Add trusted certificates to java

How to add or list certificates from keystore or trustStore in Java — Keytool Example

How to add certificates on keystore in Java is the primary question when you start working on SSL connection and a simple answer is keytool utility in Java is used to add or list Certificates into keystore. SSL is the industry standard for secure communication between two parties e.g. client and server. SSL offers two benefits, it encrypts data transferred between client and server to make it hard for someone to access and understand in between and SSL also verifies the identity of two parties in communication, and certificates are used for that purpose. SSL Setup in Java comes during various processes e.g. Setting up SSL on tomcat, configuring messaging over SSL, or JDBC over SSL are some examples of tasks where you need to deal with keyStore, certificates, and trust stores.

For those who are not aware of what is a keystore in Java and what is certificates, we will see a brief introduction in the next section, but for a more detailed discussion, you refer to my next post on how SSL, HTTPS, and Certificates work together in Java application.

And, If you are new to the Java world then I also recommend you go through The Complete Java MasterClass on Udemy to learn Java in a better and more structured way. This is one of the best and up-to-date courses to learn Java online.

Basics of SSL Certificates and Keystore in Java

When we access a secure site that uses SSL for providing identity and encryption, it provides a certificate that was verified by trusted third-party sites like Verisign , GoDaddy, or Thwaite . by using certificates browser or java clients know that they talking to the correct site (who it claims to be) and not on redirected proxy site.

This step is pretty transparent if you access websites using a browser because if the certificate is not on the browser’s trusted store it will ask you to add that certificate and it will be subsequently added, But when you access a secure site using Java program, this step of certificate handshaking is not transparent to user and certificates are verified from JRE’s trustStore. T

his trustStore is located on the JDK Installation directory referred by JAVA_HOME like JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security and commonly named » cacerts «.

If the certificate provided by the secure site is present on JRE’s trustStore SSL connection would be established but if the certificate is not there then Java will throw an exception and to solve that you need to add that certificate into trustStore.

Terms like keyStore and trustStore are often used interchangeably and the same file can act as keystore as well as trustStore it is just a matter of pointing javax.net.ssl.keyStore and javax.net.ssl.trustStore properties to that file but there is a slight difference between keystore and trustStore.

A keyStore is used to store individual identity or certificates while a trustStore is used to store other parties’ certificates signed by CA. See the difference between keystore and trustStore, for more differences.

How to add, remove and list certificates from Java keystore

In this article, we will see how to add, remove and list certificates from the Java keystore using the keytool utility.

keytool is binary located inside JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security folder and used for adding, removing, and listing certificates.

Example of listing certificates from Java Keystore:

Before adding new certificates in the keystore or trust store it’s good to see, count, and verify already installed certificates. run following keytool command to get a list of certificates from keystore:

javin @localhost : C / Program Files / Java / jdk1 . 6 . 0_26 / jre / lib / security keytool — list — keystore cacerts
Enter keystore password : changeit

Keystore type : JKS
Keystore provider : SUN

Your keystore contains 76 entries

digicertassuredidrootca , 07 / 01 / 2008 , trustedCertEntry ,
Certificate fingerprint ( MD5 ) : 87 : CE : 0B : 7B : 2A : 0E : 49 : 00 : E1 : 58 : 71 : 9B : 37 : A8 : 93 : 72
trustcenterclass2caii , 07 / 01 / 2008 , trustedCertEntry ,
Certificate fingerprint ( MD5 ) : CE : 78 : 33 : 5C : 59 : 78 : 01 : 6E : 18 : EA : B9 : 36 : A0 : B9 : 2E : 23

You see currently keystore » cacerts » holds 76 certificates. You can also see these Java Programming courses to learn more usages of keytool and other JDK command-line tools, and other Java fundamental concepts in a guided and structured way.

Example of adding Certificate on Java KeyStore:

1. Get Certificate: easier way is to point your browser to that URL and when the certificate is presented save it on your

2. Now go to the Security folder of your JRE installation directory. id you have JDK installed then it would be

Now this will print details about the certificate and ask you for confirmation of adding certificates:

if you cannot access a secure URL using the browser then you can use InstallCert by which you can add a certificate into keystore by the program. For detailed examples see the last section of LDAP authentication with SSL in Java and Spring security. I have provided detailed steps to use InstallCert.java tool.

Important points about SSL, KeyStore and keyTool in Java

1. Certificates are required to access secure sites using SSL protocol or making a secure connection from the client to the server.

2. JRE stores certificates inside keystore named as » cacerts » in folder C:/Program Files/Java//jdk1.6.0_20/jre/lib/security.

