Choosing SSL client certificate in Java

Question

Our system communicates with several web services providers. They are all invoked from a single Java client application. All the web services up until now have been over SSL

Answer 1

I initialized EasySSLProtocolSocketFactory and Protocol instances for different endpoints and register the protocol with unique key like this:

/**
 * This method does the following:
 * 1. Creates a new and unique protocol for each SSL URL that is secured by client certificate
 * 2. Bind keyStore related information to this protocol
 * 3. Registers it with HTTP Protocol object 
 * 4. Stores the local reference for this custom protocol for use during furture collect calls
 * 
 *  @throws Exception
 */
public void registerProtocolCertificate() throws Exception {
    EasySSLProtocolSocketFactory easySSLPSFactory = new EasySSLProtocolSocketFactory();
    easySSLPSFactory.setKeyMaterial(createKeyMaterial());
    myProtocolPrefix = (HTTPS_PROTOCOL + uniqueCounter.incrementAndGet());
    Protocol httpsProtocol = new Protocol(myProtocolPrefix,(ProtocolSocketFactory) easySSLPSFactory, port);
    Protocol.registerProtocol(myProtocolPrefix, httpsProtocol);
    log.trace("Protocol [ "+myProtocolPrefix+" ] registered for the first time");
}

/**
 * Load keystore for CLIENT-CERT protected endpoints
 */
private KeyMaterial createKeyMaterial() throws GeneralSecurityException, Exception  {
    KeyMaterial km = null;
    char[] password = keyStorePassphrase.toCharArray();
    File f = new File(keyStoreLocation);
    if (f.exists()) {
        try {
            km = new KeyMaterial(keyStoreLocation, password);
            log.trace("Keystore location is: " + keyStoreLocation + "");
        } catch (GeneralSecurityException gse) {
            if (logErrors){
                log.error("Exception occured while loading keystore from the following location: "+keyStoreLocation, gse);
                throw gse;
            }
        }
    } else {
        log.error("Unable to load Keystore from the following location: " + keyStoreLocation );
        throw new CollectorInitException("Unable to load Keystore from the following location: " + keyStoreLocation);
    }
    return km;
}   

When I have to invoke the web service, I do this (which basically replace "https" in the URL with https1, or https2 or something else depending on the Protocol you initialized for that particular endpoint):

httpClient.getHostConfiguration().setHost(host, port,Protocol.getProtocol(myProtocolPrefix));
initializeHttpMethod(this.url.toString().replace(HTTPS_PROTOCOL, myProtocolPrefix));

It works like a charm!