Question

I have an issue with push notifications. I have a p.12 certificate that was created by a team member and I have the device token for the device to be pushed to. I am using the javapns library to do the push (also tried the javaapns lib with same results) but I keep getting this error:

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Received fatal alert: handshake_failure
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:174)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:136)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.recvAlert(SSLSocketImpl.java:1720)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:954)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1138)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.writeRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:632)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.AppOutputStream.write(AppOutputStream.java:59)
at java.io.OutputStream.write(OutputStream.java:58)
at javapns.notification.PushNotificationManager.sendNotification(PushNotificationManager.java:402)
at javapns.notification.PushNotificationManager.sendNotification(PushNotificationManager.java:350)
at javapns.notification.PushNotificationManager.sendNotification(PushNotificationManager.java:320)
at javapns.Push.sendPayload(Push.java:177)
at javapns.Push.combined(Push.java:100)
at PushTest.push(PushTest.java:43)
at PushTest.main(PushTest.java:25)

and this is the code I am using to test

try {
    List<PushedNotification> n = Push.combined(text, 20, null, file, "********", false, token);

    for (PushedNotification notification : n) {
        if (notification.isSuccessful())  
            System.out.println("Push notification sent successfully to: " + notification.getDevice().getToken());
        else {
            String invalidToken = notification.getDevice().getToken();

            Exception theProblem = notification.getException();
            theProblem.printStackTrace();

            ResponsePacket theErrorResponse = notification.getResponse();
            if (theErrorResponse != null)
                System.out.println(theErrorResponse.getMessage());
        }
    }
}
catch (CommunicationException e)  {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}
catch (KeystoreException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}

I read and tried the suggestions from several of the other posts including importing the certificate into cacerts keystore but the import fails as well. I am developing using eclipse on a windows machine.

Anyone familiar with this issue? I am new to using ssl so perhaps I’m doing something wrong or is it that I cannot use a certificate generated on another machine?

Answer 1

I am a new iOS developer and I had the same issue before.

I finally found that the problem was due to the p12 certificate.
We should not use the private key p12 file, instead we should generate a p12 from your private key and the cert download from Apple.

Please execute the following OpenSSL command to get the correct p12 file:

developer_identity.cer <= download from Apple
mykey.p12 <= Your private key

openssl x509 -in developer_identity.cer -inform DER -out developer_identity.pem -outform PEM
openssl pkcs12 -nocerts -in mykey.p12 -out mykey.pem
openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey mykey.pem -in developer_identity.pem -out iphone_dev.p12

After that, you should use iphone_dev.p12 to communicate with apple server.