Cannot access Webservice under SSL from Java

Question

I have a web service that runs under SSL using an SSL wildcard certificate that was signed by thawte. I can see the thumbprint for the thawte primary root cert in cacerts, however when I try to access my cert I get an exception (see below)

If I import the cert into cacerts it works. How can I access my web service without importing the cert into cacerts? Shouldn't Java trust my cert since it's signed by thawte? Or do I need to include every intermediate certificate into cacerts?

This is the code I am using to call the webservice:

    QName serviceName = new QName("http://myservice.test.com/myservice", "MyService");
    QName portName = new QName("http://myservice.test.com/myservice","MyServiceSOAP");
    URL serviceUrl = new URL("https://myservice.test.com:443/myservice/services/MyServiceSOAP?wsdl");
    Service service = Service.create(serviceUrl,serviceName);
    myService = service.getPort(portName, MyService.class);

And the error trace is:

Exception in thread "main" javax.xml.ws.WebServiceException: org.apache.cxf.service.factory.ServiceConstructionException: Failed to create service.
    at org.apache.cxf.jaxws.ServiceImpl.<init>(ServiceImpl.java:149)
    at org.apache.cxf.jaxws.spi.ProviderImpl.createServiceDelegate(ProviderImpl.java:98)
    at javax.xml.ws.Service.<init>(Service.java:77)
    at javax.xml.ws.Service.create(Service.java:707)
    at drawbond.alex.WSClient.main(WSClient.java:28)
Caused by: org.apache.cxf.service.factory.ServiceConstructionException: Failed to create service.
    at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLServiceFactory.<init>(WSDLServiceFactory.java:100)
    at org.apache.cxf.jaxws.ServiceImpl.initializePorts(ServiceImpl.java:199)
    at org.apache.cxf.jaxws.ServiceImpl.<init>(ServiceImpl.java:147)
    ... 4 more
Caused by: javax.wsdl.WSDLException: WSDLException: faultCode=PARSER_ERROR: Problem parsing 'https://myservice.test.com:443/myservice/services/myservicesoap'.: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at com.ibm.wsdl.xml.WSDLReaderImpl.getDocument(WSDLReaderImpl.java:2198)
    at com.ibm.wsdl.xml.WSDLReaderImpl.readWSDL(WSDLReaderImpl.java:2390)
    at com.ibm.wsdl.xml.WSDLReaderImpl.readWSDL(WSDLReaderImpl.java:2422)
    at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLManagerImpl.loadDefinition(WSDLManagerImpl.java:262)
    at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLManagerImpl.getDefinition(WSDLManagerImpl.java:205)
    at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLServiceFactory.<init>(WSDLServiceFactory.java:98)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at sun.security.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:192)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(SSLSocketImpl.java:1949)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:302)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:296)
    at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1509)
    at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(ClientHandshaker.java:216)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Handshaker.java:979)
    at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Handshaker.java:914)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:1062)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1375)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1403)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1387)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(HttpsClient.java:559)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.java:185)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream0(HttpURLConnection.java:1513)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1441)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:254)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLEntityManager.setupCurrentEntity(XMLEntityManager.java:647)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLVersionDetector.determineDocVersion(XMLVersionDetector.java:189)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:812)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:777)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:141)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.DOMParser.parse(DOMParser.java:243)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.parse(DocumentBuilderImpl.java:339)
    at com.ibm.wsdl.xml.WSDLReaderImpl.getDocument(WSDLReaderImpl.java:2188)
    ... 11 more
Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:387)
    at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.engineValidate(PKIXValidator.java:292)
    at sun.security.validator.Validator.validate(Validator.java:260)
    at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.validate(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:324)
    at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:229)
    at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:124)
    at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1491)
    ... 31 more
Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
    at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.build(SunCertPathBuilder.java:146)
    at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.engineBuild(SunCertPathBuilder.java:131)
    at java.security.cert.CertPathBuilder.build(CertPathBuilder.java:280)
    at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:382)
    ... 37 more

Answer 1

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

This exception is usually due:

• Incomplete trust path for the server certificate: the server certificate is probably not trusted by the client. Usually the fix is to import the server certificate chain in into the client trust store
• Bad server config, like certificate chain incomplete. In the case the fix is on server part

Thawte is by default on cacerts, so probably the problem will be incomplete chain. You can verify the server with SSLLabs check for errors in 'certificate' or 'certificate chain'.

If the chain is correct, then download, and check whether or not the site certificate is in cacerts. The simplest way to do is using the GUI tool portecle