Package javax.net.ssl

Class HttpsURLConnection

java.lang.Object
java.net.URLConnection
java.net.HttpURLConnection
javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection
Direct Known Subclasses:
HttpsURLConnectionImpl
public abstract class HttpsURLConnection
extends HttpURLConnection
An HttpURLConnection for HTTPS (RFC 2818). A connected HttpsURLConnection allows access to the negotiated cipher suite, the server certificate chain, and the client certificate chain if any.

Providing an application specific X509TrustManager

If an application wants to trust Certificate Authority (CA) certificates that are not part of the system, it should specify its own X509TrustManager via a SSLSocketFactory set on the HttpsURLConnection. The X509TrustManager can be created based on a KeyStore using a TrustManagerFactory to supply trusted CA certificates. Note that self-signed certificates are effectively their own CA and can be trusted by including them in a KeyStore.

For example, to trust a set of certificates specified by a KeyStore: 

   
   KeyStore keyStore = ...;
   String algorithm = TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm();
   TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory.getInstance(algorithm);
   tmf.init(keyStore);

   SSLContext context = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
   context.init(null, tmf.getTrustManagers(), null);

   URL url = new URL("https://www.example.com/");
   HttpsURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
   urlConnection.setSSLSocketFactory(context.getSocketFactory());
   InputStream in = urlConnection.getInputStream();

It is possible to implement X509TrustManager directly instead of using one created by a TrustManagerFactory. While this is straightforward in the insecure case of allowing all certificate chains to pass verification, writing a proper implementation will usually want to take advantage of CertPathValidator. In general, it might be better to write a custom KeyStore implementation to pass to the TrustManagerFactory than to try and write a custom X509TrustManager.

Providing an application specific X509KeyManager

A custom X509KeyManager can be used to supply a client certificate and its associated private key to authenticate a connection to the server. The X509KeyManager can be created based on a KeyStore using a KeyManagerFactory.

For example, to supply client certificates from a KeyStore: 

   
   KeyStore keyStore = ...;
   String algorithm = KeyManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm();
   KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance(algorithm);
   kmf.init(keyStore);

   SSLContext context = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
   context.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), null, null);

   URL url = new URL("https://www.example.com/");
   HttpsURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
   urlConnection.setSSLSocketFactory(context.getSocketFactory());
   InputStream in = urlConnection.getInputStream();

A X509KeyManager can also be implemented directly. This can allow an application to return a certificate and private key from a non-KeyStore source or to specify its own logic for selecting a specific credential to use when many may be present in a single KeyStore.

TLS Intolerance Support

This class attempts to create secure connections using common TLS extensions and SSL deflate compression. Should that fail, the connection will be retried with SSLv3 only.