Randomly SSLException Unsupported record version Unknown-0.0

Question

Sometimes the code below fails and sometimes it work. I'm using Java8. Is it a server side problem?

Exception in thread "main" javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Unsupported record version Unknown-0.0.

EDIT: I downgrade to JDK7 from JDK8 and it works. The only solution i found that works.

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    URL u = new URL("https://c********.web.cddbp.net/webapi/xml/1.0/");
    HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) u.openConnection();
    connection.setDoOutput(true);
    connection.setDoInput(true);
    connection.setInstanceFollowRedirects(false);
    connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
    connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "text/plain");
    connection.setRequestProperty("charset", "utf-8");
    connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", "" + 140);
    connection.setUseCaches(false);
    DataOutputStream wr = new DataOutputStream(connection.getOutputStream());
}

Answer 1

I got the same error message in a new java installation when trying to use an SSL connection that enforces 256-bit encryption. To fix the problem I found I needed to install the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files (e.g. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jce-7-download-432124.html)

Answer 2

I had this line

    SSLContext sc = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");

Had to change it to

    SSLContext sc = SSLContext.getInstance("TLSv1");

And now it works on both, java 7 and java 8

Note: (In java 7 SSL and TLS both worked with the same url, in java 8 just tried TLSv1 but I guess SSLv1 also works)

Answer 3

According to the stack trace, the RecordVersion Unknow-0.0 is produced from here => referenced from here => which is invoked in InputRecord.readV3Record

most of the time, these two values should not be 0, the reason for this happening is probably the wrong response from server while handshaking.

(This is not an answer though, just some information for easier figuring out the problem and solution)