Fixing SunCertPathBuilderException caused by Maven downloading from self-signed repository

Neil Griffin
Neil Griffin
Less Than a Minute Read

If you have a Maven repository running under https with a self-signed certificate, then building a Maven project can report the following error:

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

There was an Oracle blog posted by Andreas Sterbenz back on Oct 09, 2006 that helped me diagnose the problem, but that blog is no longer available. Thankfully Andreas' blog was re-posted here. For additional information, I found another blog post that was helpful.

Anyways, I fixed this problem by downloading and compiling the source for InstallCert.java and running the following command:

java InstallCert myhostname.mydomain.com

This generated a file named jssecacerts in the current directory.

On Windows/Linux, this file needs to be copied to the JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/ directory.

On Mac needs to be copied to the JAVA_HOME/lib/security/ directory.

After I did this, Maven was able to download the artifacts from the self-signed repository.

 

 

Page Comments
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Jack Bakker
10 Years Ago
This was useful even after 3+ years. Thanks Neil.
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sathya m Jack Bakker
9 Years Ago
Hi Neil,

i tried your suggestion but ended up in Java error. I am not a Java person so i didn't understand much from this error. I am trying to fix SunCertPathBuilderException error when Jenkins try to download from Artifactory. We are running Maven build. Any help would be appreciated.

Error

[fx@jenkinsserver ~/jenkins-home/secrets] $ java com.aw.ad.util.InstallCert artifactory.serv.mycomp:443
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/aw/ad/util/InstallCert
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.aw.ad.util.InstallCert
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:202)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
Could not find the main class: com.aw.ad.util.InstallCert. Program will exit.

ls -ltr
-rw-rw---- 1 fx fx 7562 Nov 5 19:28 InstallCert.java
-rw-rw---- 1 fx fx 1131 Nov 5 19:28 InstallCert$SavingTrustManager.class
-rw-rw---- 1 fx fx 5872 Nov 5 19:28 InstallCert.class
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sathya m Jack Bakker
9 Years Ago
Hi,

I have fixed the issue myself. just created dir com/aw/ad/util and copied the classes to it. emoticon

Thanks
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MEHARNATH BORIGI sathya m
9 Years Ago
Hi,

can you please share the relative path where you have created the folders

Thanks
Mehar
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MEHARNATH BORIGI MEHARNATH BORIGI
9 Years Ago
I'm trying to build a new Liferay Plugin project in my local PC and received below error, help from anyone is highly appreciated. Seriously i don't what to use as hostname.

Thanks
Mehar
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MEHARNATH BORIGI MEHARNATH BORIGI
9 Years Ago
Error:

Exception in thread "main" 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
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:174)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(SSLSocketImpl.java:1520)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:182)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:176)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:975)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(ClientHandshaker.java:123)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Handshaker.java:511)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Handshaker.java:449)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:817)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1029)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1056)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1040)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(HttpsClient.java:405)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.java:170)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.followRedirect(HttpURLConnection.java:1841)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1176)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:234)
at org.gradle.wrapper.Download.downloadInternal(Download.java:58)
at org.gradle.wrapper.Download.download(Download.java:44)
at org.gradle.wrapper.Install$1.call(Install.java:59)
at org.gradle.wrapper.Install$1.call(Install.java:46)
at org.gradle.wrapper.ExclusiveFileAccessManager.access(ExclusiveFileAccessManager.java:65)
at org.gradle.wrapper.Install.createDist(Install.java:46)
at org.gradle.wrapper.WrapperExecutor.execute(WrapperExecutor.java:126)
at org.gradle.wrapper.GradleWrapperMain.main(GradleWrapperMain.java:61)
Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:285)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.engineValidate(PKIXValidator.java:191)
at sun.security.validator.Validator.validate(Validator.java:218)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.validate(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:126)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:209)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:249)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:954)
... 20 more
Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.engineBuild(SunCertPathBuilder.java:174)
at java.security.cert.CertPathBuilder.build(CertPathBuilder.java:238)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:280)
... 26 more
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Neil Griffin
8 Years Ago
Hello everyone, I edited this blog post today with updated links and instructions.
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