Javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: javax.net.ssl.SSLProtocolException: SSL handshake aborted: Failure in SSL library, usually a protocol error

Question

I found the solution for it by analyzing the data packets using wireshark. What I found is that while making a secure connection, android was falling back to SSLv3 from TLSv1 . It is a bug in android versions < 4.4 , and it can be solved by removing the SSLv3 protocol from Enabled Protocols list. I made a custom socketFactory class called NoSSLv3SocketFactory.java. Use this to make a socketfactory.

/*Copyright 2015 Bhavit Singh Sengar
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.*/

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.SocketAddress;
import java.net.SocketException;
import java.nio.channels.SocketChannel;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import javax.net.ssl.HandshakeCompletedListener;
import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSession;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocket;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory;


public class NoSSLv3SocketFactory extends SSLSocketFactory{
    private final SSLSocketFactory delegate;

public NoSSLv3SocketFactory() {
    this.delegate = HttpsURLConnection.getDefaultSSLSocketFactory();
}

public NoSSLv3SocketFactory(SSLSocketFactory delegate) {
    this.delegate = delegate;
}

@Override
public String[] getDefaultCipherSuites() {
    return delegate.getDefaultCipherSuites();
}

@Override
public String[] getSupportedCipherSuites() {
    return delegate.getSupportedCipherSuites();
}

private Socket makeSocketSafe(Socket socket) {
    if (socket instanceof SSLSocket) {
        socket = new NoSSLv3SSLSocket((SSLSocket) socket);
    }
    return socket;
}

@Override
public Socket createSocket(Socket s, String host, int port, boolean autoClose) throws IOException {
    return makeSocketSafe(delegate.createSocket(s, host, port, autoClose));
}

@Override
public Socket createSocket(String host, int port) throws IOException {
    return makeSocketSafe(delegate.createSocket(host, port));
}

@Override
public Socket createSocket(String host, int port, InetAddress localHost, int localPort) throws IOException {
    return makeSocketSafe(delegate.createSocket(host, port, localHost, localPort));
}

@Override
public Socket createSocket(InetAddress host, int port) throws IOException {
    return makeSocketSafe(delegate.createSocket(host, port));
}

@Override
public Socket createSocket(InetAddress address, int port, InetAddress localAddress, int localPort) throws IOException {
    return makeSocketSafe(delegate.createSocket(address, port, localAddress, localPort));
}

private class NoSSLv3SSLSocket extends DelegateSSLSocket {

    private NoSSLv3SSLSocket(SSLSocket delegate) {
        super(delegate);

    }

    @Override
    public void setEnabledProtocols(String[] protocols) {
        if (protocols != null && protocols.length == 1 && "SSLv3".equals(protocols[0])) {

            List<String> enabledProtocols = new ArrayList<String>(Arrays.asList(delegate.getEnabledProtocols()));
            if (enabledProtocols.size() > 1) {
                enabledProtocols.remove("SSLv3");
                System.out.println("Removed SSLv3 from enabled protocols");
            } else {
                System.out.println("SSL stuck with protocol available for " + String.valueOf(enabledProtocols));
            }
            protocols = enabledProtocols.toArray(new String[enabledProtocols.size()]);
        }

        super.setEnabledProtocols(protocols);
    }
}

public class DelegateSSLSocket extends SSLSocket {

    protected final SSLSocket delegate;

    DelegateSSLSocket(SSLSocket delegate) {
        this.delegate = delegate;
    }

    @Override
    public String[] getSupportedCipherSuites() {
        return delegate.getSupportedCipherSuites();
    }

    @Override
    public String[] getEnabledCipherSuites() {
        return delegate.getEnabledCipherSuites();
    }

    @Override
    public void setEnabledCipherSuites(String[] suites) {
        delegate.setEnabledCipherSuites(suites);
    }

    @Override
    public String[] getSupportedProtocols() {
        return delegate.getSupportedProtocols();
    }

    @Override
    public String[] getEnabledProtocols() {
        return delegate.getEnabledProtocols();
    }

    @Override
    public void setEnabledProtocols(String[] protocols) {
        delegate.setEnabledProtocols(protocols);
    }

    @Override
    public SSLSession getSession() {
        return delegate.getSession();
    }

    @Override
    public void addHandshakeCompletedListener(HandshakeCompletedListener listener) {
        delegate.addHandshakeCompletedListener(listener);
    }

