JarCasting
SSLContext Kickstart 
Install library with:
Install with Maven
<dependency>
<groupId>io.github.hakky54</groupId>
<artifactId>sslcontext-kickstart</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0</version>
</dependency>
Install with Gradle
implementation 'io.github.hakky54:sslcontext-kickstart:6.0.0'
Install with Scala SBT
libraryDependencies += "io.github.hakky54" % "sslcontext-kickstart" % "6.0.0"
Install with Apache Ivy
<dependency org="io.github.hakky54" name="sslcontext-kickstart" rev="6.0.0" />
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Usage
- Example configuration
- Other possible configurations
- Loading keystore from the classpath
- Loading keystore from the file system
- Skip certificate validation
- Loading JDK and OS trusted certificates
- Using specific protocols and ciphers with custom secure-random and hostname-verifier
- Using multiple identity materials and trust materials
- Using custom KeyManager and TrustManager
- Using custom PrivateKey and Certificates
- Using PEM Files
- Returnable values from the SSLFactory
- Additional mappers for specific libraries
- Tested HTTP Clients
- Contributing
Introduction
SSLContext Kickstart is a library which provides a High-Level SSLFactory class for configuring a http client to communicate over SSL/TLS for one way authentication or two-way authentication.
History
As a Java developer I worked for different kinds of clients. Most of the time the application required to call other microservices within the organization or some other http servers. These requests needed to be secured and therefore it was required to load the ssl materials into the http client. Each client may require different input value to enable https requests and therefore I couldn't just copy-paste my earlier configuration into the new project. The resulting configuration was in my opinion always verbose, not reusable, hard to test and hard to maintain.
As a developer you also need to know how to properly load your file into your application and consume it as a KeyStore instance. Therefore, you also need to understand how to properly create for example a KeyManager and a TrustManager for you SSLContext. An alternative for the traditional creation of SSLContext can be simplified if you use a Http Client which relies on libraries of Jetty, Netty or Apache. If you use other clients than you are out of luck. The sslcontext-kickstart library is taking the responsibility of creating an instance of SSLContext from the provided arguments, and it will provide you all the ssl materials which are required to configure 40+ different Http Client for Java, Scala and Kotlin. I wanted the library to be as easy as possible to use for all developers to give them a kickstart when configuring their Http Client. So feel free to provide feedback or feature requests. The library also provides other utilities such as:
See the javadoc for all the options.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Cody A. Ray for his contribution to the community regarding loading multiple Keystores into the SSLContext. The limitation of the JDK is to only support one keystore for the KeyManagerFactory and only one keystore for the TrustManagerFactory. The code snippets which Cody has shared are now available within this library and can be found here: CompositeX509KeyManager and CompositeX509TrustManager
The original content can be found here:
Advantages:
- No need for low-level SSLContext configuration anymore
- No knowledge needed about SSLContext, TrustManager, TrustManagerFactory, KeyManager, KeyManagerFactory and how to create it.
- Above classes will all be created with just providing an identity and a trustStore
- Load multiple identities/trustStores/keyManagers/trustManagers
Definitions
- Identity: A KeyStore which holds the key pair also known as private and public key
- TrustStore: A KeyStore containing one or more certificates also known as public key. This KeyStore contains a list of trusted certificates
- One way authentication (also known as one way tls, one way ssl): Https connection where the client validates the certificate of the counter party
- Two way authentication (also known as two way tls, two way ssl, mutual authentication): Https connection where the client as well as the counter party validates the certificate, also known as mutual authentication
Usage
Basic example configuration
Example configuration with apache http client, or click here to view the other client configurations
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import nl.altindag.ssl.SSLFactory;
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, JSONException {
SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder()
.withDefaultTrustMaterial()
.build();
HttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom()
.setSSLContext(sslFactory.getSslContext())
.setSSLHostnameVerifier(sslFactory.getHostnameVerifier())
.build();
HttpGet request = new HttpGet("https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random");
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);
String chuckNorrisJoke = new JSONObject(EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity())).getString("value");
System.out.println(String.format("Received the following status code: %d", response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode()));
System.out.println(String.format("Received the following joke: %s", chuckNorrisJoke));
}
}
Response:
Received the following status code: 200
Received the following joke: If a black cat crosses your path, you have bad luck. If Chuck Norris crosses your path, it was nice knowing you.
