Qt 5.8 Apple Notification Server Handshake failed

Question

i tried it some ours now but i could not get it to work. I want to push some notifications from a Qt Application. Tried to get it to work on macOS Sierra with Qt 5.8 installation and on Pi3 also with Qt 5.8.

I created my push certificate with "fastlane pem" and i tested it with "Pusher" and it works correct. But i cannot get it to work in Qt....

At first is the code i use to initialize and connect the QSslSocket:

QSslSocket * ssl = new QSslSocket;

connect(ssl, &QSslSocket::encrypted, this, &IOSPusher::encrypted );
connect(ssl, static_cast<void(QSslSocket::*)(const QList<QSslError> &)>(&QSslSocket::sslErrors),this,&IOSPusher::sslErrors);
connect(ssl, static_cast<void(QSslSocket::*)(QAbstractSocket::SocketError)>(&QSslSocket::error),this, &IOSPusher::error );
connect(ssl,&QSslSocket::stateChanged,this,&IOSPusher::stateChanged );

Loading the certificate

QString path = QStandardPaths::writableLocation(certificateLocation) + "/apns.pem";

const auto certs =  QSslCertificate::fromPath(path);

if(certs.count() > 0){
    qDebug() << "IOSPusher: Certificate loaded successfully";
}else{
    qDebug() << "Could not load certificate : " + path;
}

QSslConfiguration config = QSslConfiguration::defaultConfiguration();
config.setCaCertificates(certs);

ssl->setSslConfiguration(config);
ssl->connectToHostEncrypted( gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com,2195 );

And thats the output i get:

IOSPusher: Certificate loaded successfully
IOSPusher::stateChanged  QAbstractSocket::HostLookupState
IOSPusher::stateChanged  QAbstractSocket::ConnectingState
IOSPusher::stateChanged  QAbstractSocket::ConnectedState
IOSPusher::error  QAbstractSocket::SocketError(13)
IOSPusher::stateChanged  QAbstractSocket::ClosingState
IOSPusher::stateChanged  QAbstractSocket::UnconnectedState

So according to the Qt documentation the error:

QAbstractSocket::SocketError(13)

means the following:

SslHandshakeFailedError

And

~~> the SSL/TLS handshake failed and the encrypted channel could not be established. The sslErrors() signal should have been emitted.~~

But the sslErrors() signal will not be emitted in my case....

The SSL/TLS handshake failed, so the connection was closed (only used in QSslSocket)

Any ideas or samples how i can establish a encrypted connection to apple?

Thanks in advance!

nivek nivek · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-30T07:24:43

Okay like so often when i try to get help from anyone i got it now :D

The solution which worked for me now is:

Create the *.pem cert with fastlane pem with a password (maybe it works without password too but that was the last i tried now and....never change a running system haha)

 fastlane pem --development -p <private_key_password> -a <your_app_identifier>

Then to connect with the QSslSocket do the following... as before in my question...

QSslSocket * ssl = new QSslSocket;
QString path = QStandardPaths::writableLocation(certificateLocation) + "/apns.pem";

connect(ssl, &QSslSocket::encrypted, this, &IOSPusher::encrypted );
connect(ssl, static_cast<void(QSslSocket::*)(const QList<QSslError> &)>(&QSslSocket::sslErrors),this,&IOSPusher::sslErrors);
connect(ssl, static_cast<void(QSslSocket::*)(QAbstractSocket::SocketError)>(&QSslSocket::error),this, &IOSPusher::error );
connect(ssl,&QSslSocket::stateChanged,this,&IOSPusher::stateChanged );

QSslCertificate cert;
const auto certs =  QSslCertificate::fromPath(path);

if(certs.count() > 0){
    cert = certs.at(0);
    qDebug() << "IOSPusher: Certificate loaded successfully";
}else{
    qDebug() << "Could not load certificate : " + path;
    return false;
}

Now here comes the magic what it did for me

Use the private_key (.pkey) file which will also be created with fastlane pem

//Use the path to the .pkey file from fastlane
QFile keyfile(path + "/apns.pkey");
keyfile.open(QFile::ReadOnly);

//Create the QSslKey as private key
QSslKey privateKey(&keyfile,QSsl::Rsa,QSsl::Pem,QSsl::PrivateKey,QByteArray("<private_key_password_from_fastlane>"));
//Close the file
keyfile.close();

And add the private key and the certificate to the ssl config

QSslConfiguration config = QSslConfiguration::defaultConfiguration();

config.setLocalCertificate(cert);
config.setPrivateKey(privateKey);

as you can see here this time i not use the config.setCaCertificates method but instead the config.setLocalCertificate method. That was a mistake on my side...

At least add the config to the ssl socket and FIRE!

ssl->setSslConfiguration(config);
ssl->connectToHostEncrypted( "gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com",2195 );

Thats all

Now the encrypted() signal gets emitted! Yeah..

Qt 5.8 Apple Notification Server Handshake failed

1 Answers