SSL Broken PIPE in Android 2.3 HTTPS call over a Proxy

Question

I've been through every related post I can find trying to get to the bottom of this and am no clearer - hoping someone can put me out of my misery…

I am trying to get Android 2.3 to POST over HTTPS via a Proxy. This code works perfectly on 2.2 through a proxy, and perfectly on both 2.2 and 2.3 using HTTPS when not going through a proxy, and in all cases (2.2 and 2.3) i can GET over HTTPS through a proxy. Its just 2.3 POST using HTTPS through a proxy that seems to be the issue. I get the dreaded "broken pipe" error. The error is thrown when I try and read the inputstream response from the connection - presumably because the TCP socket has been closed underneath my stream. I've tried everything I can think of, including using Connection and Proxy-connection headers (setting to both close and keep-alive) and setting big readTimeout numbers (30 seconds). From my relentless googling, I can see there are known issues with SSL on Android 2.3, but I can't seem to find anything that suggests why the POST might be an issue. Wireshark has yielded some results, but given this is SSL if just a little bit tricky to get to the issue.

Has anyone seem this. I'm using HttpsURLConnection as various posts suggest this is more stable that AndroidHttpClient. Here is my code…any help at all invaluable. Thanks

urlConnection.setSSLSocketFactory(factory);     
urlConnection.setHostnameVerifier(new AllowAllHostnameVerifier() );

String dateText = "{\"loopParam\":\"" + String.valueOf(d.getHours()) + ":" +   String.valueOf(d.getMinutes()) + ":" + String.valueOf(d.getSeconds())  + "\"}";
                txtOutput.setText("Sending " +     String.valueOf(dateText.length() ) + " bytes of JSON to /pulse/loop" );

urlConnection.addRequestProperty("Content-type", "application/json");
                urlConnection.setDoOutput(true);
urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Proxy-connection", "Keep-Alive");
urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Connection", "Keep-Alive");
                urlConnection.setDoInput(true);
                urlConnection.setUseCaches(false);
                urlConnection.setReadTimeout(30000);
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");
                DataOutputStream dataOut = new     DataOutputStream(urlConnection.getOutputStream());
                dataOut.writeBytes(dateText);
                dataOut.flush();

BufferedReader bufIn = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(urlConnection.getInputStream()));
            String sResponse;
            StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();

         //bufIn is null as error as closed urlcConnection
            while ((sResponse = bufIn.readLine()) != null) {
                s = s.append(sResponse);
            }

Error details: 08-May-12 09:09:51 SsliferSnifferActivity Connecting through proxy INFO

08-May-12 09:09:54 SsliferSnifferActivity javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Write error: ssl=0x2d42b8: I/O error during system call, Broken pipe
at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.NativeCrypto.SSL_write(Native Method)
at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.OpenSSLSocketImpl$SSLOutputStream.write(OpenSSLSocketImpl.java:837)
at java.io.OutputStream.write(OutputStream.java:80)
at org.apache.harmony.luni.internal.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnectionImpl.writeRequestHeaders(HttpURLConnectionImpl.java:799)
at org.apache.harmony.luni.internal.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnectionImpl.retrieveResponse(HttpURLConnectionImpl.java:1028)
at org.apache.harmony.luni.internal.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnectionImpl.getResponseCode(HttpURLConnectionImpl.java:726)
at org.apache.harmony.luni.internal.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getResponseCode(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:110)
at uk.co.flurrished.sslifersniffer.SslifersnifferActivity.makeRequest(SslifersnifferActivity.java:236)
at uk.co.flurrished.sslifersniffer.SslifersnifferActivity.access$2(SslifersnifferActivity.java:148)
at uk.co.flurrished.sslifersniffer.SslifersnifferActivity$2.onClick(SslifersnifferActivity.java:76)
at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:2485)
at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:9080)
at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:587)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:130)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3822)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:839)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:597)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

EDIT : This looks like it is being caused by the server raising a 400 (Bad Request) and closing the pipe. What is it about ANdroid 2.3 that is adding extra content when routed through a proxy that causes the 400?

Answer 1

'Broken pipe' has exactly one meaning. You have written to a connection that has already been closed by the other end. Are you sure the peer is really speaking SSL?