HttpUnit WebConversation SSL Issues

Question

How can I ignore SSL certificate issues from the context of the WebConversation or WebRequest object? I know I can create a fake TrustManager that accepts all certificates but how can I set this in the HttpUnit context?

Here is the exception I am getting:

[Security:090508]Certificate chain received from my.domain.com - NUM.NUM.NUM.NUM was incomplete., 
[Security:090477]Certificate chain received from my.domain.com - NUM.NUM.NUM.NUM was not trusted causing SSL handshake failure. 

I need to somehow set the SSLSocket settings to the WebConversation or WebRequest object; looking at the JavaDocs for HttpUnit there is no such method or constructor to do so. Is there a way I can wrap this inside some object which has exposed SSLSocket properties?

Answer 1

According to this FAQ entry, it seems that HttpUnit is using the SSL implementation provided by the Java standard library. Writing and installing an "accept all" TrustManager is straightforward:

private static class AnyTrustManager implements X509TrustManager
{
    public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
    {
    }

    public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
    {
    }

    public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers()
    {
        return new X509Certificate[0];
    }
}

static {
    try {
        SSLContext ssl = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
        ssl.init(null, new X509TrustManager[] {new AnyTrustManager()}, null);
        HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(ssl.getSocketFactory());
    } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException ex) {
        throw new Error(ex);
    } catch (KeyManagementException ex) {
        throw new Error(ex);
    }
}

However you should keep in mind that this code sample may need some modifications to work with HttpUnit (for instance if the library establishes the connections using a custom SocketFactory)

Since it seems that HttpUnit does not provide any API to set a custom SSLSocketFactry here is an alternative solution setting the default SSL context (Java 6 only)

static {
    try {
        SSLContext ssl = SSLContext.getDefault();
        ssl.init(null, new X509TrustManager[] {new AnyTrustManager()}, null);
    } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException ex) {
        throw new Error(ex);
    } catch (KeyManagementException ex) {
        throw new Error(ex);
    }
}

Answer 2

What worked for me was using this tool to add the server's invalid cert to a new keystore (creates a file jssecacerts), then replace my existing keystore with the new one.
cp cacerts cacerts.bak cp ~/tools/jssecacerts cacerts

HttpUnit worked fine after that.

Answer 3

as of 2019, with an oracle 8 jvm on a mac, and httpunit 1.7, Jcs' answer from 8 years ago is still very close, just needs one more line.

    // trust anything.
    static void setupSSL() {
        if(sslSetupDone) {
            return;
        }
        // System.setProperty("javax.net.debug", "ssl");

        TrustManager[] trustAllCerts = new TrustManager[] { new X509TrustManager() {
            public java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {              
                return null;
            }

            public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {              
            }

            public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {              
            }

        } };

        SSLContext sc = null;
        try {
            sc = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");  // formerly "ssl"
            sc.init(null, trustAllCerts, null);
            SSLContext.setDefault(sc);  //<====== one more line needed 
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace(System.out);
        }
        HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(sc.getSocketFactory());

        javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultHostnameVerifier(new HostnameVerifier() {
            public boolean verify(String urlHostname, SSLSession sslSession) {
                return true;
            }
        });

        sslSetupDone = true;
    }

Answer 4

A little late, i only just ran into this issue, but i managed to get httpunit 1.7.2 working with AnyTrustManager as per Jsc's answer with the following code (httpunit uses HttpsURLConnectionOldImpl under de hood):

static {
    try {
        SSLContext ssl = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
        ssl.init(null, new X509TrustManager[] {new AnyTrustManager()}, null);
        com.sun.net.ssl.internal.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionOldImpl.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(ssl.getSocketFactory());            
    } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException ex) {
        throw new Error(ex);
    } catch (KeyManagementException ex) {
        throw new Error(ex);
    }
}

Answer 5

If you have access to the WebClient you can do this to skip SSL certificate validation:

WebClient client = new WebClient();
client.getOptions().setUseInsecureSSL(true);