Certificate is trusted by PC but not by Android

Question

Since this morning, my certificate is not trusted anymore on Android and then my application cannot connect anymore:

 Catch exception while startHandshake: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Trust anchor for certification path not found.
 return an invalid session with invalid cipher suite of SSL_NULL_WITH_NULL_NULL
 javax.net.ssl.SSLPeerUnverifiedException: No peer certificate
    at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.SSLSessionImpl.getPeerCertificates(SSLSessionImpl.java:137)
    at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.AbstractVerifier.verify(AbstractVerifier.java:93)
    at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.SSLSocketFactory.createSocket(SSLSocketFactory.java:381)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultClientConnectionOperator.openConnection(DefaultClientConnectionOperator.java:165)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPoolEntry.open(AbstractPoolEntry.java:164)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPooledConnAdapter.open(AbstractPooledConnAdapter.java:119)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.execute(DefaultRequestDirector.java:360)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:591)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:807)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:781)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:770)

If I try in Google Chrome (on PC) there's no problem and the certificate is trusted but if I try in Chrome browser on Android it tells me the certificate isn't trusted. What can I do?

Answer 1

You might be missing an intermediate certificate in your cert file. If you have already visited another website which has the same certificate seller, the intermediate certificate is remembered in your browser. This might not - or even better - will not be the case with every visitor to your website. To solve a missing intermediate certificate in the SSL connection, you will need to add the intermediate certificate to your own certificate file.

GoDaddy has some info on the intermediate certificates (but the best source is always your certificate provider): http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/868/what-is-an-intermediate-certificate

I once had this issue of an intermediate cert (with Commodo too) and had to combine my own cert file with the intermediate CA's to work. Once done no errors occurred anymore.

Installation instructions per webserver by Godaddy: http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/5346/installing-an-ssl-server-instructions?locale=en

And here is a list of the most common installation guides by Commodo themselves: https://support.comodo.com/index.php?/Default/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1145/0/how-do-i-make-my-own-bundle-file-from-crt-files

Depending on what webserver you are using, you'll need to specify all certificates (domain certificate, intermediate and root) or combine them into one (eg for Nginx) in the order:

1. domain certificate
2. intermediate certificate
3. root certificate

An easy way of doing this in an SSH terminal is by typing:

cat domainfile intermediatefile rootfile > targetfile

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Certificate test tool

If you encounter further problems or are unsure whether the certificate is correct, please try an online tool to verify your SSL certificate. For instance: networking4all.com/en/ssl+certificates/quickscan

SNI support for android 2.2 and lower

Please note android 2.2 (and probably older) do not support SNI, which allows multiple SSL certificates for different hostnames to work without issues on one single IP address. Thanks to @technyquist for providing that information. Please review this SO question about SNI for more information on this issue.