SSL connection for Grpc Java client

Question

I am trying to connect a Java client to a non-Java server via GRPC-SSL. I am able to connect to the server when not using SSL. When I try to create the ManagedChannel using a SSL context (using the provided pem file), I get the exception below (same pem file works with a NodeJS client).

ManagedChannel channel = NettyChannelBuilder.forAddress("localhost", 10010)
    .sslContext(GrpcSslContexts.forClient().trustManager(new File("./test/myprivkey.pem")).build())
    .build();

Exception from trustManager call:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: File does not contain valid certificates: /Users/continue/IdeaProjects/git/test/build/resources/main/keys/myprivkey.pem
    at io.netty.handler.ssl.SslContextBuilder.trustManager(SslContextBuilder.java:162)
    at com.test.io.grpc.test.client.Connection.getSslContext(Connection.java:65)
    at com.test.io.grpc.test.client.Connection.getSecure(Connection.java:41)
    at com.test.io.grpc.mgcs.client.TestClient.<init>(TestClient.java:36)
    at com.test.io.grpc.test.client.TestClient.main(TestClient.java:89)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:147)
Caused by: java.security.cert.CertificateException: found no certificates in input stream
    at io.netty.handler.ssl.PemReader.readCertificates(PemReader.java:98)
    at io.netty.handler.ssl.PemReader.readCertificates(PemReader.java:64)
    at io.netty.handler.ssl.SslContext.toX509Certificates(SslContext.java:999)
    at io.netty.handler.ssl.SslContextBuilder.trustManager(SslContextBuilder.java:160)

build.gradle relevant section

compile 'io.netty:netty-tcnative-boringssl-static:1.1.33.Fork26'

Any ideas what might be causing the issue or how to troubleshoot this further?

Answer 1

I was reading the wrong file as the certificate file for building the SslContext. Replacing the incorrect input with the right certificate file fixed the issue.

Answer 2

If your cert is from DNSSimple I found I needed to do openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -nocrypt -in original.key -out new_key.key.pcks8 To convert the format of the key. :(