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Retrieving signers using the retrieveSigners utility at the client

 

The client requires the signer certificates from the server to be able to communicate with WAS. Use the retrieveSigners command to get the signer certificate from a server. The retrieveSigners utility is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating system:

In this release, a Java client that does not have access to a stdin console prompt should use the retrieveSigners utility to download the signers from the remote server key store when signers are needed for a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) handshake. For example, you might interpret the client as failing to respond if an applet client or Java Web Start Client application cannot access the stdin signer exchange prompt. Thus, add the WebSphere Java method call com.ibm.wsspi.ssl.RetrieveSignersHelper.callRetrieveSigners to your client application to retrieve the signers and to avoid running the retrieveSigners utility manually.

Use the retrieveSigners utility for situations where you cannot verify whether or not the com.ibm.ssl.enableSignerExchangePrompt= property is enabled or disabled when the application makes a request. Set the com.ibm.ssl.enableSignerExchangePrompt= property to false in the ssl.client.props file if you cannot see the console.

Alternatively, you can manually create the server key in the client truststore.

 

Overview

Complete the following steps, as required:

 

Procedure

  1. Use the retrieveSigners command to get the signer certificate from a server. You can find details about the retrieveSigners parameters in Secure installation for client signer retrieval.

  2. If the client and server are on the same machine, you will need only the remoteKeyStoreName and localKeyStoreName parameters. The most typical key store to reference on a remote system is CellDefaultTrustStore on a network deployed environment and NodeDefaultTrustStore on an appserver.

  3. When retrieving signers from a remote server, add these required connection-related parameters: –host host, –port port, –conntype {RMI | SOAP}.

  4. Use the –autoAcceptBootstrapSigner parameter if you want to enable automation of the signer retrieval. This parameter automatically adds to the server all the signers that are needed to make the connection.

 

Results

After running, the command displays the SHI-1 digest of the signers added. The output looks similar to the following output: 

C:\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\bin\retrieveSigners.bat 
CellDefaultTrustStore ClientDefaultTrustStore 

CWPKI0308I: Adding signer alias "default_signer" to local keystore
           "ClientDefaultTrustStore" with the following SHA digest:

 

Example

See the following examples of how to call the retrieveSigners.bat file on the Windows operating system: To retrieve signers on the same system, enter: 

'profile_home'\bin\retrieveSigners.bat CellDefaultTrustStore ClientDefaultTrustStore
To retrieve signers on a remote system with a SOAP connection, enter: 

'profile_home'\bin\retrieveSigners.bat CellDefaultTrustStore ClientDefaultTrustStore 
-host myRemoteHost -port 8879 -conntype SOAP -autoAcceptBootstrapSigner
To retrieve signers on a remote system with an RMI connection, enter: 

'profile_home'\bin\retrieveSigners.bat CellDefaultTrustStore ClientDefaultTrustStore 
-host myRemoteHost -port 2809 -conntype RMI -autoAcceptBootstrapSigner
To retrieve signers on a remote system that has security enabled, enter: 

'profile_home'\bin\retrieveSigners.bat CellDefaultTrustStore ClientDefaultTrustStore 
-host myRemoteHost -port 8879 -conntype SOAP -user testuser -password testuserpwd 
-autoAcceptBootstrapSigner


Secure installation for client signer retrieval

 

Related Reference


retrieveSigners command