    @Override
    public void removeHandshakeCompletedListener(HandshakeCompletedListener listener) {
        delegate.removeHandshakeCompletedListener(listener);
    }

    @Override
    public void startHandshake() throws IOException {
        delegate.startHandshake();
    }

    @Override
    public void setUseClientMode(boolean mode) {
        delegate.setUseClientMode(mode);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getUseClientMode() {
        return delegate.getUseClientMode();
    }

    @Override
    public void setNeedClientAuth(boolean need) {
        delegate.setNeedClientAuth(need);
    }

    @Override
    public void setWantClientAuth(boolean want) {
        delegate.setWantClientAuth(want);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getNeedClientAuth() {
        return delegate.getNeedClientAuth();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getWantClientAuth() {
        return delegate.getWantClientAuth();
    }

    @Override
    public void setEnableSessionCreation(boolean flag) {
        delegate.setEnableSessionCreation(flag);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getEnableSessionCreation() {
        return delegate.getEnableSessionCreation();
    }

    @Override
    public void bind(SocketAddress localAddr) throws IOException {
        delegate.bind(localAddr);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void close() throws IOException {
        delegate.close();
    }

    @Override
    public void connect(SocketAddress remoteAddr) throws IOException {
        delegate.connect(remoteAddr);
    }

    @Override
    public void connect(SocketAddress remoteAddr, int timeout) throws IOException {
        delegate.connect(remoteAddr, timeout);
    }

    @Override
    public SocketChannel getChannel() {
        return delegate.getChannel();
    }

    @Override
    public InetAddress getInetAddress() {
        return delegate.getInetAddress();
    }

    @Override
    public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException {
        return delegate.getInputStream();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getKeepAlive() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getKeepAlive();
    }

    @Override
    public InetAddress getLocalAddress() {
        return delegate.getLocalAddress();
    }

    @Override
    public int getLocalPort() {
        return delegate.getLocalPort();
    }

    @Override
    public SocketAddress getLocalSocketAddress() {
        return delegate.getLocalSocketAddress();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getOOBInline() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getOOBInline();
    }

    @Override
    public OutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException {
        return delegate.getOutputStream();
    }

    @Override
    public int getPort() {
        return delegate.getPort();
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized int getReceiveBufferSize() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getReceiveBufferSize();
    }

    @Override
    public SocketAddress getRemoteSocketAddress() {
        return delegate.getRemoteSocketAddress();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getReuseAddress() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getReuseAddress();
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized int getSendBufferSize() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getSendBufferSize();
    }

    @Override
    public int getSoLinger() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getSoLinger();
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized int getSoTimeout() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getSoTimeout();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean getTcpNoDelay() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getTcpNoDelay();
    }

    @Override
    public int getTrafficClass() throws SocketException {
        return delegate.getTrafficClass();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isBound() {
        return delegate.isBound();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isClosed() {
        return delegate.isClosed();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isConnected() {
        return delegate.isConnected();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isInputShutdown() {
        return delegate.isInputShutdown();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isOutputShutdown() {
        return delegate.isOutputShutdown();
    }

    @Override
    public void sendUrgentData(int value) throws IOException {
        delegate.sendUrgentData(value);
    }

    @Override
    public void setKeepAlive(boolean keepAlive) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setKeepAlive(keepAlive);
    }

    @Override
    public void setOOBInline(boolean oobinline) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setOOBInline(oobinline);
    }

    @Override
    public void setPerformancePreferences(int connectionTime, int latency, int bandwidth) {
        delegate.setPerformancePreferences(connectionTime, latency, bandwidth);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void setReceiveBufferSize(int size) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setReceiveBufferSize(size);
    }

    @Override
    public void setReuseAddress(boolean reuse) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setReuseAddress(reuse);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void setSendBufferSize(int size) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setSendBufferSize(size);
    }

    @Override
    public void setSoLinger(boolean on, int timeout) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setSoLinger(on, timeout);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void setSoTimeout(int timeout) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setSoTimeout(timeout);
    }

    @Override
    public void setTcpNoDelay(boolean on) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setTcpNoDelay(on);
    }

    @Override
    public void setTrafficClass(int value) throws SocketException {
        delegate.setTrafficClass(value);
    }

    @Override
    public void shutdownInput() throws IOException {
        delegate.shutdownInput();
    }

    @Override
    public void shutdownOutput() throws IOException {
        delegate.shutdownOutput();
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return delegate.toString();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object o) {
        return delegate.equals(o);
    }
}
}

Use this class like this while connecting :

