Java7 Refusing to trust certificate in trust store

Question

I've a weird problem - a supplier uses TLS SSLv3 with both a self signed client and server certificate. This hasn't been a problem with Java1.5 and Java1.6 - simply import client certificate and private key into a keystore and the server public certificate into the truststore. Everything works fine. However with Java7 the server certificate fails to be trusted even though the same truststore is being used. I've tried Windows and Red Hat both using Java7 (1.7.03, 04 and 05, x86 and x64 versions) with no success.

I've recreated the keystore/truststore from scratch and they only contain these certificates. The appropriate system properties have been set (javax.net.ssl.keyStore, javax.net.ssl.trustStore) and the key aspect is that the exact same code and configuration runs perfectly in JDK5/6.

I'm at a loss - I can't find any reference to additional checking but I would have thought that the fact the certificate was located in the truststore should mean that it's trusted regardless of being self signed.

Any help appreciated. Ads

Exception trace:

Exception in thread "main" javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException:     sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path validation failed:     java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Path does not chain with any of the trust anchors
sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path validation failed: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Path does not chain with any of the trust anchors
at sun.security.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:192)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(SSLSocketImpl.java:1868)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:276)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:270)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1338)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(ClientHandshaker.java:154)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Handshaker.java:868)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Handshaker.java:804)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:998)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1294)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.writeRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:685)
at sun.security.ssl.AppOutputStream.write(AppOutputStream.java:111)
at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.writeBytes(StreamEncoder.java:221)
at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.implFlushBuffer(StreamEncoder.java:291)
at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.implFlush(StreamEncoder.java:295)
at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.flush(StreamEncoder.java:141)
at java.io.OutputStreamWriter.flush(OutputStreamWriter.java:229)
at com.alltria.ypsilon.testing.TestSSL.main(TestSSL.java:65)
Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path validation failed: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Path does not chain with any of the trust anchors
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doValidate(PKIXValidator.java:350)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.engineValidate(PKIXValidator.java:249)
at sun.security.validator.Validator.validate(Validator.java:260)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.validate(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:326)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:231)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:126)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1320)
... 13 more
Caused by: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Path does not chain with any of the trust anchors
at sun.security.provider.certpath.PKIXCertPathValidator.engineValidate(PKIXCertPathValidator.java:208)
at java.security.cert.CertPathValidator.validate(CertPathValidator.java:279)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doValidate(PKIXValidator.java:345)
... 19 more
Java Result: 1

The part where the ssl debug fails is trying to validate the server certificate:

***
%% Invalidated:  [Session-1, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA]
main, SEND SSLv3 ALERT:  fatal, description = certificate_unknown
main, WRITE: SSLv3 Alert, length = 2
[Raw write]: length = 7
0000: 15 03 00 00 02 02 2E                               .......
main, called closeSocket()
main, handling exception: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path validation failed: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Path does not chain with any of the trust anchors
main, called close()
main, called closeInternal(true)

Answer 1

I actually had a somewhat similar issue, where a Tomcat application would trust the ca cert in the truststore when using Java 1.6 and reject it with java 1.7. After adding keyUsage to my ca certificate it works (after reading a bug report, JDK-7018897 : CertPath validation cannot handle self-signed cert with bad KeyUsage).

What I have done (Ubuntu 12.04 x64):

1. Edit /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf and uncomment keyUsage line in v3_ca section.

2. Generate new ca cert from old one with keyUsage included using the command:

   openssl x509 -in oldca.pem -clrext -signkey oldca.key -extfile /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf -extensions v3_ca -out newca.pem
   

3. Delete old CA key from truststore and insert the new one.