Why am I getting an exception javax.net.ssl.SSLPeerUnverifiedException: peer not authenticated?

Question

I'm using Apache HttpComponents HttpClient(4.0.1) to make a HTTPS call, but I'm this exception as the response:

 javax.net.ssl.SSLPeerUnverifiedException: peer not authenticated
        at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSessionImpl.getPeerCertificates(SSLSessionImpl.java:345)
        at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.AbstractVerifier.verify(AbstractVerifier.java:128)
        at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.SSLSocketFactory.connectSocket(SSLSocketFactory.java:390)
        at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultClientConnectionOperator.openConnection(DefaultClientConnectionOperator.java:148)
        at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPoolEntry.open(AbstractPoolEntry.java:149)
        at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPooledConnAdapter.open(AbstractPooledConnAdapter.java:121)
        at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.tryConnect(DefaultRequestDirector.java:561)
        at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.execute(DefaultRequestDirector.java:415)
        at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:820)
        at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:754)
        at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:732)

I provided all the required paramters. The destination system doesn't require any user name/password or proxy, but it contains JKS csrtificates that are installed in server. The user name and passwords are blank values.

This is working with org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.PostMethod - Version 3.0 - commons-httpclient-3.0.jar Now we have implemented with org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost - Version 4.0.1 - commons-httpclient.jar

This is the sample code snippet which is not working:

HttpParams param = new BasicHttpParams();
HttpProtocolParams.setVersion(param, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
HttpProtocolParams.setContentCharset(param, "UTF-8");
HttpProtocolParams.setUseExpectContinue(param, true);
DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient(param);
httpClient.getParams().setParameter(HttpConnectionParams.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT,10000)));
httpClient.getParams().setParameter(HttpConnectionParams.SO_TIMEOUT,10000)));
httpClient.getCredentialsProvider().setCredentials(new AuthScope(<HOST IP,PORT)),
    AuthScope.ANY_REALM),
    new UsernamePasswordCredentials("", ""));

try {
HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(END POINT URL);
StringEntity requestEntity = new StringEntity(inputString, "text/xml", "UTF-8");
httpPost.setEntity(requestEntity);
response = httpClient.execute(httpPost);
HttpEntity responseEntity = response.getEntity();
if (null != responseEntity) 
{
    responseBody = EntityUtils.toString(responseEntity);
}
if (null != httpPost.getURI()) {
    url = httpPost.getURI().toString();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
   httpClient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
}

Answer 1

The exception message

javax.net.ssl.SSLPeerUnverifiedException: peer not authenticated

doesn't always indicate the root cause of the issue. You may need to enable the SSL handshake debug by adding theJava VM parameter -Djavax.net.debug=ssl:handshake. Once you've added that you will get more helpful error messages. If the remote server uses a certificate that is not trusted you will see the following error message:

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

If that is the case then the answer by @Abhishek will solve the issue.