RSA Premaster secret error

Question

I inherited some code, no clue what it's trying to do (I commented what i think its doing), the original coder left my organization years ago... I'm hoping the great community here can at least point me in some direction as to what this code might be trying to do, and where I can start looking for a solution...

Java code

//Read java.security file from JDK and create a Security provider from it
PropertyFileReader reader = new PropertyFileReader();
Security.addProvider(new IBMJSSEProvider());
Security.setProperty("ssl.SocketFactory.provider",
"com.ibm.jsse2.SSLSocketFactoryImpl");
System.getProperties().putAll(
reader.readProperties("security.properties"));

//Set some authentication stuff
Authenticator.setDefault(new PasswordAuthentication("User", "Password"));

// get url to servlet (note, actual application has valid url)
url = new URL("Connection URL");

// Set out HTTP URL connection
httpURLConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
httpURLConnection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic ");
httpURLConnection.setDoInput(true);
httpURLConnection.setDoOutput(true);
httpURLConnection.setUseCaches(false);
httpURLConnection.setDefaultUseCaches(false);
httpURLConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type",
"application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
httpURLConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");

//EXCEPTION IS THROWN HERE!
DataOutputStream outputStream = new DataOutputStream(
httpURLConnection.getOutputStream());

Stack trace

javax.net.ssl.SSLKeyException: RSA premaster secret error
at com.ibm.jsse2.fb.<init>(fb.java:38)
at com.ibm.jsse2.hb.a(hb.java:200)
at com.ibm.jsse2.hb.a(hb.java:70)
at com.ibm.jsse2.gb.n(gb.java:223) 
at com.ibm.jsse2.gb.a(gb.java:170)
at com.ibm.jsse2.sc.a(sc.java:595)
at com.ibm.jsse2.sc.g(sc.java:284)
at com.ibm.jsse2.sc.a(sc.java:200)
at com.ibm.jsse2.sc.startHandshake(sc.java:205)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(HttpsClient.java:434)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(AbstractDelegateHttpsU    RLConnection.java:166)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getOutputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1014)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getOutputStream(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.jav    a:230)

1. What kind of connection is this considered?
2. What the heck is a RSA Premaster Secret?
3. What / Where should I start looking / studying to understand whats going on?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I had a similar issue today with our web app. The guys in system admin room updated the Java version without asking anyone. After hours of searching i found something useful. Here is the link if you are still interested: https://community.oracle.com/thread/1533888

The solution: Just remove the updated java version from your server Classpath and try to install the old java version.

similar question in Stackoverflow: SSL IOExceptionjavax.net.ssl.SSLKeyException: RSA premaster secret error