Which is the default location for keystore/truststore of Java applications?

Question

I am writing an application that uses SSL. Hence, I have a dummy keystore and a dummy truststore I want to supply to my customer. Is there any default folder to put them inside my distribution? e.g. docs, lib, bin...etc. Where is usually the keystore put on the server and where is usually truststore put on the client?

Thanks

Answer 1

In Java, according to the JSSE Reference Guide, there is no default for the keystore, the default for the truststore is "jssecacerts, if it exists. Otherwise, cacerts".

A few applications use ~/.keystore as a default keystore, but this is not without problems (mainly because you might not want all the application run by the user to use that trust store).

I'd suggest using application-specific values that you bundle with your application instead, it would tend to be more applicable in general.

Answer 2

Like bruno said, you're better configuring it yourself. Here's how I do it. Start by creating a properties file (/etc/myapp/config.properties).

javax.net.ssl.keyStore = /etc/myapp/keyStore
javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword = 123456

Then load the properties to your environment from your code. This makes your application configurable.

FileInputStream propFile = new FileInputStream("/etc/myapp/config.properties");
Properties p = new Properties(System.getProperties());
p.load(propFile);
System.setProperties(p);