“PKIX path building failed” and “unable to find va

Question

I'm trying to get tweets using twitter4j library for my java project. On my first run I got an error about certificate sun.security.validator.ValidatorException and sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException. Then I added twitter certificate by:

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_45\jre\lib\security>keytool -importcert -trustcacerts -file PathToCert -alias ca_alias -keystore "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_45\jre\lib\security\cacerts"

But without success. Here is the procedure to get twitters:

public static void main(String[] args) throws TwitterException {
    ConfigurationBuilder cb = new ConfigurationBuilder();
    cb.setDebugEnabled(true)
        .setOAuthConsumerKey("myConsumerKey")
        .setOAuthConsumerSecret("myConsumerSecret")
        .setOAuthAccessToken("myAccessToken")
        .setOAuthAccessTokenSecret("myAccessTokenSecret");

    TwitterFactory tf = new TwitterFactory(cb.build());
    Twitter twitter = tf.getInstance();

    try {
        Query query = new Query("iphone");
        QueryResult result;
        result = twitter.search(query);
        System.out.println("Total amount of tweets: " + result.getTweets().size());
        List<Status> tweets = result.getTweets();

        for (Status tweet : tweets) {
            System.out.println("@" + tweet.getUser().getScreenName() + " : " + tweet.getText());
        }
    } catch (TwitterException te) {
        te.printStackTrace();
        System.out.println("Failed to search tweets: " + te.getMessage());
    }

And here is the error:

sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
Relevant discussions can be found on the Internet at:
    http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=d35baff5 or
    http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=1446302e
TwitterException{exceptionCode=[d35baff5-1446302e 43208640-747fd158 43208640-747fd158 43208640-747fd158], statusCode=-1, message=null, code=-1, retryAfter=-1, rateLimitStatus=null, version=3.0.5}
    at twitter4j.internal.http.HttpClientImpl.request(HttpClientImpl.java:177)
    at twitter4j.internal.http.HttpClientWrapper.request(HttpClientWrapper.java:61)
    at twitter4j.internal.http.HttpClientWrapper.get(HttpClientWrapper.java:81)
    at twitter4j.TwitterImpl.get(TwitterImpl.java:1929)
    at twitter4j.TwitterImpl.search(TwitterImpl.java:306)
    at jku.cc.servlets.TweetsAnalyzer.main(TweetsAnalyzer.java:38)
Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at sun.security.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
    at java.net.HttpURLConnection.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)
    at twitter4j.internal.http.HttpResponseImpl.<init>(HttpResponseImpl.java:34)
    at twitter4j.internal.http.HttpClientImpl.request(HttpClientImpl.java:141)
    ... 5 more
Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.engineValidate(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.validator.Validator.validate(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.validate(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkTrusted(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(Unknown Source)
    ... 20 more
Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.engineBuild(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.cert.CertPathBuilder.build(Unknown Source)
    ... 26 more
Failed to search tweets: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

Answer 1

I wanted to import certificate for smtp.gmail.com

Only solution worked for me is 1. Enter command to view this certificate

D:\openssl\bin\openssl.exe s_client -connect smtp.gmail.com:465

2. Copy and save the lines between "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" and "-----END CERTIFICATE-----" into a file, gmail.cer

3. Run

   keytool -import -alias smtp.gmail.com -keystore "%JAVA_HOME%/jre/lib/security/cacerts" -file C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\gmail.cer

4. Enter password chageit

5. Click yes to import the certificate

6. Restart java

now run the command and you are good to go

Answer 2

The reason, we get above error is that JDK is bundled with a lot of trusted Certificate Authority(CA) certificates into a file called ‘cacerts’ but this file has no clue of our self-signed certificate. In other words, the cacerts file doesn’t have our self-signed certificate imported and thus doesn’t treat it as a trusted entity and hence it gives the above error.

How to fix the above error

To fix the above error, all we need is to import the self-signed certificate into the cacerts file.

