How to load a client certificate into a servlet to access a Web Service

Question

Hi,
I am having the following problem:
I am trying to use a Web Service client (Axis) within a servlet running under
WebLogic 8.1.
I would like to have mutual SSL-based authentication between the client and the
server hosting the Web Service. Thus, my client has to send a certificate to the
server.
My problem is: how to get the certificate into the request? I know that, for example,
the HttpsURLConnection class of WebLogic has a loadIdentity method. But I can't
use this class.
Is there any other method to make sure that SSL requests use my client certificates?
By the way, I am receiving the following error message from the server:
<Apr 13, 2004 5:35:10 PM EEST> <Debug> <TLS> <000000> <Required peer certificate
s not supplied by peer>
<Apr 13, 2004 5:35:10 PM EEST> <Warning> <Security> <BEA-090508> <Certificate
ch
ain received from 127.0.0.1 - 127.0.0.1 was incomplete.>
Anyone has an idea?
Thanks for any hints,
Zoltan Schreter
Nokia

Answer 1

Hi all,
I have solved this problem basically by using weblogic's SSLSocketFactory instead
of the default one used by Axis. I created a custom HttpSender (MyHttpSender)
which uses this Factory. I then created a custom Config class which I pass to
the constructor of Service. The Config class looks like this:
public class MyConfig extends SimpleProvider {
* Constructor - deploy client-side basic transports.
public MyConfig() {
deployTransport("java", new SimpleTargetedChain(new JavaSender()));
deployTransport("local", new SimpleTargetedChain(new LocalSender()));
deployTransport("http", new SimpleTargetedChain(new MyHttpSender()));
The relevant code within MyHttpSender looks something like this:
SSLClientInfo sslinfo = new SSLClientInfo();
File ClientKeyFile = new File("C:/certificates/testkey.pem");
File ClientCertsFile = new File("C:/certificates/testcert.pem");
InputStream[] ins = new InputStream[2];
ins[0] = new FileInputStream(ClientCertsFile);
ins[1] = new FileInputStream(ClientKeyFile);
String pwd = "mykeypass";
sslinfo.loadLocalIdentity(ins[0], ins[1], pwd.toCharArray());
javax.net.SocketFactory sockf = weblogic.security.SSL.SSLSocketFactory.getJSSE(sslinfo);
sock = sockf.createSocket(host, port) ;
By the way, this change also solved the other problem I posted about (not being
able to tunnel through the https proxy).
Cheeers,
Zoltan Schreter
Nokia
"Tony" <TonyV> wrote:
Which API's are you currently using for the SSL communication in the
client
side?
Tony
"Zoltan Schreter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Hi,
I am having the following problem:
I am trying to use a Web Service client (Axis) within a servlet runningunder
WebLogic 8.1.
I would like to have mutual SSL-based authentication between the clientand the
server hosting the Web Service. Thus, my client has to send a certificateto the
server.
My problem is: how to get the certificate into the request? I knowthat,
for example,
the HttpsURLConnection class of WebLogic has a loadIdentity method.But I
can't
use this class.
Is there any other method to make sure that SSL requests use my clientcertificates?
By the way, I am receiving the following error message from the server:
<Apr 13, 2004 5:35:10 PM EEST> <Debug> <TLS> <000000> <Required peercertificate
s not supplied by peer>
<Apr 13, 2004 5:35:10 PM EEST> <Warning> <Security> <BEA-090508><Certificate
ch
ain received from 127.0.0.1 - 127.0.0.1 was incomplete.>
Anyone has an idea?
Thanks for any hints,
Zoltan Schreter
Nokia