Invoking EJBs through SSL

This tutorial shows you how to invoke remote EJBs through a SSL connection.

Setting up SSL for use in EJB3 involves creating a keystore and making sure the correct transport is available in the EJB3 configuration. After which you only have to use the RemoteBinding annotation with a clientBindUrl to make sure the bean is called through SSL.

This tutorial assumes you've setup JBoss 4.0.4.GA with EJB3 support. Make sure the enviroment variable JBOSS_HOME refers to the installation directory.
TODO: simple SSL remoting doesn't work in 4.0.4.GA, only advanced.

Creating a keystore

For SSL to work we need to create a public/private key pair, which will be stored in a keystore. Generate this using the genkey command that comes with the JDK. 
   $ cd $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/conf/
   $ keytool -genkey -alias ejb3-ssl -keypass opensource -keystore localhost.keystore
   Enter keystore password:  opensource
   What is your first and last name?
     [Unknown]:
   What is the name of your organizational unit?
     [Unknown]:
   What is the name of your organization?
     [Unknown]:
   What is the name of your City or Locality?
     [Unknown]:
   What is the name of your State or Province?
     [Unknown]:
   What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
     [Unknown]:
   Is CN=Unknown, OU=Unknown, O=Unknown, L=Unknown, ST=Unknown, C=Unknown correct?
     [no]:  yes

Since we have not signed our certificate through any certification authoritiy, we also need to create a truststore for the client, explicitly saying that we trust the certificate we just created. The first step is to export the certificate using the JDK keytool: 

   $ keytool -export -alias ejb3-ssl -file mycert.cer -keystore localhost.keystore
   Enter keystore password:  opensource
   Certificate stored in file <mycert.cer>

Then we need to create the truststore if it does not exist and import the certificate into the trueststore: 

   $ keytool -import -alias ejb3-ssl -file mycert.cer -keystore localhost.truststore
   Enter keystore password:  opensource
   Owner: CN=Unknown, OU=Unknown, O=Unknown, L=Unknown, ST=Unknown, C=Unknown
   Issuer: CN=Unknown, OU=Unknown, O=Unknown, L=Unknown, ST=Unknown, C=Unknown
   Serial number: 43bff927
   Valid from: Sat Jan 07 18:23:51 CET 2006 until: Fri Apr 07 19:23:51 CEST 2006
   Certificate fingerprints:
            MD5:  CF:DC:71:A8:F4:EA:8F:5A:E9:94:E3:E6:5B:A9:C8:F3
            SHA1: 0E:AD:F3:D6:41:5E:F6:84:9A:D1:54:3D:DE:A9:B2:01:28:F6:7C:26
   Trust this certificate? [no]:  yes
   Certificate was added to keystore

Setting up the transport

To setup the transport open $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy/ejb3.deployer/META-INF/jboss-service.xml in your favorite text editor. Add the following mbean to it: 
   <mbean code="org.jboss.remoting.transport.Connector"
      name="jboss.remoting:type=Connector,transport=socket3843,handler=ejb3">
      <depends>jboss.aop:service=AspectDeployer</depends>
      <attribute name="InvokerLocator">sslsocket://0.0.0.0:3843</attribute>
      <attribute name="Configuration">
         <handlers>
            <handler subsystem="AOP">org.jboss.aspects.remoting.AOPRemotingInvocationHandler</handler>
         </handlers>
      </attribute>
   </mbean>

Starting JBoss

We need to tell JBoss Remoting where to find the keystore to be used for SSl and its password. This is done using the javax.net.ssl.keyStore and javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=opensource system properties when starting JBoss, as the following example shows: 
    $ cd $JBOSS_HOME/bin
    $ ./run.sh -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=../server/default/conf/localhost.keystore -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=opensource

Creating your beans

Create your EJBs as usual and add the following annotation to bind it to the SSL invoker. 
@RemoteBinding(clientBindUrl="sslsocket://0.0.0.0:3843")
For the purpose this tutorial an example bean is provided (see src/org/jboss/tutorial/ssl/bean/CalculatorBean.java). To compile and deploy the example simple execute ant ejbjar.

Running your client

While making sure all the correct libraries are on the classpath we can run the provided client. 
    $ java -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=$JBOSS_HOME/server/default/conf/localhost.truststore -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=opensource org.jboss.tutorial.ssl.client.Client
Or better yet, just run ant run.

OLD

If you build the tutorial, an ejb jar is created with ssl-service.xml and the local.keystore file. The ssl-service.xml sets up a JAAS security manager to manage the SSL keystore. This is documented pretty well in the JBoss 4.x manual. ssl-service.xml also defines a JBoss Remoting connector. The CalculatorBean EJB, uses the @RemoteBinding annotation to bind the SSL connector to the EJB. The client has define the truststore used be the client.

TODO: better explanation here!

References