HttpsUrlConnection using KeyStore instead of Trust

Question

We are using HttpsUrlConnection in a WebSphere TAI in WebSphere Liberty Profile to connect to a security server. I had a lot of problems with SSL cert errors, until I discovered that it is looking for signer certs in the WLP keystore, not the WLP truststore or JVM truststore. There is nothing in the code setting this, it must be a default. But I am confused, because when we use an HTTP client in other code, it uses the JVM's truststore.

How can I make the HttpsUrlConnection use the WLP or JVM truststore, and not the keystore?

Answer 1

You can load your trust store as below and set it to SSLContext which can be set into HttpsUrlConnection. As this is an example I used defaults, you should replace them with appropriate algorithms, protocol and truststore type.

        try (FileInputStream truststoreFile = new FileInputStream("path/to/your/truststore.jks")) {
            TrustManagerFactory trustManagerFactory = TrustManagerFactory.getInstance(TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
            KeyStore truststore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
            char[] trustorePassword = "<truststorePassword".toCharArray();
            truststore.load(truststoreFile, trustorePassword);
            trustManagerFactory.init(truststore);
            SSLContext sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLSv1.2");
            KeyManager[] keyManagers = {};//if you have key managers;

            sslContext.init(keyManagers, trustManagerFactory.getTrustManagers(), new SecureRandom());

            URL httpsUrl = new URL("<your https url>");
            URLConnection urlConnection = httpsUrl.openConnection();

        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException | KeyStoreException | CertificateException | IOException e) {
            //handle exception
        } catch (KeyManagementException e) {
           //handle exception
        }