How can I allow HTTPS protocol for Java web application

Question

I have a Java web application and one of the modules is using Vaadin for rendering the web interface. This module is running inside a docker container on a server. Could anyone help me to understand how I can add a SSL certificate in order to allow https calls for this module?

I have an assumption that we need to add the cert in cacerts file in java security directory but I don't have direct access to it since it's inside docker container.

I have tried to add the following line to docker-compose.yml for this module in volumes section.

volumes:

${CONF_DIR}/backend/cert/cacerts:/usr/java/default/lib/security/

But when I call https://xxxxx... I'm getting the error - This site can’t provide a secure connection ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

Answer 1

Usually, the Docker server has an ingress or reverse proxy in front of it that handles HTTPS.

But if you need to do it yourself you have to configure Spring Boot:

server.ssl.key-store-type=PKCS12
server.ssl.key-store=<location of the cert>
server.ssl.key-store-password=<password>
server.ssl.key-alias=<the alias>

Please find the official guide here: https://spring.io/blog/2023/06/07/securing-spring-boot-applications-with-ssl