SSLv2Hello cannot be enabled

Question

I've been working on a Java webservice client. It works fine for everybody except for one customer who has this error:

class java.lang.IllegalArgumentException :
SSLv2Hello cannot be enabled unless at least one other supported version is also enabled

I can't reproduce the error. We're using the same server trying to test it, and it works fine for me and all of my collegues. The only thing different that we're using our certificate and the user is using his. Tried System.setProperty("https.protocols", "SSLv3"); Then I got this:

class javax.xml.ws.WebServiceException :
Failed to access the WSDL at: https:something:someport/something/something?wsdl. It failed with: 
    No appropriate protocol (protocol is disabled or cipher suites are inappropriate). 

The client is using:
JVM: 1.8.0_40
Operating System: Windows 7

I'm clueless how can i solve this, or what path to take to further explore the problem.

Answer 1

SSLv2Hello cannot come alone, it needs another protocol to be allowed (SSLv3, TLS,..)

Your code seems to work as you can test it almost anywhere with good results. It's then an environment problem on the faulty tester, by configuration or JDK version.

Check environment variables, java.security file (particularly jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms key which can be empty for testing) , and deployment.properties file if any. It's often a good idea to dump all environment properties during the client or server startup.