3. Common password of the keystore is » Changeit «.

4. Keytool is used to access keystore in Java and by using keytool you can list, add certificates from keystore.

5. If you are implementing an SSL connection on the Server-side say Tomcat you need both keyStore and trustStore, both can be the same file, though. keyStore will be used to store server certificates which the server will present to the client on SSL connection.

That’s all on how to add and list certificates from keyStore or trustStore in java. The keytool utility which comes with JDK installation will help you to create an alias, list certificates, etc.

9 comments :

Can you also let us know how to create keystore in Java, I mean what if I want to create a new keystore or copying data from one keyStore to another ? I am looking for exact command using keytool, please help.

I am getting this error while connecting to my Server using SSL in Java «javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed» Its says requested certificate not found. I am using self signed certificate created using keytool and I have imported that certificate into keystore. Is there any other way to install certificate ? do I need to install certificate on server side or only on client side ?

Instead of adding certificates using keyword tool, I prefer to use InstallCert.java utility. If you are adding certificates from website or url like LDAP URL, its best to use InstallCert.java. here is the command I use, just make sure to run this command from JRE/lib/security directory:

java -cp . InstallCert hostname:port

@Anonymous, There could be multiple reason of error javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed e.g.

1)Your trustStore may not contain certificates sent by Server for authentication.

2) You might not have provided trustStore using system property -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=, if you don’t provide an explicit trustStore than default trustStore which is jss2certs or cacerts and located in JRE/lib/security directory is used, which might not contain certificates sent by Server.

3) If your SSL Server is using Client authentication than you need to provide keyStore as well with System Property
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStoreType=
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword =

because on client side authentication SSL clients sends certificates corresponding to its public key to Server.

What you can do :
1) Check if you are using client side authentication or not, if not then you don’t need keystore, until you are SSL Server.

2) See whether you are using an explicit trustStore file or a default trustStore e.g. mytrustStore.jks in your application, make sure that you have Certificates to authenticate server on those trustStore.

One cal also use GUI based key management utility to create keystore and import certificates on that like IBM IkeyMan tool. Though I personally prefer keytool command which comes with standard Java installation, GUI tools are much easier to use. Another important thing to remember that, you can use same keystore as both trustStore and keyStore in Java which is used for different purposes.

Ikeyman is better when you want to create keyStore in Java, it support different kinds of keyStore e.g . JKS keyStore. Also if you want to create personal certificates, you first need to create certificate request and later signed it using A Signing authority e.g. GoDaday or Thwate. By the you can self sign your Certificate as well for development and testing purpose.

The default password of java keystore is «changeit», all in lower case.

hi . I get a problem installing certificate because of the computer is using automatic configuration script proxy when connect to internet. Some one can help to solve this problem ? thank you so much.

Hi,
I have .pem file and haven’t any alias and password. I am using jdk 8 with linux. I have import keystore with command keytool -import -trustcacerts -keystore /home/jdk1.8.0_60/jre/lib/security/cacerts -storepass changeit -file yourFile.pem and have imported successfully. When I am executing my code then I am facing this issue javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target. Please help me

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Import the Certificate as a Trusted Certificate

Before you can grant the signed code permission to read a specified file, you need to import Susan’s certificate as a trusted certificate in your keystore.

Suppose that you have received from Susan

• the signed JAR file sCount.jar , which contains the Count.class file, and
• the file Example.cer , which contains the public key certificate for the public key corresponding to the private key used to sign the JAR file.

Even though you created these files and they haven’t actually been transported anywhere, you can simulate being someone other than the creator and sender, Susan. Pretend that you are now Ray. Acting as Ray, you will create a keystore named exampleraystore and will use it to import the certificate into an entry with an alias of susan .

A keystore is created whenever you use a keytool command specifying a keystore that doesn’t yet exist. Thus we can create the exampleraystore and import the certificate via a single keytool command. Do the following in your command window.

1. Go to the directory containing the public key certificate file Example.cer . (You should actually already be there, since this lesson assumes that you stay in a single directory throughout.)
2. Type the following command on one line:

keytool -import -alias susan -file Example.cer -keystore exampleraystore 

Since the keystore doesn’t yet exist, it will be created, and you will be prompted for a keystore password; type whatever password you want.

The keytool command will print out the certificate information and ask you to verify it, for example, by comparing the displayed certificate fingerprints with those obtained from another (trusted) source of information. (Each fingerprint is a relatively short number that uniquely and reliably identifies the certificate.) For example, in the real world you might call up Susan and ask her what the fingerprints should be. She can get the fingerprints of the Example.cer file she created by executing the command

keytool -printcert -file Example.cer 

If the fingerprints she sees are the same as the ones reported to you by keytool , the certificate has not been modified in transit. In that case you let keytool proceed with placing a trusted certificate entry in the keystore. The entry contains the public key certificate data from the file Example.cer and is assigned the alias susan .

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