PRB: Failure to load applet through HTTPS with self-signed SSL certificate

Sometimes, during the development/testing process, you may want to use a self-signed SSL certificate with your website to avoid purchasing it for a non-production machine. However you may encounter a problem - a Java applet will fail to load. You will see the ClassNotFound error occurs, the same one as when the .jar file cannot be found.

Reason

The problem is that Java is too picky on the certificate things. When it tries to download anything through the HTTPS and the certificate is not trusted, it just refuses to receive this file.

Solution

Well, the true solution is to use a valid SSL certificate. However if it is not an option, you can get it working on your computer by adding your certificate CA to the list of trusted CA in Java settings (using Java Control Panel).

You can do it as follows (presuming that you are using Chrome).

1. Click on “https” in the address bar of your browser

2. Open the “Certificate data” and select the “Certificate Path” tab

3. Select the parent certificate of your certificate and click “View Certificate”

4. Select “Details” tab and press the button “Copy to file…”

5. Click “Next” in the opened window and click save certificate

Now you let's add our CA certificate to the Java Control Panel:

1. Open the Control Panel and run the Java (32-bit)

2. Go to the Security tab and press the button Manage Certificates…

3. In the opened window, select the type of certificate: Secure Site CA

4. Press the Import and add your CA Certificate

After that just reload the page and the Java uploader should appear on the page.

Edited by moderator Friday, March 20, 2015 1:07:04 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified