Enable HTTPS with self-signed certificate in Spring Boot 2.0

Triet Doan :

I'm following this tutorial to enable HTTPS in Spring Boot 2.0 using a self-signed certificate, just for testing purpose. In summary, that tutorial includes these steps:

1.Generate the keystore using keytool.

keytool -genkey -alias tomcat
 -storetype PKCS12 -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048
 -keystore keystore.p12 -validity 3650

2.Enable HTTPS in Spring Boot by adding some properties in the application.properties file.

server.port: 8443
server.ssl.key-store: keystore.p12
server.ssl.key-store-password: mypassword
server.ssl.keyStoreType: PKCS12
server.ssl.keyAlias: tomcat

3.Redirect HTTP to HTTPS (optional). I ignored this part.

But when I start my application, I got these error:

org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [Connector[HTTP/1.1-8443]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:167) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.addConnector(StandardService.java:225) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.springframework.boot.web.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer.addPreviouslyRemovedConnectors(TomcatWebServer.java:255) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.web.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer.start(TomcatWebServer.java:197) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.ServletWebServerApplicationContext.startWebServer(ServletWebServerApplicationContext.java:300) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.ServletWebServerApplicationContext.finishRefresh(ServletWebServerApplicationContext.java:162) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:552) [spring-context-5.0.4.RELEASE.jar:5.0.4.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.ServletWebServerApplicationContext.refresh(ServletWebServerApplicationContext.java:140) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:752) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:388) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:327) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1246) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1234) [spring-boot-2.0.0.RELEASE.jar:2.0.0.RELEASE]
    at epic.gwdg.restgraph.RestgraphApplication.main(RestgraphApplication.java:10) [classes/:na]
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Protocol handler start failed
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.Connector.startInternal(Connector.java:1021) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    ... 13 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Private key must be accompanied by certificate chain
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AbstractJsseEndpoint.createSSLContext(AbstractJsseEndpoint.java:116) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AbstractJsseEndpoint.initialiseSsl(AbstractJsseEndpoint.java:87) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint.bind(NioEndpoint.java:225) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AbstractEndpoint.start(AbstractEndpoint.java:1150) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.start(AbstractProtocol.java:591) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.Connector.startInternal(Connector.java:1018) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    ... 14 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Private key must be accompanied by certificate chain
    at java.base/java.security.KeyStore.setKeyEntry(KeyStore.java:1170) ~[na:na]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.jsse.JSSEUtil.getKeyManagers(JSSEUtil.java:257) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AbstractJsseEndpoint.createSSLContext(AbstractJsseEndpoint.java:114) ~[tomcat-embed-core-8.5.28.jar:8.5.28]
    ... 19 common frames omitted

2018-03-16 16:42:30.917  INFO 970 --- [           main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService   : Stopping service [Tomcat]
2018-03-16 16:42:30.931  INFO 970 --- [           main] ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListener : 

Error starting ApplicationContext. To display the conditions report re-run your application with 'debug' enabled.
2018-03-16 16:42:30.933 ERROR 970 --- [           main] o.s.b.d.LoggingFailureAnalysisReporter   : 

***************************
APPLICATION FAILED TO START
***************************

Description:

The Tomcat connector configured to listen on port 8443 failed to start. The port may already be in use or the connector may be misconfigured.

Action:

Verify the connector's configuration, identify and stop any process that's listening on port 8443, or configure this application to listen on another port.

2018-03-16 16:42:30.934  INFO 970 --- [           main] ConfigServletWebServerApplicationContext : Closing org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.AnnotationConfigServletWebServerApplicationContext@58ce9668: startup date [Fri Mar 16 16:42:26 CET 2018]; root of context hierarchy
2018-03-16 16:42:30.936  INFO 970 --- [           main] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter        : Unregistering JMX-exposed beans on shutdown

Process finished with exit code 1

Basically, the message is:

Private key must be accompanied by certificate chain.

This is a self-signed certificate, so it, of course, doesn't have the trusted chain. How can I fix it?

Here is my current application.properties file:

server.port=8443
server.ssl.enabled=true
server.ssl.key-store=classpath:keystore.p12
server.ssl.key-password=123456
server.ssl.key-store-type=PKCS12
server.ssl.key-alias=tomcat

Thank you so much for your help.

e2rabi :

The problem is that in your generated keystore you dont have a key pair so there is no private key that's because your using the option -genkey you need to change it by the option -genkeypair :

-genkey generates a Secret Key whereas the -genkeypair generates a key pair (a public key and a private key).

So I think this should work :

keytool -genkeypair -alias tomcat -storetype PKCS12 -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048  -keystore keystore.p12 -validity 3650

In your spring boot configuration change ":" by "=" and add the path to your keystore I suppose that your keystore.p12 is in your resources folder so :

server.ssl.key-store = classpath:keystore.p12
server.ssl.key-store-password = mypassword
server.ssl.key-store-type = PKCS12
server.ssl.key-alias = tomcat