HTTPS SSL GET in java request fails

Question

when I request something using the http protocol, my code works and I get the expected response. But when I create a version to work with https, I get an SSL error. I already followed the steps in this question , and I don't think I need the key/trustmanagers as described in this question . See the code below. I set the key and trustmanager to null so java will take the default ones. I don't seem to get an error on that step, the error occurs on the line inputStream = connection.getInputStream(); . I don't know what else I need to add/set to set up the scure connection?

private String runSecureService(URL url)
{
    HttpsURLConnection connection = null;
    InputStream inputStream = null;
    SSLContext sslContext = null;

    try
    {
        sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
    }
    catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e)
    {
        //this exception doesn't occur
    }

    try
    {
        sslContext.init(null, null, null);
    }
    catch (KeyManagementException e)
    {
        //this exception doesn't occur
    }

    HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(sslContext.getSocketFactory());

    try
    {
        connection = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        connection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", clientCredentials.getBase64Authentication());

    !-----> inputStream = connection.getInputStream(); <------!
        InputStreamReader responseReader = new InputStreamReader(inputStream);

        //Read, print and return the response.
        ...

        return response;
    }
    catch (IOException e)
    {
        //do stuff...
    }
    finally
    {
        //close connection and inputstream...
    }
}

here's the error:

javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Unrecognized SSL message, plaintext connection?
    at sun.security.ssl.InputRecord.handleUnknownRecord(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.InputRecord.read(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(Unknown Source)

Answer 1

You can get this message if you attempt to make an HTTPS request, but connect to the HTTP port on the remote server.

The chances are that you are either using the wrong port number for HTTPS in your request ... or the server is misconfigured and has an HTTP connection listener on what should be the HTTPS port.