITE: TLSv1 Handshake, length = 81 main, WRITE: SSLv2 client hello message, length = 110 main, received EOFException: error main, handling exception: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host closed connection during handshake main, SEND TLSv1 ALERT:  fatal, description = handshake_failure main, WRITE: TLSv1 Alert, length = 2 main, called closeSocket() 

Java 7:

Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 Allow unsafe renegotiation: false Allow legacy hello messages: true Is initial handshake: true Is secure renegotiation: false main, setSoTimeout(0) called %% No cached client session *** ClientHello, TLSv1 RandomCookie:  GMT: 1363993435 bytes = { 131, 83, 80, 186, 215, 90, 171, 131, 231, 18, 184, 183, 249, 155, 197, 204, 73, 1, 74, 79, 32, 142, 236, 28, 111, 37, 58, 255 } Session ID:  {} Cipher Suites: [TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5, TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSV] Compression Methods:  { 0 } Extension elliptic_curves, curve names: {secp256r1, sect163k1, sect163r2, secp192r1, secp224r1, sect233k1, sect233r1, sect283k1, sect283r1, secp384r1, sect409k1, sect409r1, secp521r1, sect571k1, sect571r1, secp160k1, secp160r1, secp160r2, sect163r1, secp192k1, sect193r1, sect193r2, secp224k1, sect239k1, secp256k1} Extension ec_point_formats, formats: [uncompressed] Extension server_name, server_name: [host_name: ec2-xx-xx-xx-xx.compute-1.amazonaws.com] 

Answer 1

Bruno's answer was the correct one in the end. This is most easily controlled by the https.protocols system property. This is how you are able to control what the factory method returns. Set to "TLSv1" for example.