Configure a Java HTTP Client to Accept Self-Signed Certificates

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Overview

If a Java client is attempting to connect to a HTTPS server configured with self-signed SSL certificates, the Java client will fail with:

...
sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: \
sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

This article provides a solution to this problem. The solution consist in obtaining the HTTPS server's public key, importing it into a local truststore and configuring the Java client to use the local truststore.

Procedure

Obtain the HTTPS Server's Certificate

Use openssl s_client to obtain the server's certificate as described here. The response will include the server's certificate in PEM format.

Save it locally in a server-cert.pem file.