Signed Applet not loading on Mac OS X if using HTTPS protocol

Question

Hi All,
I need to open a trusted applet on Mac OS 10.2. The applet works fine if using HTTP protocol. But if the protocol used is HTTPS the the applet does not loads and "javax.net.ssl.SSLException - untrusted server cert chain" exception comes on the console.
The error comes for both - Verisign and javakey - signed applet.
On seaching for possible solution on the net, i came across following link: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020525101202503&query=Workaround+for+secure+Java+applet+problems
It says that this is Mac's known bug and gives the workaround as:
1. Access the problematic site with Internet Explorer on Windows. Click on the padlock item and export the certificate to a file.
2. Copy the certificate to your Mac.
3. Use the command
sudo keytool -import -trustcacerts -keystore /Library/Java/Home/lib/security/cacerts -file mycert.cer
to import the certificate file to your keystore (substitute mycert.cer with the name of the file containing the certificate). The keystore is password protected - the default password is "changeit".
4. Restart your browser
But the client cannot be asked to do all this to run the applet.
Is this problem being solved by Mac in their java implementation or is there any other possible solution?
Thanx in advance.
Regards,
Charu

Answer 1

I am experiencing the same problem - I notice it does not happen on OS9.2 using IE but appears a problem on all browsers on OSX
Apple gave me the following reply.....
Re: Bug ID# 3268633: cannot load applet class under https connection
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention. We have received feedback
from engineering on your
reported issue.
Please know that to get Java to recognize the certificate you will need to do
one of two things, depending
on which VM you are using. Since you want it to work with Internet Explorer, we
will assume Java 1.3.1.
In Java 1.3.1 you'll need to add the certificate to
/Library/Java/Home/lib/security/cacerts using
/usr/bin/keytool to import the certificate into the certificate database.
In Java 1.4.1 you should be able to just add the certificate to the keychain
using certtool. For more
details on how to do this, please refer to the information found at
<http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/docs/tooldocs/solaris/keytool.html>. After
doing so, if you should require
further help from Apple in resolving this issue, we recommend that you request
assistance from Developer
Technical Support. This must be done by filing a Technical Support Incident.
So I am supposed to tell every Mac user to do the above am I?!!!