SSL private key password

Question

Hello everyone,
I'm trying to upgrade a WLS 6.1 SP2 with WLP 4.0 SP2 instance to WLS 7.0 SP2
with WLP 7.0 SP2. Everythng is fine except for that we cannot use the same
SSL certificate. By defaul the private key is not encrypted with password
(SSL.KeyEncrypted = false by default, according to the documentations) in
both WLS 6.1 and WLS 7.0. But running WLS 7.0 startup script results the
following error:
<Sep 17, 2003 5:06:40 PM HST> <Alert> <WebLogicServer> <000297>
<Inconsistent se
curity configuration, java.lang.Exception: Cannot read private key from file
C:\
bea7\user_projects\agencyPortal\portal_islandinsurance_com-key.der. Make
sure pa
ssword specified in environment property weblogic.management.pkpassword is
valid
.>
java.lang.Exception: Cannot read private key from file
C:\bea7\user_projects\age
ncyPortal\portal_islandinsurance_com-key.der. Make sure password specified
in en
vironment property weblogic.management.pkpassword is valid.
at
weblogic.security.service.SSLManager.getServerPrivateKey(SSLManager.j
ava:434)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.SSLListenThread.<init>(SSLListenThread.java:153)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.SSLListenThread.<init>(SSLListenThread.java:122)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.initializeListenThreads(T3Srvr.java:1513)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.resume(T3Srvr.java:852)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.run(T3Srvr.java:295)
at weblogic.Server.main(Server.java:32)
Is this happening because the private key is actually encrypted with the
password? It was working, although the KeyEncrypted is not set to true and
the startup script for WLS 6.1 instance did have a line
with -Dweblogic.management.pkpassword. Or could this error be result of
something else? The physical machine the instances are located is the same
and IP address and the DNS entry hasn't been changed, either.
Any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Makoto

Answer 1

Thanks Tony - it worked!!
"Tony" <TonyV> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
It may be because the private key is both unprotected and in DER format.
There are some things to try:
1) Convert the private key file from a DER file to a PEM file and try
that:
a) Follow the for converting an unprotected private key at:
http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/docs70/adminguide/utils.html#1143743
b) Look at the resulting PEM file, it should look something like
this:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
(Be sure there is no extra lines or whitespace after thefooter)
>
c) Change your configuration to point at the PEM file
If that doesn work, then you can try protecting the key with apassword
using
the wlkeytool utility (It should be in the server/bin directory). The
tool should prompt
for a password to use to protect it:
wlkeytool inputkey.pem outputkey.pem
Then change your configuration to use the protected private key, andset
the passwod to use.
Tony
"Makoto Suzuki" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Hello everyone,
I'm trying to upgrade a WLS 6.1 SP2 with WLP 4.0 SP2 instance to WLS 7.0SP2
with WLP 7.0 SP2. Everythng is fine except for that we cannot use the
same
SSL certificate. By defaul the private key is not encrypted withpassword
(SSL.KeyEncrypted = false by default, according to the documentations)in
both WLS 6.1 and WLS 7.0. But running WLS 7.0 startup script resultsthe
following error:
<Sep 17, 2003 5:06:40 PM HST> <Alert> <WebLogicServer> <000297>
<Inconsistent se
curity configuration, java.lang.Exception: Cannot read private key fromfile
C:\
bea7\user_projects\agencyPortal\portal_islandinsurance_com-key.der. Make
sure pa
ssword specified in environment property weblogic.management.pkpassword
is
valid
.>
java.lang.Exception: Cannot read private key from file
C:\bea7\user_projects\age
ncyPortal\portal_islandinsurance_com-key.der. Make sure passwordspecified
in en
vironment property weblogic.management.pkpassword is valid.
at
weblogic.security.service.SSLManager.getServerPrivateKey(SSLManager.j
ava:434)
atweblogic.t3.srvr.SSLListenThread.<init>(SSLListenThread.java:153)
atweblogic.t3.srvr.SSLListenThread.<init>(SSLListenThread.java:122)
atweblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.initializeListenThreads(T3Srvr.java:1513)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.resume(T3Srvr.java:852)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.run(T3Srvr.java:295)
at weblogic.Server.main(Server.java:32)
Is this happening because the private key is actually encrypted with the
password? It was working, although the KeyEncrypted is not set to true
and
the startup script for WLS 6.1 instance did have a line
with -Dweblogic.management.pkpassword. Or could this error be result of
something else? The physical machine the instances are located is thesame
and IP address and the DNS entry hasn't been changed, either.
Any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Makoto