SSLContext sslcontext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLSv1");
sslcontext.init(null, null, null);
SSLSocketFactory NoSSLv3Factory = new NoSSLv3SocketFactory(sslcontext.getSocketFactory());

HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(NoSSLv3Factory);
l_connection = (HttpsURLConnection) l_url.openConnection();
l_connection.connect();

UPDATE :

Now, correct solution would be to install a newer security provider using Google Play Services:

    ProviderInstaller.installIfNeeded(getApplicationContext());

This effectively gives your app access to a newer version of OpenSSL and Java Security Provider, which includes support for TLSv1.2 in SSLEngine. Once the new provider is installed, you can create an SSLEngine which supports SSLv3, TLSv1, TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 the usual way:

    SSLContext sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLSv1.2");
    sslContext.init(null, null, null);
    SSLEngine engine = sslContext.createSSLEngine();

Or you can restrict the enabled protocols using engine.setEnabledProtocols.

Don't forget to add the following dependency (check the latest version here):

implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:17.0.0'

For more info, checkout this link.

Scenario

I was getting SSLHandshake exceptions on devices running versions of Android earlier than Android 5.0. In my use case I also wanted to create a TrustManager to trust my client certificate.

I implemented NoSSLv3SocketFactory and NoSSLv3Factory to remove SSLv3 from my client's list of supported protocols but I could get neither of these solutions to work.

Some things I learned:

• On devices older than Android 5.0 TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 protocols are not enabled by default.
• SSLv3 protocol is not disabled by default on devices older than Android 5.0.
• SSLv3 is not a secure protocol and it is therefore desirable to remove it from our client's list of supported protocols before a connection is made.

What worked for me

Allow Android's security Provider to update when starting your app.

The default Provider before 5.0+ does not disable SSLv3. Provided you have access to Google Play services it is relatively straightforward to patch Android's security Provider from your app.

private void updateAndroidSecurityProvider(Activity callingActivity) {
    try {
        ProviderInstaller.installIfNeeded(this);
    } catch (GooglePlayServicesRepairableException e) {
        // Thrown when Google Play Services is not installed, up-to-date, or enabled
        // Show dialog to allow users to install, update, or otherwise enable Google Play services.
        GooglePlayServicesUtil.getErrorDialog(e.getConnectionStatusCode(), callingActivity, 0);
    } catch (GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException e) {
        Log.e("SecurityException", "Google Play Services not available.");
    }
}

If you now create your OkHttpClient or HttpURLConnection TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 should be available as protocols and SSLv3 should be removed. If the client/connection (or more specifically it's SSLContext) was initialised before calling ProviderInstaller.installIfNeeded(...) then it will need to be recreated.

Don't forget to add the following dependency (latest version found here):

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:16.0.1'

Sources:

• Patching the Security Provider with ProviderInstaller Provider
• Making SSLEngine use TLSv1.2 on Android (4.4.2)

Aside

I didn't need to explicitly set which cipher algorithms my client should use but I found a SO post recommending those considered most secure at the time of writing: Which Cipher Suites to enable for SSL Socket?

Also you should know that you can force TLS v1.2 for Android 4.0 devices that don't have it enabled by default:

Put this code in onCreate() of your Application file:

try {
        ProviderInstaller.installIfNeeded(getApplicationContext());
        SSLContext sslContext;
        sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLSv1.2");
        sslContext.init(null, null, null);
        sslContext.createSSLEngine();
    } catch (GooglePlayServicesRepairableException | GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException
            | NoSuchAlgorithmException | KeyManagementException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

Previously, I've also solved this problem with custom SSLFactory implementation, but according to OkHttp docs the solution is much easier.

My final solution with needed TLS ciphers for 4.2+ devices looks like this:

public UsersApi provideUsersApi() {

    private ConnectionSpec spec = new ConnectionSpec.Builder(ConnectionSpec.COMPATIBLE_TLS)
        .supportsTlsExtensions(true)
        .tlsVersions(TlsVersion.TLS_1_2, TlsVersion.TLS_1_1, TlsVersion.TLS_1_0)
        .cipherSuites(
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256,
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256,
                CipherSuite.TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256,
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,
                CipherSuite.TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA)
        .build();

    OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
            .connectionSpecs(Collections.singletonList(spec))
            .build();

    return new Retrofit.Builder()
            .baseUrl(USERS_URL)
            .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
            .client(client)
            .build()
            .create(UsersApi.class);
}

Note that set of supported protocols depends on configured on your server.

