[java] Ignoring SSL certificate in Apache HttpClient 4.3

How to ignore SSL certificate (trust all) for Apache HttpClient 4.3?

All the answers that I have found on SO treat previous versions, and the API changed.

Related:

• How to ignore SSL certificate errors in Apache HttpClient 4.0
• How to handle invalid SSL certificates with Apache HttpClient?
• Need to trust all the certificates during the development using Spring
• Ignore SSL Certificate Errors with Java

Edit:

• It is only for test purposes. Kids, don't try it at home (or in production)

Trust All Certs in Apache HTTP Client

TrustManager[] trustAllCerts = new TrustManager[]{
                    new X509TrustManager() {
                        public java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
                            return null;
                        }
                        public void checkClientTrusted(
                            java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {
                        }
                        public void checkServerTrusted(
                            java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {
                        }
                    }
                };

          try {
                SSLContext sc = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
                sc.init(null, trustAllCerts, new java.security.SecureRandom());
                SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslsf = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
                        sc);
                httpclient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLSocketFactory(
                        sslsf).build();
                HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(sc.getSocketFactory());

Simpler and shorter working code:

We are using HTTPClient 4.3.5 and we tried almost all solutions exist on the stackoverflow but nothing, After thinking and figuring out the problem, we come to the following code which works perfectly, just add it before creating HttpClient instance.

some method which you use to make post request...

SSLContextBuilder builder = new SSLContextBuilder();
    builder.loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustStrategy() {
        @Override
        public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType) throws CertificateException {
            return true;
        }
    });

    SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslSF = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(builder.build(),
            SSLConnectionSocketFactory.ALLOW_ALL_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER);

    HttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLSocketFactory(sslSF).build();
    HttpPost postRequest = new HttpPost(url);

continue calling and using HttpPost instance in the normal form

When using http client 4.5 I had to use the javasx.net.ssl.HostnameVerifier to allow any hostname (for testing purposes). Here is what I ended up doing:

CloseableHttpClient httpClient = null;
    try {
        SSLContextBuilder sslContextBuilder = new SSLContextBuilder();
        sslContextBuilder.loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustSelfSignedStrategy());

        HostnameVerifier hostnameVerifierAllowAll = new HostnameVerifier() 
            {
                public boolean verify(String hostname, SSLSession session) {
                    return true;
                }
            };

        SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslSocketFactory = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(sslContextBuilder.build(), hostnameVerifierAllowAll);

        CredentialsProvider credsProvider = new BasicCredentialsProvider();
        credsProvider.setCredentials(
            new AuthScope("192.168.30.34", 8443),
            new UsernamePasswordCredentials("root", "password"));

        httpClient = HttpClients.custom()
            .setSSLSocketFactory(sslSocketFactory)
            .setDefaultCredentialsProvider(credsProvider)
            .build();

        HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet("https://192.168.30.34:8443/axis/services/getStuff?firstResult=0&maxResults=1000");

        CloseableHttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet);

        int httpStatus = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();
        if (httpStatus >= 200 && httpStatus < 300) { [...]
        } else {
            throw new ClientProtocolException("Unexpected response status: " + httpStatus);
        }

    } catch (Exception ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
    finally {
        try {
            httpClient.close();
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            logger.error("Error while closing the HTTP client: ", ex);
        }
    }

On top of PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager along with Registry<ConnectionSocketFactory> socketFactoryRegistry = RegistryBuilder.<ConnectionSocketFactory> create().register("https", sslFactory).build(); If you want an asynchronous httpclient using PoolingNHttpClientConnectionManager the code shoudl be similar to following

SSLContextBuilder builder = SSLContexts.custom();
builder.loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustStrategy() {
    @Override
    public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
            throws CertificateException {
        return true;
    }
});
SSLContext sslContext = builder.build();
SchemeIOSessionStrategy sslioSessionStrategy = new SSLIOSessionStrategy(sslContext, 
                new HostnameVerifier(){
            @Override
            public boolean verify(String hostname, SSLSession session) {
                return true;// TODO as of now allow all hostnames
            }
        });
Registry<SchemeIOSessionStrategy> sslioSessionRegistry = RegistryBuilder.<SchemeIOSessionStrategy>create().register("https", sslioSessionStrategy).build();
PoolingNHttpClientConnectionManager ncm  = new PoolingNHttpClientConnectionManager(new DefaultConnectingIOReactor(),sslioSessionRegistry);
CloseableHttpAsyncClient asyncHttpClient = HttpAsyncClients.custom().setConnectionManager(ncm).build();
asyncHttpClient.start();        

