SSL handshake failure for liberty application using cloudant

Question

I've been stuck on this far longer than I want to admit. I want to connect to cloudant/couchdb using WebSphere Liberty.

I'm fairly new to Java app development, Liberty, Cloudant and Bluemix.

I believe I need to add a SSL certificate for cloudant in a local trust store but the only way to do it seems to be by using the Websphere Application Server Integrated Solutions Console, which I can't run using Liberty?

If anyone can guide me in the right direction I would appreciate it alot!

    [ERROR   ] CWPKI0022E: SSL HANDSHAKE FAILURE:  A signer with SubjectDN CN=*.cloudant.com, OU=Engineering, O="Cloudant, Inc.", L=Boston, ST=Massachusetts, C=US was sent from the target host.  The signer might need to be added to local trust store C:/Users/user/Liberty/usr/servers/simplespring2/resources/security/key.jks, located in SSL configuration alias defaultSSLConfig.  The extended error message from the SSL handshake exception is: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
[ERROR   ] Failed to read cookie response header
java.security.cert.CertificateException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
[ERROR   ] CWPKI0022E: SSL HANDSHAKE FAILURE:  A signer with SubjectDN CN=*.cloudant.com, OU=Engineering, O="Cloudant, Inc.", L=Boston, ST=Massachusetts, C=US was sent from the target host.  The signer might need to be added to local trust store C:/Users/user/Liberty/usr/servers/simplespring2/resources/security/key.jks, located in SSL configuration alias defaultSSLConfig.  The extended error message from the SSL handshake exception is: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
[ERROR   ] Failed to get response code from request
java.security.cert.CertificateException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
[ERROR   ] SRVE0777E: Exception thrown by application class 'db.CloudantClientMgr.getDB:128'
java.lang.RuntimeException: DB Not found
    at db.CloudantClientMgr.getDB(CloudantClientMgr.java:128)
    at servlets.LocationServlet.setLocation(LocationServlet.java:180)
    at servlets.LocationServlet.doPost(LocationServlet.java:170)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:790)
    at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1287)
    at [internal classes]
Caused by: com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDbException: Error retrieving server response
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDbClient.execute(CouchDbClient.java:535)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDbClient.executeToInputStream(CouchDbClient.java:550)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDbClient.put(CouchDbClient.java:361)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDbClient.put(CouchDbClient.java:351)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDatabaseBase.create(CouchDatabaseBase.java:437)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDatabaseBase.<init>(CouchDatabaseBase.java:61)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDatabase.<init>(CouchDatabase.java:26)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDbClient.database(CouchDbClient.java:165)
    at com.cloudant.client.api.CloudantClient.database(CloudantClient.java:216)
    at db.CloudantClientMgr.getDB(CloudantClientMgr.java:126)
    ... 6 more
Caused by (repeated) ... : javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: java.security.cert.CertificateException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection$10.run(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection$10.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getChainedException(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream0(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
    at java.net.HttpURLConnection.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)
    at com.cloudant.client.org.lightcouch.CouchDbClient.execute(CouchDbClient.java:483)
    ... 15 more
Caused by: java.security.cert.CertificateException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at com.ibm.ws.ssl.core.WSX509TrustManager.checkServerTrusted(WSX509TrustManager.java:290)
    at [internal classes]
    at sun.security.ssl.AbstractTrustManagerWrapper.checkServerTrusted(Unknown Source)
    ... 32 more

Answer 1

You need to add remote server certificate to WAS trustStore

Get remote certificate (e.g: using Linux/Mac): echo "" | openssl s_client -connect YOUR_REMOTE_SERVER:443 -showcerts 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -out certfile.txt

Import certificate to trustStore file: keytool -import -alias ca -file certfile.txt -keystore trust.jks -storepass changeit

Use this JKS trust store in your WAS server.xml, copy it into your WAS ({WLP}/usr/servers/{YOUR_SERVER}/resources/security) and add these into your server.xml e.g:

<ssl id="defaultSSLSettings" sslProtocol="TLSv1.2" keyStoreRef="defaultKeyStore"
    trustStoreRef="defaultTrustStore" />
<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" location="${server.config.dir}/resources/security/key.jks"
    password="changeit" />
<keyStore id="defaultTrustStore"
    location="${server.config.dir}/resources/security/trust.jks" password="changeit" />