Other possible configurations
Loading keystore and truststore from the classpath
SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial("identity.jks", "password".toCharArray())
.withTrustMaterial("truststore.jks", "password".toCharArray())
.build();
Loading keystore and trust store from anywhere on the filesystem
SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial(Paths.get("/path/to/your/identity.jks"), "password".toCharArray())
.withTrustMaterial(Paths.get("/path/to/your/truststore.jks"), "password".toCharArray())
.build();
Trusting all certificates without validation, not recommended to use at production!
SSLFactory.builder()
.withTrustingAllCertificatesWithoutValidation()
.build();
Loading JDK and OS trusted certificates
SSLFactory.builder()
.withDefaultTrustMaterial()
.withSystemTrustMaterial()
.build();
Using specific protocols, ciphers with custom secure random and hostname verifier
If you are using java 11 or newer, than you are also able to use TLSv1.3 as encryption protocol by default.
SSLFactory.builder()
.withDefaultTrustMaterial()
.withProtocols("TLSv1.3", "TLSv1.2")
.withCiphers("TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384", "TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384")
.withHostnameVerifier(hostnameVerifier)
.withSecureRandom(secureRandom)
.build();
Support for using multiple identity materials and trust materials
SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial("identity-1.jks", password)
.withIdentityMaterial("identity-2.jks", password)
.withIdentityMaterial("identity-3.jks", password)
.withIdentityMaterial("identity-4.jks", password)
.withTrustMaterial("truststore-1.jks", password)
.withTrustMaterial("truststore-2.jks", password)
.withTrustMaterial("truststore-3.jks", password)
.withTrustMaterial("truststore-4.jks", password)
.build();
Support for using X509ExtendedKeyManager and X509ExtendedTrustManager
X509ExtendedKeyManager keyManager = ...
X509ExtendedTrustManager trustManager = ...
SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial(keyManager)
.withTrustMaterial(trustManager)
.build();
Support for using PrivateKey and Certificates
PrivateKey privateKey = ...
char[] privateKeyPassword = ...
Certificate[] certificateChain = ...
Certificate trustedCertificate = ...
SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial(privateKey, privateKeyPassword, certificateChain)
.withTrustMaterial(trustedCertificate)
.build();
Using PEM Files
Support for using pem formatted private key and certificates from classpath, any directory or as an InputStream. See PemUtilsShould for detailed usages. Add the dependency below to use this feature, it also includes the core features from the library such as SSLFactory.
<dependency>
<groupId>io.github.hakky54</groupId>
<artifactId>sslcontext-kickstart-for-pem</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0</version>
</dependency>
* EXAMPLE FILES
*
* [some-trusted-certificate.pem]
* -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
* ...
* ...
* -----END CERTIFICATE-----
*
* [private-key.pem]
* -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
* ...
* ...
* -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
*
* [private-key.pem]
* -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
* ...
* ...
* -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
*
* [private-key.pem]
* -----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
* ...
* ...
