Running Report Designer with Self-Signed Certificates

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Last updated: Dec 21, 2010Version comment
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In its default configuration, the JDK rejects Self-Signed certificates for security reasons. If you need to communicate with a HTTPS server that uses such certificates, you will have to import the certificate into your local keystore first.

When using the keytool without an explicit location for the keystore-file, this file will be created as "$home/.keystore"

Creating a Keystore to Use with JSSE

Creating a Simple Keystore and Truststore

In this section, we'll use keytool to create a simple JKS keystore suitable for use with JSSE. We'll make a keyEntry(with public/private keys) in the keystore, then make a corresponding trustedCertEntry(public keys only) in a truststore. (For client authentication, you'll need to do a similar process for the client's certificates.) Note: Storing trust anchors in PKCS12 is not supported. Users should use JKS for storing trust anchors and PKCS12 for private keys. Note: It is beyond the scope of this example to explain each step in detail. If you need more information, please see the keytool documentation for Solaris or Microsoft Windows. User input is shown in boldface font.

  1. Create a new keystore and self-signed certificate with corresponding public/private keys. 
    % keytool -genkey -alias duke -keyalg RSA -validity 7 -keystore keystore

Enter keystore password:  password
What is your first and last name?
[Unknown]:  Duke
What is the name of your organizational unit?
[Unknown]:  Java Software
What is the name of your organization?
[Unknown]:  Sun Microsystems, Inc.
What is the name of your City or Locality?
[Unknown]:  Palo Alto
What is the name of your State or Province?
[Unknown]:  CA
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
[Unknown]:  US
Is CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O="Sun Microsystems, Inc.",
L=Palo Alto, ST=CA, C=US correct?
[no]:  yes

Enter key password for <duke>
(RETURN if same as keystore password):  <CR>

This is the keystore that the server will use.

  1. Examine the keystore. Notice the entry type is keyEntry, which means that this entry has a private key associated with it (shown in red). 
    % keytool -list -v -keystore keystore
Enter keystore password:  password

Keystore type: jks
Keystore provider: SUN

Your keystore contains 1 entry

Alias name: duke
Creation date: Dec 20, 2001
Entry type: keyEntry
Certificate chain length: 1
Certificate[1]:
Owner: CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O="Sun Microsystems, Inc.",
L=Palo Alto, ST=CA, C=US
Issuer: CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O="Sun Microsystems, Inc.", L=Palo Alto, ST=CA, C=US
Serial number: 3c22adc1
Valid from: Thu Dec 20 19:34:25 PST 2001 until: Thu Dec 27 19:34:25 PST 2001
Certificate fingerprints:
MD5: F1:5B:9B:A1:F7:16:CF:25:CF:F4:FF:35:3F:4C:9C:F0
SHA1: B2:00:50:DD:B6:CC:35:66:21:45:0F:96:AA:AF:6A:3D:E4:03:7C:74
  2. Export and examine the self-signed certificate. 
    % keytool -export -alias duke -keystore keystore -rfc -file duke.cer
Enter keystore password:  password
Certificate stored in file <duke.cer>

% cat duke.cer
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

  3.
    Alternatively, you could generate Certificate Signing Request (CSR) with -certreq and send that to a Certificate Authority (CA) for signing, but again, that's beyond the scope of this example.
  1. Import the certificate into a new truststore. 
    % keytool -import -alias dukecert -file duke.cer -keystore truststore
Enter keystore password:  trustword
Owner: CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O="Sun Microsystems, Inc.", L=Palo Alto, ST=CA, C=US
Issuer: CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O="Sun Microsystems, Inc.", L=Palo Alto, ST=CA, C=US
Serial number: 3c22adc1
Valid from: Thu Dec 20 19:34:25 PST 2001 until: Thu Dec 27 19:34:25 PST 2001
Certificate fingerprints:
MD5: F1:5B:9B:A1:F7:16:CF:25:CF:F4:FF:35:3F:4C:9C:F0
SHA1: B2:00:50:DD:B6:CC:35:66:21:45:0F:96:AA:AF:6A:3D:E4:03:7C:74
Trust this certificate? [no]:  yes
Certificate was added to keystore
  1. Examine the truststore. Note that the entry type is trustedCertEntry, which means that a private key is not available for this entry (shown in red). It also means that this file is not suitable as a KeyManager's keystore. 
    % keytool -list -v -keystore truststore
Enter keystore password:  trustword

Keystore type: jks
Keystore provider: SUN

Your keystore contains 1 entry

Alias name: dukecert
Creation date: Dec 20, 2001
Entry type: trustedCertEntry

Owner: CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O="Sun Microsystems, Inc.", L=Palo Alto, ST=CA, C=US
Issuer: CN=Duke, OU=Java Software, O="Sun Microsystems, Inc.", L=Palo Alto, ST=CA, C=US
Serial number: 3c22adc1
Valid from: Thu Dec 20 19:34:25 PST 2001 until: Thu Dec 27 19:34:25 PST 2001
Certificate fingerprints:
MD5: F1:5B:9B:A1:F7:16:CF:25:CF:F4:FF:35:3F:4C:9C:F0
SHA1: B2:00:50:DD:B6:CC:35:66:21:45:0F:96:AA:AF:6A:3D:E4:03:7C:74

Now run your applications with the appropriate key stores. This generic example assumes the default X509KeyManager and X509TrustManagerare used, thus we will select the keystores using the system properties described in Customization.

% java -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=keystore -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=password Server

% java -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=truststore -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=trustword Client

Edit your "start-report-designer.bat" file to read

@echo off
@REM
@REM WARNING: Pentaho Report Designer needs JDK 1.6 or newer to run.
@REM
setlocal
cd /D %~dp0
set PENTAHO_JAVA=javaw
call "%~dp0set-pentaho-env.bat"

start "Pentaho Report Designer" "%_PENTAHO_JAVA%" -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -Xmx512M -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=truststore -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=trustword -jar "%~dp0launcher.jar" %*

If you are using Linux, edit your "start-report-designer.sh" file to read

#!/bin/sh

#
#  WARNING: Pentaho Report Designer needs JDK 1.6 or newer to run.
#

DIR_REL=`dirname $0`
cd $DIR_REL
DIR=`pwd`
cd -

. "$DIR/set-pentaho-env.sh"
setPentahoEnv

"$_PENTAHO_JAVA" -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=truststore -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=trustword -jar "$DIR/launcher.jar" $@

Source:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/security/jsse/JSSERefGuide.html#CreateKeystore