Initially, i was able to disable for localhost using trust strategy, later i added NoopHostnameVerifier. Now it will work for both localhost and any machine name

SSLContext sslContext = SSLContextBuilder.create().loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustStrategy() {

            @Override
            public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType) throws CertificateException {
                return true;
            }

        }).build();
        SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslsf = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
                sslContext, NoopHostnameVerifier.INSTANCE);
        CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLSocketFactory(sslsf).build();

If you are using PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager procedure above doesn't work, custom SSLContext is ignored. You have to pass socketFactoryRegistry in contructor when creating PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.

SSLContextBuilder builder = SSLContexts.custom();
builder.loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustStrategy() {
    @Override
    public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
            throws CertificateException {
        return true;
    }
});
SSLContext sslContext = builder.build();
SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslsf = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
        sslContext, new X509HostnameVerifier() {
            @Override
            public void verify(String host, SSLSocket ssl)
                    throws IOException {
            }

            @Override
            public void verify(String host, X509Certificate cert)
                    throws SSLException {
            }

            @Override
            public void verify(String host, String[] cns,
                    String[] subjectAlts) throws SSLException {
            }

            @Override
            public boolean verify(String s, SSLSession sslSession) {
                return true;
            }
        });

Registry<ConnectionSocketFactory> socketFactoryRegistry = RegistryBuilder
        .<ConnectionSocketFactory> create().register("https", sslsf)
        .build();

PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager cm = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager(
        socketFactoryRegistry);
CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.custom()
        .setConnectionManager(cm).build();

Slight tweak to answer from @divbyzero above to fix sonar security warnings

CloseableHttpClient getInsecureHttpClient() throws GeneralSecurityException {
            TrustStrategy trustStrategy = (chain, authType) -> true;

            HostnameVerifier hostnameVerifier = (hostname, session) -> hostname.equalsIgnoreCase(session.getPeerHost());

            return HttpClients.custom()
                    .setSSLSocketFactory(new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(new SSLContextBuilder().loadTrustMaterial(trustStrategy).build(), hostnameVerifier))
                    .build();
        }

After trying various options, following configuration worked for both http and https:

SSLContextBuilder builder = new SSLContextBuilder();
builder.loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustSelfSignedStrategy());
SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslsf = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
                builder.build(), SSLConnectionSocketFactory.ALLOW_ALL_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER);

Registry<ConnectionSocketFactory> registry = RegistryBuilder. 
                 <ConnectionSocketFactory> create()
                .register("http", new PlainConnectionSocketFactory())
                .register("https", sslsf)
                .build();

PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager cm = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager(registry);
cm.setMaxTotal(2000);

CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom()
                .setSSLSocketFactory(sslsf)
                .setConnectionManager(cm)
                .build();

I am using http-client 4.3.3 : compile 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient:4.3.3'

As an addition to the answer of @mavroprovato, if you want to trust all certificates instead of just self-signed, you'd do (in the style of your code)

builder.loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustStrategy(){
    public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
        throws CertificateException {
        return true;
    }
});

or (direct copy-paste from my own code):

import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import org.apache.http.ssl.TrustStrategy;
import org.apache.http.ssl.SSLContexts;

// ...

        SSLContext sslContext = SSLContexts
                .custom()
                //FIXME to contain real trust store
                .loadTrustMaterial(new TrustStrategy() {
                    @Override
                    public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain,
                        String authType) throws CertificateException {
                        return true;
                    }
                })
                .build();

And if you want to skip hostname verification as well, you need to set

    CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLSocketFactory(
            sslsf).setSSLHostnameVerifier( NoopHostnameVerifier.INSTANCE).build();

as well. (ALLOW_ALL_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER is deprecated).

Obligatory warning: you shouldn't really do this, accepting all certificates is a bad thing. However there are some rare use cases where you want to do this.