First, locate the cacerts file. We will need to find out the JDK location. If you are running your application through one of the IDE’s like Eclipse or IntelliJ Idea go to project settings and figure out what is the JDK location. For e.g on a Mac OS typical location of cacerts file would be at this location /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ {{JDK_version}}/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security on a Window’s machine it would be under {{Installation_directory}}/{{JDK_version}}/jre/lib/security

Once you have located the cacerts file, now we need to import our self-signed certificate to this cacerts file. Check the last article, if you don’t know how to generate the self-signed certificate correctly.

If you don’t have a certificate file(.crt) and just have a .jks file you can generate a .crt file by using below command. In case you already have a .crt/.pem file then you can ignore below command

##To generate certificate from keystore(.jks file) ####

keytool -export -keystore keystore.jks -alias selfsigned -file selfsigned.crt

Above step will generate a file called selfsigned.crt.Now Import the certificate to cacerts

Now add the certificate to JRE/lib/security/cacerts (trustore)

keytool -importcert -file selfsigned.crt -alias selfsigned -keystore {{cacerts path}}

Now add the certificate to JRE/lib/security/cacerts (trustore)

keytool -importcert -file selfsigned.crt -alias selfsigned -keystore {{cacerts path}}

for e.g

keytool -importcert -file selfsigned.nextgen.crt -alias selfsigned.nextgen -keystore /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_171.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/cacerts

That’s all, restart your application and it should work fine. If it still doesn’t work and get an SSL handshake exception. It probably means you are using different domain then registered in the certificate.

The Link with detailed explanation and step by step resolution is over here.

Answer 3

I have stumbled upon this issue which took many hours of research to fix, specially with auto-generated certificates, which unlike Official ones, are quite tricky and Java does not like them that much.

Please check the following link: Solve Problem with certificates in Java

Basically you have to add the certificate from the server to the Java Home certs.

1. Generate or Get your certificate and configure Tomcat to use it in Servers.xml
2. Download the Java source code of the class InstallCert and execute it while the server is running, providing the following arguments server[:port]. No password is needed, as the original password works for the Java certs ("changeit").
3. The Program will connect to the server and Java will throw an exception, it will analyze the certificate provided by the server and allow you to create a jssecerts file inside the directory where you executed the Program (If executed from Eclipse then make sure you configure the Work directory in Run -> Configurations).
4. Manually copy that file to $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security

After following these steps, the connections with the certificate will not generate exceptions anymore within Java.

The following source code is important and it disappeared from (Sun) Oracle blogs, the only page I found it was on the link provided, therefore I am attaching it in the answer for any reference.

/*
 * Copyright 2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 *
 *   - Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 *
 *   - Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 *
 *   - Neither the name of Sun Microsystems nor the names of its
 *     contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
 *     from this software without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS
 * IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
 * THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 * PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
 * CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
 * EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
 * PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
 * PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
 * NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 */
/**
 * Originally from:
 * http://blogs.sun.com/andreas/resource/InstallCert.java
 * Use:
 * java InstallCert hostname
 * Example:
 *% java InstallCert ecc.fedora.redhat.com
 */

import javax.net.ssl.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.security.KeyStore;
import java.security.MessageDigest;
import java.security.cert.CertificateException;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;

/**
 * Class used to add the server's certificate to the KeyStore
 * with your trusted certificates.
 */
public class InstallCert {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String host;
        int port;
        char[] passphrase;
        if ((args.length == 1) || (args.length == 2)) {
            String[] c = args[0].split(":");
            host = c[0];
            port = (c.length == 1) ? 443 : Integer.parseInt(c[1]);
            String p = (args.length == 1) ? "changeit" : args[1];
            passphrase = p.toCharArray();
        } else {
            System.out.println("Usage: java InstallCert [:port] [passphrase]");
            return;
        }

        File file = new File("jssecacerts");
        if (file.isFile() == false) {
            char SEP = File.separatorChar;
            File dir = new File(System.getProperty("java.home") + SEP
                    + "lib" + SEP + "security");
            file = new File(dir, "jssecacerts");
            if (file.isFile() == false) {
                file = new File(dir, "cacerts");
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Loading KeyStore " + file + "...");
        InputStream in = new FileInputStream(file);
        KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
        ks.load(in, passphrase);
        in.close();