* -----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
*/
Example usage:
X509ExtendedKeyManager keyManager = PemUtils.loadIdentityMaterial("certificate.pem", "private-key.pem");
X509ExtendedTrustManager trustManager = PemUtils.loadTrustMaterial("some-trusted-certificate.pem");
SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial(keyManager)
.withTrustMaterial(trustManager)
.build();
Returnable values from the SSLFactory
The SSLFactory provides different kinds of returnable values, see below for all the options:
import nl.altindag.ssl.SSLFactory;
import nl.altindag.ssl.model.KeyStoreHolder;
import javax.net.ssl.HostnameVerifier;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLParameters;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLServerSocketFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.X509ExtendedKeyManager;
import javax.net.ssl.X509ExtendedTrustManager;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder()
.withIdentityMaterial("keystore.p12", "secret".toCharArray(), "PKCS12")
.withTrustMaterial("truststore.p12", "secret".toCharArray(), "PKCS12")
.build();
SSLContext sslContext = sslFactory.getSslContext();
HostnameVerifier hostnameVerifier = sslFactory.getHostnameVerifier();
Optional<X509ExtendedKeyManager> keyManager = sslFactory.getKeyManager();
Optional<X509ExtendedTrustManager> trustManager = sslFactory.getTrustManager();
List<X509Certificate> trustedCertificates = sslFactory.getTrustedCertificates();
List<KeyStoreHolder> identities = sslFactory.getIdentities();
List<KeyStoreHolder> trustStores = sslFactory.getTrustStores();
SSLSocketFactory sslSocketFactory = sslFactory.getSslSocketFactory();
SSLServerSocketFactory sslServerSocketFactory = sslFactory.getSslServerSocketFactory();
SSLParameters sslParameters = sslFactory.getSslParameters();
List<String> ciphers = sslFactory.getCiphers();
List<String> protocols = sslFactory.getProtocols();
}
}
Additional mappers for specific libraries
Some http clients relay on different ssl classes from third parties and require mapping from SSLFactory to those libraries. Below you will find the maven dependency which will provide the mapping and also the SSLFactory library. When using one of the below libraries, it is not required to also explicitly include sslcontext-kickstart.
Netty
Some know http clients which relay on netty libraries are: Spring WebFlux WebClient Netty, Async Http Client and Dispatch Reboot Http Client.
<dependency>
<groupId>io.github.hakky54</groupId>
<artifactId>sslcontext-kickstart-for-netty</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0</version>
</dependency>
Example setup for Spring WebClient with Netty:
import io.netty.handler.ssl.SslContext;
import nl.altindag.ssl.SSLFactory;
import nl.altindag.ssl.util.NettySslUtils;
import org.springframework.http.client.reactive.ReactorClientHttpConnector;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.WebClient;
import reactor.netty.http.client.HttpClient;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLException;
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) throws SSLException {
SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder()
.withDefaultTrustMaterial()
.build();
SslContext sslContext = NettySslUtils.forClient(sslFactory).build();
HttpClient httpClient = HttpClient.create()
.secure(sslSpec -> sslSpec.sslContext(sslContext));
WebClient webClient = WebClient.builder()
.clientConnector(new ReactorClientHttpConnector(httpClient))
.build();
}
}
Jetty
<dependency>
<groupId>io.github.hakky54</groupId>
<artifactId>sslcontext-kickstart-for-jetty</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0</version>
</dependency>
Example setup for Spring WebFlux WebClient Jetty:
import nl.altindag.ssl.SSLFactory;
import nl.altindag.ssl.util.JettySslUtils;
import org.eclipse.jetty.client.HttpClient;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.ssl.SslContextFactory;
import org.springframework.http.client.reactive.JettyClientHttpConnector;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.WebClient;
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder()
.withDefaultTrustMaterial()
.build();
SslContextFactory.Client sslContextFactory = JettySslUtils.forClient(sslFactory);
HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient(sslContextFactory);
WebClient webClient = WebClient.builder()
.clientConnector(new JettyClientHttpConnector(httpClient))
.build();
}
}
Apache
Apache 4
Apache Http Client works with javax.net.ssl.SSLContext, so an additional mapping to their library is not required, see here. However it is still possible to configure the http client with their custom configuration class. you can find below an example configuration for that use case:
<dependency>
<groupId>io.github.hakky54</groupId>
<artifactId>sslcontext-kickstart-for-apache4</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0</version>
</dependency>
import nl.altindag.ssl.SSLFactory;
import nl.altindag.ssl.util.Apache4SslUtils;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.conn.socket.LayeredConnectionSocketFactory;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder()
.withDefaultTrustMaterial()
.build();
LayeredConnectionSocketFactory socketFactory = Apache4SslUtils.toSocketFactory(sslFactory);
HttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom()
.setSSLSocketFactory(socketFactory)
.build();
}
}
Apache 5
<dependency>