As a note to code previously given, you'll want to close response even if httpclient.execute() throws an exception

CloseableHttpResponse response = null;
try {
    response = httpclient.execute(httpGet);
    System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
    HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
    EntityUtils.consume(entity);
}
finally {
    if (response != null) {
        response.close();
    }
}

Code above was tested using

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
    <version>4.5.3</version>
</dependency>

And for the interested, here's my full test set:

import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.CloseableHttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.conn.ssl.NoopHostnameVerifier;
import org.apache.http.conn.ssl.SSLConnectionSocketFactory;
import org.apache.http.conn.ssl.TrustSelfSignedStrategy;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.ssl.SSLContextBuilder;
import org.apache.http.ssl.TrustStrategy;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
import org.junit.Test;

import javax.net.ssl.HostnameVerifier;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLPeerUnverifiedException;
import java.security.cert.CertificateException;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;

public class TrustAllCertificatesTest {
    final String expiredCertSite = "https://expired.badssl.com/";
    final String selfSignedCertSite = "https://self-signed.badssl.com/";
    final String wrongHostCertSite = "https://wrong.host.badssl.com/";

    static final TrustStrategy trustSelfSignedStrategy = new TrustSelfSignedStrategy();
    static final TrustStrategy trustAllStrategy = new TrustStrategy(){
        public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType)
                throws CertificateException {
            return true;
        }
    };

    @Test
    public void testSelfSignedOnSelfSignedUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(selfSignedCertSite, trustSelfSignedStrategy);
    }
    @Test(expected = SSLHandshakeException.class)
    public void testExpiredOnSelfSignedUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(expiredCertSite, trustSelfSignedStrategy);
    }
    @Test(expected = SSLPeerUnverifiedException.class)
    public void testWrongHostOnSelfSignedUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(wrongHostCertSite, trustSelfSignedStrategy);
    }

    @Test
    public void testSelfSignedOnTrustAllUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(selfSignedCertSite, trustAllStrategy);
    }
    @Test
    public void testExpiredOnTrustAllUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(expiredCertSite, trustAllStrategy);
    }
    @Test(expected = SSLPeerUnverifiedException.class)
    public void testWrongHostOnTrustAllUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(wrongHostCertSite, trustAllStrategy);
    }

    @Test
    public void testSelfSignedOnAllowAllUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(selfSignedCertSite, trustAllStrategy, NoopHostnameVerifier.INSTANCE);
    }
    @Test
    public void testExpiredOnAllowAllUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(expiredCertSite, trustAllStrategy, NoopHostnameVerifier.INSTANCE);
    }
    @Test
    public void testWrongHostOnAllowAllUsingCode() throws Exception {
        doGet(expiredCertSite, trustAllStrategy, NoopHostnameVerifier.INSTANCE);
    }

    public void doGet(String url, TrustStrategy trustStrategy, HostnameVerifier hostnameVerifier) throws Exception {
        SSLContextBuilder builder = new SSLContextBuilder();
        builder.loadTrustMaterial(trustStrategy);
        SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslsf = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
                builder.build());
        CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLSocketFactory(
                sslsf).setSSLHostnameVerifier(hostnameVerifier).build();

        HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);
        CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpGet);
        try {
            System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
            EntityUtils.consume(entity);
        } finally {
            response.close();
        }
    }
    public void doGet(String url, TrustStrategy trustStrategy) throws Exception {

        SSLContextBuilder builder = new SSLContextBuilder();
        builder.loadTrustMaterial(trustStrategy);
        SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslsf = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
                builder.build());
        CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLSocketFactory(
                sslsf).build();

        HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);
        CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpGet);
        try {
            System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
            EntityUtils.consume(entity);
        } finally {
            response.close();
        }
    }
}

(working test project in github)

If you are using HttpClient 4.5.x, your code can be similar to the following:

SSLContext sslContext = new SSLContextBuilder().loadTrustMaterial(null,
        TrustSelfSignedStrategy.INSTANCE).build();
SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslSocketFactory = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
        sslContext, NoopHostnameVerifier.INSTANCE);

HttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom()
                                   .setDefaultCookieStore(new BasicCookieStore())
                                   .setSSLSocketFactory(sslSocketFactory)
                                   .build();

You can use following code snippet for get the HttpClient instance without ssl certification checking.

private HttpClient getSSLHttpClient() throws KeyStoreException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, KeyManagementException {

        LogLoader.serverLog.trace("In getSSLHttpClient()");

        SSLContext context = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");

        TrustManager tm = new X509TrustManager() {
            public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType) throws CertificateException {
            }

            public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType) throws CertificateException {
            }

            public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
                return null;
            }
        };

        context.init(null, new TrustManager[] { tm }, null);

        HttpClientBuilder builder = HttpClientBuilder.create();
        SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslConnectionFactory = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(context);
        builder.setSSLSocketFactory(sslConnectionFactory);