        SSLContext context = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
        TrustManagerFactory tmf =
                TrustManagerFactory.getInstance(TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
        tmf.init(ks);
        X509TrustManager defaultTrustManager = (X509TrustManager) tmf.getTrustManagers()[0];
        SavingTrustManager tm = new SavingTrustManager(defaultTrustManager);
        context.init(null, new TrustManager[]{tm}, null);
        SSLSocketFactory factory = context.getSocketFactory();

        System.out.println("Opening connection to " + host + ":" + port + "...");
        SSLSocket socket = (SSLSocket) factory.createSocket(host, port);
        socket.setSoTimeout(10000);
        try {
            System.out.println("Starting SSL handshake...");
            socket.startHandshake();
            socket.close();
            System.out.println();
            System.out.println("No errors, certificate is already trusted");
        } catch (SSLException e) {
            System.out.println();
            e.printStackTrace(System.out);
        }

        X509Certificate[] chain = tm.chain;
        if (chain == null) {
            System.out.println("Could not obtain server certificate chain");
            return;
        }

        BufferedReader reader =
                new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

        System.out.println();
        System.out.println("Server sent " + chain.length + " certificate(s):");
        System.out.println();
        MessageDigest sha1 = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA1");
        MessageDigest md5 = MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5");
        for (int i = 0; i < chain.length; i++) {
            X509Certificate cert = chain[i];
            System.out.println
                    (" " + (i + 1) + " Subject " + cert.getSubjectDN());
            System.out.println("   Issuer  " + cert.getIssuerDN());
            sha1.update(cert.getEncoded());
            System.out.println("   sha1    " + toHexString(sha1.digest()));
            md5.update(cert.getEncoded());
            System.out.println("   md5     " + toHexString(md5.digest()));
            System.out.println();
        }

        System.out.println("Enter certificate to add to trusted keystore or 'q' to quit: [1]");
        String line = reader.readLine().trim();
        int k;
        try {
            k = (line.length() == 0) ? 0 : Integer.parseInt(line) - 1;
        } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
            System.out.println("KeyStore not changed");
            return;
        }

        X509Certificate cert = chain[k];
        String alias = host + "-" + (k + 1);
        ks.setCertificateEntry(alias, cert);

        OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("jssecacerts");
        ks.store(out, passphrase);
        out.close();

        System.out.println();
        System.out.println(cert);
        System.out.println();
        System.out.println
                ("Added certificate to keystore 'jssecacerts' using alias '"
                        + alias + "'");
    }

    private static final char[] HEXDIGITS = "0123456789abcdef".toCharArray();

    private static String toHexString(byte[] bytes) {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(bytes.length * 3);
        for (int b : bytes) {
            b &= 0xff;
            sb.append(HEXDIGITS[b >> 4]);
            sb.append(HEXDIGITS[b & 15]);
            sb.append(' ');
        }
        return sb.toString();
    }

    private static class SavingTrustManager implements X509TrustManager {

        private final X509TrustManager tm;
        private X509Certificate[] chain;

        SavingTrustManager(X509TrustManager tm) {
            this.tm = tm;
        }

        public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
        }

        public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
                throws CertificateException {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
        }

        public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
                throws CertificateException {
            this.chain = chain;
            tm.checkServerTrusted(chain, authType);
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

I was facing the same issue and get it resolved using the below simple steps:

1) Download the InstallCert.java from google

2) Compile it using javac InstallCert.java

3) Run InstallCert.java using java InstallCert.java, with the hostname and https port, and press “1” when asking for input. It will add the “localhost” as a trusted keystore, and generate a file named “jssecacerts“ as below:

java InstallCert localhost:443

4) copy the jssecacerts into $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security folder

Main source to resolve the issue here is:

https://ankurjain26.blogspot.in/2017/11/javaxnetsslsslhandshakeexception.html