I found the solution here in this link.

You just have to place below code in your Android application class. And that is enough. Don't need to do any changes in your Retrofit settings. It saved my day.

public class MyApplication extends Application {
@Override
public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    try {
      // Google Play will install latest OpenSSL 
      ProviderInstaller.installIfNeeded(getApplicationContext());
      SSLContext sslContext;
      sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLSv1.2");
      sslContext.init(null, null, null);
      sslContext.createSSLEngine();
    } catch (GooglePlayServicesRepairableException | GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException
        | NoSuchAlgorithmException | KeyManagementException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Hope this will be of help. Thank you.

This solved it for me:

The Android documentation for SSLSocket says that TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 is supported within android starting API level 16+ (Android 4.1, Jelly Bean). But it is by default disabled but starting with API level 20+ (Android 4.4 for watch, Kitkat Watch and Android 5.0 for phone, Lollipop) they are enabled. But it is very hard to find any documentation about how to enable it for phones running 4.1 for example. To enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2 you need to create a custom SSLSocketFactory that is going to proxy all calls to a default SSLSocketFactory implementation. In addition to that do we have to override all createSocket methods and callsetEnabledProtocols on the returned SSLSocket to enable TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2. For an example implementation just follow the link below.

android 4.1. enable tls1.1 and tls 1.2

When I got this error, it was because the protocols (TLS versions) and/or cipher suites supported by the server were not enabled on (and possibly not even supported by) the device. For API 16-19, TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 are supported but not enabled by default. Once I enabled them for these versions, I still got the error because these versions don't support any of the ciphers on our instance of AWS CloudFront.

Since it's not possible to add ciphers to Android, we had to switch our CloudFront version from TLSv1.2_2018 to TLSv1.1_2016 (which still supports TLSv1.2; it just doesn't require it), which has four of the ciphers supported by the earlier Android versions, two of which are still considered strong.

At that point, the error disappeared and the calls went through (with TLSv1.2) because there was at least one protocol and at least one cipher that the device and server shared.

Refer to the tables on this page to see which protocols and ciphers are supported by and enabled on which versions of Android.

Now was Android really trying to use SSLv3 as implied by the "sslv3 alert handshake failure" part of the error message? I doubt it; I suspect this is an old cobweb in the SSL library that hasn't been cleaned out but I can't say for sure.

In order to enable TLSv1.2 (and TLSv1.1), I was able to use a much simpler SSLSocketFactory than the ones seen elsewhere (like NoSSLv3SocketFactory). It simply makes sure that the enabled protocols include all the supported protocols and that the enabled ciphers include all the supported ciphers (the latter wasn't necessary for me but it could be for others) - see configure() at the bottom. If you'd rather enable only the latest protocols, you can replace socket.supportedProtocols with something like arrayOf("TLSv1.1", "TLSv1.2") (likewise for the ciphers):

class TLSSocketFactory : SSLSocketFactory() {

    private val socketFactory: SSLSocketFactory

    init {
        val sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS")
        sslContext.init(null, null, null)
        socketFactory = sslContext.socketFactory
    }

    override fun getDefaultCipherSuites(): Array<String> {
        return socketFactory.defaultCipherSuites
    }

    override fun getSupportedCipherSuites(): Array<String> {
        return socketFactory.supportedCipherSuites
    }

    override fun createSocket(s: Socket, host: String, port: Int, autoClose: Boolean): Socket {
        return configure(socketFactory.createSocket(s, host, port, autoClose) as SSLSocket)
    }

    override fun createSocket(host: String, port: Int): Socket {
        return configure(socketFactory.createSocket(host, port) as SSLSocket)
    }

    override fun createSocket(host: InetAddress, port: Int): Socket {
        return configure(socketFactory.createSocket(host, port) as SSLSocket)
    }

    override fun createSocket(host: String, port: Int, localHost: InetAddress, localPort: Int): Socket {
        return configure(socketFactory.createSocket(host, port, localHost, localPort) as SSLSocket)
    }

    override fun createSocket(address: InetAddress, port: Int, localAddress: InetAddress, localPort: Int): Socket {
        return configure(socketFactory.createSocket(address, port, localAddress, localPort) as SSLSocket)
    }

    private fun configure(socket: SSLSocket): SSLSocket {
        socket.enabledProtocols = socket.supportedProtocols
        socket.enabledCipherSuites = socket.supportedCipherSuites
        return socket
    }
}