Does Java support Let's Encrypt certificates?

Question

I am developing a Java application that queries a REST API on a remote server over HTTP. For security reasons this communication should be switched to HTTPS.

Now that Let's Encrypt started their public beta, I'd like to know if Java currently works (or is confirmed to be working in the future) with their certificates by default.

Let's Encrypt got their intermediate cross-signed by IdenTrust, which should be good news. However, I cannot find any of these two in the output of this command:

keytool -keystore "..\lib\security\cacerts" -storepass changeit -list

I know that trusted CAs can be added manually on each machine, but since my application should be free to download and executable without any further configuration, I am looking for solutions that work "out of the box". Do you have good news for me?

One can also check Let's Encrypt compatibility here letsencrypt.org/docs/certificate-compatibility — potame
@potame "with Java 8u131 you still have to add your the certificate to your truststore" so if you get a cert from Let's Encrypt, you will need to add the cert you got to the truststore? Shouldn't it be enough that their CA is included? — mxro
@mxro Hi -- thanks for drawing my attention onto this. My comments above don't hold true at all (in fact the problem was more complicated than that and related to our infrastructure) and I'm going to remove them because they're indeed only leading to confusion. So if you have a jdk > Java 8u101, Let's Encrypt certificate should work and be properly recognized and trusted. — potame

zapl zapl · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-05T21:33:05

[Update 2016-06-08: According to https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8154757 the IdenTrust CA will be included in Oracle Java 8u101.]

[Update 2016-08-05: Java 8u101 has been released and does indeed include the IdenTrust CA: release notes]

Does Java support Let's Encrypt certificates?

Yes. The Let's Encrypt certificate is just a regular public key certificate. Java supports it (according to Let's Encrypt Certificate Compatibility, for Java 7 >= 7u111 and Java 8 >= 8u101).

Does Java trust Let's Encrypt certificates out of the box?

No / it depends on the JVM. The truststore of Oracle JDK/JRE up to 8u66 contains neither the Let's Encrypt CA specifically nor the IdenTrust CA that cross signed it. new URL("https://letsencrypt.org/").openConnection().connect(); for example results in javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException.

You can however provide your own validator / define a custom keystore that contains the required root CA or import the certificate into the JVM truststore.

https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/will-the-cross-root-cover-trust-by-the-default-list-in-the-jdk-jre/134/10 discusses the topic as well.

Here is some example code that shows how to add a certificate to the default truststore at runtime. You'll just need to add the certificate (exported from firefox as .der and put in classpath)

Based on How can I get a list of trusted root certificates in Java? and http://developer.android.com/training/articles/security-ssl.html#UnknownCa

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLConnection;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.security.KeyStore;
import java.security.cert.Certificate;
import java.security.cert.CertificateFactory;
import java.security.cert.PKIXParameters;
import java.security.cert.TrustAnchor;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;

import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManagerFactory;

public class SSLExample {
    // BEGIN ------- ADDME
    static {
        try {
            KeyStore keyStore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
            Path ksPath = Paths.get(System.getProperty("java.home"),
                    "lib", "security", "cacerts");
            keyStore.load(Files.newInputStream(ksPath),
                    "changeit".toCharArray());

            CertificateFactory cf = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509");
            try (InputStream caInput = new BufferedInputStream(
                    // this files is shipped with the application
                    SSLExample.class.getResourceAsStream("DSTRootCAX3.der"))) {
                Certificate crt = cf.generateCertificate(caInput);
                System.out.println("Added Cert for " + ((X509Certificate) crt)
                        .getSubjectDN());

                keyStore.setCertificateEntry("DSTRootCAX3", crt);
            }

            if (false) { // enable to see
                System.out.println("Truststore now trusting: ");
                PKIXParameters params = new PKIXParameters(keyStore);
                params.getTrustAnchors().stream()
                        .map(TrustAnchor::getTrustedCert)
                        .map(X509Certificate::getSubjectDN)
                        .forEach(System.out::println);
                System.out.println();
            }

            TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory
                    .getInstance(TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
            tmf.init(keyStore);
            SSLContext sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
            sslContext.init(null, tmf.getTrustManagers(), null);
            SSLContext.setDefault(sslContext);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }
    // END ---------- ADDME

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        // signed by default trusted CAs.
        testUrl(new URL("https://google.com"));
        testUrl(new URL("https://www.thawte.com"));

        // signed by letsencrypt
        testUrl(new URL("https://helloworld.letsencrypt.org"));
        // signed by LE's cross-sign CA
        testUrl(new URL("https://letsencrypt.org"));
        // expired
        testUrl(new URL("https://tv.eurosport.com/"));
        // self-signed
        testUrl(new URL("https://www.pcwebshop.co.uk/"));

    }

    static void testUrl(URL url) throws IOException {
        URLConnection connection = url.openConnection();
        try {
            connection.connect();
            System.out.println("Headers of " + url + " => "
                    + connection.getHeaderFields());
        } catch (SSLHandshakeException e) {
            System.out.println("Untrusted: " + url);
        }
    }

}

Does Java support Let's Encrypt certificates?

4 Answers

1. Test if it is working before the changes

2. Import the certificate

3. Verify that it is working after the changes