SSL Implementation in Android for Smack - Opefire SSL

To have a secure connection with SSL server, Android client need to have a SSL handshake by validating itself, with the server certificate. The CA certificate provided by the server has to be maintained at the device to have a handshake with the server.
Android OS maintains a list of trusted root CAs. It uses this list of certificates to verify. This list of certificates get updated when we update the Android system. So, it is a best practice to have our certificates maintained in our list of root CAs.

The list of CA certificates can be part of our application. So we can put this certificate in a keystore and use it inside our application, to validate with the server certificate.

Storing the CA Certificate in Keystore

To store the certificate in a Keystore follow these steps.

Step 1: Download the bouncycastle JAR file. It can be downloaded from the here: Bouncy Castle JAVA Releases

Step 2: Use the following command to store the certificate in keystore

keytool -importcert -v -trustcacerts -file "<certificate_file_with_path>" -alias "<some_name_for_certificate>" -keystore "<file_name_for_the_output_keystore>" -provider org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider -providerpath "<bouncy_castle_jar_file_with_path>" -storetype BKS -storepass "<password_for_the_keystore>"

Step 3: Verify the keystore file

keytool -importcert -v -list -keystore "<file_name_for_the_keystore_with_path>" -provider org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider -providerpath "<bouncy_castle_jar_file_with_path>" -storetype BKS -storepass "<password_for_the_keystore>"

This shall list us the certificate included in the keystore.

That's it.. We have a keystore which we can use in our code.

Using the keystore

After generating this keystore, save it in the raw folder of your application. The use the below code to get the certificate handshake with the openfire server.

To create a connection with openfire using XMPP, you may need to get the config. For the same, use the below method:

public ConnectionConfiguration getConfigForXMPPCon(Context context) {
        ConnectionConfiguration config = new ConnectionConfiguration(URLConstants.XMPP_HOST, URLConstants.XMPP_PORT);
        config.setSASLAuthenticationEnabled(false);
        config.setSecurityMode(ConnectionConfiguration.SecurityMode.enabled);
        config.setCompressionEnabled(false);
        SSLContext sslContext = null;
        try {
            sslContext = createSSLContext(context);
        } catch (KeyStoreException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (KeyManagementException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (CertificateException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        config.setCustomSSLContext(sslContext);
        config.setSocketFactory(sslContext.getSocketFactory());

        return config;
 }
private SSLContext createSSLContext(Context context) throws KeyStoreException,
            NoSuchAlgorithmException, KeyManagementException, IOException, CertificateException {
        KeyStore trustStore;
        InputStream in = null;
        trustStore = KeyStore.getInstance("BKS");

        if (StringConstants.DEV_SERVER_IP.equals(URLConstants.XMPP_HOST) || StringConstants.TEST_SERVER_IP.equals(URLConstants.XMPP_HOST))
            in = context.getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.ssl_keystore_dev_test);
        else if(StringConstants.STAGE_SERVER_IP.equals(URLConstants.XMPP_HOST) || StringConstants.STAGE2_SERVER_IP.equals(URLConstants.XMPP_HOST))
            in = context.getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.ssl_keystore_stage);
        else if(StringConstants.PROD_SERVER_IP.equals(URLConstants.XMPP_HOST) || StringConstants.PROD1_SERVER_IP.equals(URLConstants.XMPP_HOST))
            in = context.getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.ssl_keystore_prod);

        trustStore.load(in, "<keystore_password>".toCharArray());

        TrustManagerFactory trustManagerFactory = TrustManagerFactory
                .getInstance(KeyManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
        trustManagerFactory.init(trustStore);
        SSLContext sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
        sslContext.init(null, trustManagerFactory.getTrustManagers(),
                new SecureRandom());
        return sslContext;
}

All done..!! Just connect.. Now your connection is secured.