        PlainConnectionSocketFactory plainConnectionSocketFactory = new PlainConnectionSocketFactory();
        Registry<ConnectionSocketFactory> registry = RegistryBuilder.<ConnectionSocketFactory>create()
                .register("https", sslConnectionFactory).register("http", plainConnectionSocketFactory).build();

        PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager ccm = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager(registry);
        ccm.setMaxTotal(BaseConstant.CONNECTION_POOL_SIZE);
        ccm.setDefaultMaxPerRoute(BaseConstant.CONNECTION_POOL_SIZE);
        builder.setConnectionManager((HttpClientConnectionManager) ccm);

        builder.disableRedirectHandling();

        LogLoader.serverLog.trace("Out getSSLHttpClient()");

        return builder.build();
    }

Here's a working distillation of the above techniques, equivalent to "curl --insecure":

HttpClient getInsecureHttpClient() throws GeneralSecurityException {
    TrustStrategy trustStrategy = new TrustStrategy() {
        @Override
        public boolean isTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain, String authType) {
            return true;
        }
    };

    HostnameVerifier hostnameVerifier = new HostnameVerifier() {
        @Override
        public boolean verify(String hostname, SSLSession session) {
            return true;
        }
    };

    return HttpClients.custom()
            .setSSLSocketFactory(new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
                    new SSLContextBuilder().loadTrustMaterial(trustStrategy).build(),
                    hostnameVerifier))
            .build();
}

(I would have added a comment directly to vasekt's answer but I don't have enough reputation points (not sure the logic there)

Anyway... what I wanted to say is that even if you aren't explicitly creating/asking for a PoolingConnection, doesn't mean you aren't getting one.

I was going crazy trying to figure out why the original solution didn't work for me, but I ignored vasekt's answer as it "didn't apply to my case" - wrong!

I was staring at my stack-trace when low and behold I saw a PoolingConnection in the middle of it. Bang - I tired his addition and success!! (our demo is tomorrow and I was getting desperate) :-)

One small addition to the answer by vasekt:

The provided solution with the SocketFactoryRegistry works when using PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.

However, connections via plain http don't work any longer then. You have to add a PlainConnectionSocketFactory for the http protocol additionally to make them work again:

Registry<ConnectionSocketFactory> socketFactoryRegistry = 
  RegistryBuilder.<ConnectionSocketFactory> create()
  .register("https", sslsf)
  .register("http", new PlainConnectionSocketFactory()).build();

class ApacheHttpClient {

    /***
     * This is a https get request that bypasses certificate checking and hostname verifier.
     * It uses basis authentication method.
     * It is tested with Apache httpclient-4.4.
     * It dumps the contents of a https page on the console output.
     * It is very similar to http get request, but with the additional customization of
     *   - credential provider, and
     *   - SSLConnectionSocketFactory to bypass certification checking and hostname verifier.
     * @param path String
     * @param username String
     * @param password String
     * @throws IOException
     */
    public void get(String path, String username, String password) throws IOException {
        final CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom()
                .setDefaultCredentialsProvider(createCredsProvider(username, password))
                .setSSLSocketFactory(createGenerousSSLSocketFactory())
                .build();

        final CloseableHttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(new HttpGet(path));
        try {
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
            if (entity == null)
                return;
            System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(entity));
        } finally {
            response.close();
            httpClient.close();
        }
    }

    private CredentialsProvider createCredsProvider(String username, String password) {
        CredentialsProvider credsProvider = new BasicCredentialsProvider();
        credsProvider.setCredentials(
                AuthScope.ANY,
                new UsernamePasswordCredentials(username, password));
        return credsProvider;
    }

    /***
     * 
     * @return SSLConnectionSocketFactory that bypass certificate check and bypass HostnameVerifier
     */
    private SSLConnectionSocketFactory createGenerousSSLSocketFactory() {
        SSLContext sslContext;
        try {
            sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
            sslContext.init(null, new TrustManager[]{createGenerousTrustManager()}, new SecureRandom());
        } catch (KeyManagementException | NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return null;
        }
        return new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(sslContext, NoopHostnameVerifier.INSTANCE);
    }

    private X509TrustManager createGenerousTrustManager() {
        return new X509TrustManager() {
            @Override
            public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] cert, String s) throws CertificateException {
            }

            @Override
            public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] cert, String s) throws CertificateException {
            }

            @Override
            public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
                return null;
            }
        };
    }
}