How to get server certificate chain then verify it's valid and trusted in Java

Question

I need to create an Https connection with a remote server then retrieve and verify the certificate.

I have established the connection fine:

try {  
          


        

Answer 1

The method you want is getServerCertificates, not getServerCertificateChain. There is some nice sample code here.

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EDIT

Added some sample code of my own. Good starting point for you. Don't forget to look at the Javadocs for HttpsURLConnection and X509Certificate.

import java.net.URL;
import java.security.cert.Certificate;
import java.security.cert.CertificateExpiredException;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;

import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;

public class TestSecuredConnection {

    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        TestSecuredConnection tester = new TestSecuredConnection();
        try {
            tester.testConnectionTo("https://www.google.com");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public TestSecuredConnection() {
        super();
    }

    public void testConnectionTo(String aURL) throws Exception {
        URL destinationURL = new URL(aURL);
        HttpsURLConnection conn = (HttpsURLConnection) destinationURL
                .openConnection();
        conn.connect();
        Certificate[] certs = conn.getServerCertificates();
        for (Certificate cert : certs) {
            System.out.println("Certificate is: " + cert);
            if(cert instanceof X509Certificate) {
                try {
                    ( (X509Certificate) cert).checkValidity();
                    System.out.println("Certificate is active for current date");
                } catch(CertificateExpiredException cee) {
                    System.out.println("Certificate is expired");
                }
            }
        }
    }
}