<groupId>io.github.hakky54</groupId>
<artifactId>sslcontext-kickstart-for-apache5</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0</version>
</dependency>
import nl.altindag.ssl.SSLFactory;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.classic.HttpClient;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.async.CloseableHttpAsyncClient;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.async.HttpAsyncClients;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.HttpClients;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.io.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.io.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.nio.PoolingAsyncClientConnectionManager;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.nio.PoolingAsyncClientConnectionManagerBuilder;
import org.apache.hc.client5.http.socket.LayeredConnectionSocketFactory;
import nl.altindag.ssl.util.Apache5SslUtils;
class App {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder()
.withDefaultTrustMaterial()
.build();
LayeredConnectionSocketFactory socketFactory = Apache5SslUtils.toSocketFactory(sslFactory);
PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager connectionManager = PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder.create()
.setSSLSocketFactory(socketFactory)
.build();
HttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom()
.setConnectionManager(connectionManager)
.build();
PoolingAsyncClientConnectionManager asyncConnectionManager = PoolingAsyncClientConnectionManagerBuilder.create()
.setTlsStrategy(Apache5SslUtils.toTlsStrategy(sslFactory))
.build();
CloseableHttpAsyncClient httpAsyncClient = HttpAsyncClients.custom()
.setConnectionManager(asyncConnectionManager)
.build();
}
}
Tested HTTP Clients
Below is a list of clients which have already been tested with examples, see in the ClientConfig class and the service directory for detailed configuration
Java
- Apache HttpClient -> Client configuration | Example request
- Apache HttpAsyncClient -> Client configuration | Example request
- Apache 5 HttpClient -> Client configuration | Example request
- Apache 5 HttpAsyncClient -> Client configuration | Example request
- JDK HttpClient -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Old JDK HttpClient -> Client Configuration & Example request
- Netty Reactor -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Jetty Reactive HttpClient -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Spring RestTemplate -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Spring WebFlux WebClient Netty -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Spring WebFlux WebClient Jetty -> Client Configuration | Example request
- OkHttp -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Jersey Client -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Old Jersey Client -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Google HttpClient -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Unirest -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Retrofit -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Async Http Client -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Feign -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Methanol -> Client Configuration | Example request
Kotlin
- Fuel -> Client Configuration & Example request
- Http4k with Apache 4 -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Http4k with Async Apache 4 -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Http4k with Apache 5 -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Http4k with Async Apache 5 -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Http4k with Java Net -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Http4k with Jetty -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Http4k with OkHttp -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Kohttp -> Client Configuration & Example request
- Ktor with Android engine -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Ktor with Apache engine -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Ktor with CIO (Coroutine-based I/O) engine -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Ktor with Okhttp engine -> Client Configuration | Example request
Scala
- Twitter Finagle -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Twitter Finagle Featherbed -> Client Configuration & Example request
- Akka Http Client -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Dispatch Reboot -> Client Configuration & Example request
- ScalaJ / Simplified Http Client -> Client Configuration & Example request
- Sttp -> Client Configuration & Example request
- Requests-Scala -> Client Configuration & Example request
- Http4s Blaze Client -> Client Configuration | Example request
- Http4s Java Net Client -> Client Configuration | Example request
There is a github project available named Mutual-tls-ssl which provides a tutorial containing steps for setting up these four scenarios:
- No security
- One way authentication
- Two way authentication
- Two way authentication with trusting the Certificate Authority
It will also explain how to create KeyStores, Certificates, Certificate Signing Requests and how to implement it.
Contributing
There are plenty of ways to contribute to this project:
- Give it a star
- Join the Gitter room and leave a feedback or help with answering users questions
- Submit a PR