Question

I have a Jetty server and I have disabled HTTP connections through rest services , so client connections must only come through https, but when a client tries to connect through http it throws a SocketException and treats that as the rest response. What I want to do is give a response when this happens and actually throw a custom descriptive error

Answer 1

You may want to use a Filter like this

public abstract class SSLOnlyFilter implements Filter {

  public void doFilter(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse resp, FilterChain chain)  {
    // ... cast to HTTP counterparts
    if (request.isSecure()) {
      chain.doFilter(request, response);
    } else {
      response.setStatus(HttpServletResponse.SC_OK);
      // Set the message in the body
    }
  } 
}

Or a custom error page (less preferred)

<error-page>
   <exception-type>java.net.SocketException</exception-type>
   <location>/someServletHere</location>
</error-page>

in your deployment descriptor.

But I suggest to issue HTTP redirects when the client tries to connect without SSL. There are two easy ways to issue HTTP redirects: the RewriteHandler module and a Filter.

This is how one configures the module with a RedirectRegexRule

<New id="Rewrite" class="org.eclipse.jetty.rewrite.handler.RewriteHandler">
  <Call name="addRule">
    <Arg>
      <New class="org.eclipse.jetty.rewrite.handler.RedirectRegexRule">
        <Set name="regex">/(.+)</Set>
        <Set name="replacement">https://host:port/$1</Set>
      </New>
    </Arg>
  </Call>
</New>

Alternatively, you can do it with a Filter

public abstract class SSLOnlyFilter implements Filter {

  public void doFilter(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse resp, FilterChain chain)  {
    // cast to HTTP request and response
    if (request.isSecure()) {
      chain.doFilter(request, response);
    } else {
      response.setStatus(HttpServletResponse.SC_MOVED_PERMANENTLY);
      // Edit this line with actual parameters. Note HTTPS
      response.setHeader("Location", "https://host:port/url");
    }
  } 
}