Re-using SSLSession with different SSLSockets

Question

I saw this question asked multiple times in the past but I have never seen the answer. Does anybody how to re-use SSLSession when creating multiple SSLSockets?
Thanks, Kris

Answer 1

Based on my testing SUN's SSL implementation creates and reuses SSL session automatically.
You need to use one socket factory to create all your sockets.
You execute handshake only on the first socket. Handshaking creates the session.
The other sockets will not need hadshaking assuming you will use the same socket factory.
All the sockets created in this manner will reuse the same session.
You can close all the sockets and the SSL Session is still kept alive.
To prove my point I have modified sample Client that is bundled with JSSE package.
Running Client produces the results:
D:\Download\Test1>java SSLSocketClient localhost 7000
Session for socket1 (1549180): 7224672
Session for socket2 (8365662): 7224672
As you can see from the results there are two different sockets reusing the
same session. The first socket is closed before the second socket is opened.
The sample is below, the changes are mostly at the end of the file
// Begin of the sample
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.net.ssl.*;
import javax.net.*;
* This example demostrates how to use a SSLSocket as client to
* send a HTTP request and get response from an HTTPS server.
* It assumes that the client is not behind a firewall
public class SSLSocketClient {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
     try {
/*     SSLSocket socket =
          (SSLSocket)factory.createSocket("www.verisign.com", 443);
     int port = 7030;
     String host = "localhost";
     if (args.length > 1) {
          host = args[0];
          try {
               port = Integer.parseInt(args[1]);
          catch (Throwable th) {}
java.security.Security.addProvider(new com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Provider());
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "testkeys");
     SSLSocketFactory factory = (SSLSocketFactory)SSLSocketFactory.getDefault();
SSLSocket sslsocket1= (SSLSocket)factory.createSocket(host, port);
     sslsocket1.startHandshake();
     System.out.println("Session for socket1 (" + sslsocket1.hashCode() + "): " + sslsocket1.getSession().hashCode());
     // first socket being closed
sslsocket1.close();
SSLSocket sslsocket2= (SSLSocket)factory.createSocket(host, port);
     System.out.println("Session for socket2 (" + sslsocket2.hashCode() + "): " + sslsocket2.getSession().hashCode());
sslsocket2.close();
     } catch (Exception e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
//End of the Sample