On Apr 4, 2014, at 3:12 PM, Traun Leyden <[email protected]> wrote:

> I think that site must be using a self-signed certificate, or is using a 
> certificate that is not signed by a "standard" certificate authority that's 
> pre-shipped with the http client libs.

> There's a way to plugin a custom SSLSocketFactory that should allow you to 
> circumvent the issue:


Putting on my security hat (made of tinfoil):

If you do this, be cautious. Do not override SSL verification to always 
succeed, or to check only the hostname. The right thing to do is to embed your 
server's self-signed cert, or the nonstandard root cert that signed it, into 
your app and tell the SSL verifier to use that as a trusted cert. Otherwise you 
leave yourself open to various forms of man-in-the-middle attack where someone 
with control over the app's DNS (i.e. via a hacked WiFi router) can point it to 
a fake server.

This isn't just hypothetical. If you've seen recent headlines about "Thousands 
of iOS and Android apps found vulnerable to SSL attacks", this is what they're 
talking about. There are real-world WiFi router hacks that do this for some 
servers used by popular apps, and it's not impossible that someone might do it 
to you if your app gets popular enough...

--Jens

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