Java – Spring Vault Client – Unable to connect to the local dev Vault server

I installed Vault locally. Based on this official tutorial https://learn.hashicorp.com/vault/, I was able to start my local dev server and write/read some secrets into the vault kv

Then I want to create some very basic Java/Spring Boot demo clients that will connect to my local Vault development server to write/read secrets. I read the Baeldung tutorial for inspiration https://www.baeldung.com/spring-vault

This is my vault-config.properties:

vault.uri= http://127.0.0.1:8200

vault.token=s.EXg6MQwUuB63Z7Xra4zybOut (token generated since the server’s last startup).

Then there’s the service class:

@Service
public class CredentialsService {

@Autowired
    private VaultTemplate vaultTemplate;

public void secureCredentials(Credentials credentials) throws URISyntaxException {
        vaultTemplate.write("credentials/myapp", credentials);
    }

public Credentials accessCredentials() throws URISyntaxException {
        VaultResponseSupport<Credentials> response = vaultTemplate.read("credentials/myapp", Credentials.class);
        return response.getData();
    }
}

Configuration Class:

@Configuration
public class VaultConfig extends AbstractVaultConfiguration {

@Override
    public ClientAuthentication clientAuthentication() {
        return new TokenAuthentication("s.EXg6MQwUuB63Z7Xra4zybOut");
    }

@Override
    public VaultEndpoint vaultEndpoint() {
        return VaultEndpoint.create("host", 8200);
    }
}

And this :

@Configuration
@PropertySource(value = { "vault-config.properties" })
@Import(value = EnvironmentVaultConfiguration.class)
public class VaultEnvironmentConfig {

}

A domain object:

public class Credentials {

private String username;
    private String password;

public Credentials() {

}
    public Credentials(String username, String password) {
        this.username = username;
        this.password = password;
    }

public String getUsername() {
        return username;
    }

public String getPassword() {
        return password;
    }

@Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Credential [username=" + username + ", password=" + password + "]";
    }
}

Finally, my main Spring Boot class:

@RestController
@ComponentScan
@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringVaultTutorial {

@Autowired
    CredentialsService credentialsService;

@RequestMapping("/")
    String home() throws URISyntaxException {
        Credentials credentials = new Credentials("oliver","exxeta123");
        credentialsService.secureCredentials(credentials);
        return credentialsService.accessCredentials().getUsername().toString();
    }

public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(SpringVaultTutorial.class, args);
    }

}

The main class should write secret and then read it immediately and print the username. But I get this error message:

An unexpected error occurred (type=internal server error, status=500).
I/O error for a POST request for “https://host:8200/v1/credentials/myapp“: host; The nested exception is java.net.UnknownHostException: host

Does anyone know what went wrong?

Edit:
Following Arun’s suggestion, I followed the tutorial https://drissamri.be/blog/java/enable-https-in-spring-boot/

I’ve been trying both.
1) Modify application.properties:

server.port: 8443
server.ssl.key-store: keystore.p12
server.ssl.key-store-password: oliver
server.ssl.keyStoreType: PKCS12
server.ssl.keyAlias: tomcat
security.require-ssl=true

After the change, when I call https://localhost:8443 , I get the exception:
javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Unrecognized SSL message, plain text connection?
在 sun.security.ssl.InputRecord.handleUnknownRecord(InputRecord.java:710)~[na:1.8.0_121]
在sun.security.ssl.InputRecord.read(InputRecord.java:527)~[na:1.8.0_121]
In sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:973)~[na:1.8.0_121]
In sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1375)~[na:1.8.0_121]
In sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1403)~[na:1.8.0_121]
In sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1387) ~[na:1.8.0_121].

2) The second method based on the tutorial is to add the ConnectorConfig class:

@Configuration
public class ConnectorConfig {

@Bean
    public ServletWebServerFactory servletContainer() {
        TomcatServletWebServerFactory tomcat =
                new TomcatServletWebServerFactory() {
                    @Override
                    protected void postProcessContext(Context context) {
                        SecurityConstraint securityConstraint = new SecurityConstraint();
                        securityConstraint.setUserConstraint("CONFIDENTIAL");
                        SecurityCollection collection = new SecurityCollection();
                        collection.addPattern("/*");
                        securityConstraint.addCollection(collection);
                        context.addConstraint(securityConstraint);
                    }
                };
        tomcat.addAdditionalTomcatConnectors(redirectConnector());
        return tomcat;
    }

private Connector redirectConnector() {
        Connector connector = new Connector("org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol");
        connector.setScheme("http");
        connector.setPort(8090);
        connector.setSecure(false);
        connector.setRedirectPort(8443);
        return connector;
    }
}

But after calling localhost:8090 redirects me to https://localhost:8443 , I get the same error: javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Unrecognized SSL message, plain text connection?
在sun.security.ssl.InputRecord.handleUnknownRecord(InputRecord.java:710) ~

Now the question is: do I still need to configure something about certificates on the vault side? Or do you think there might be a certificate issue with the Java client? But I think if there is a Java certificate issue, an exception is thrown during startup.

The problem is solved. Now I can connect to the local vault from the Java client. If anyone wants to run a simple Java client – Vault demo in the future, I’ll paste the code here.

Controller :

@RestController
@RequestMapping(Paths.ROOT)
@Api(value = Paths.ROOT, description = "Endpoint for core testing")
public class Controller {

@Autowired
    CredentialsService credentialsService;

@GetMapping("/")
    String home() throws URISyntaxException {
        Credentials credentials = new Credentials("oliver", "exxeta123");
        credentialsService.secureCredentials(credentials);
        return credentialsService.accessCredentials().toString();
    }

@GetMapping("/test")
    public String test() throws IOException {
         http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/sys/internal/ui/mounts/secret/mysecrets
        VaultConfig vc = new VaultConfig();
        String bearerToken = vc.clientAuthentication().login().getToken();
        System.out.println(bearerToken);
         credentialsService.accessCredentials()

 Sending get request
        URL url = new URL("http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/sys/internal/ui/mounts/secret/mysecrets");
         URL updated to match readme.adoc
        URL url = new URL("http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/kv/my-secret");
        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

conn.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Bearer " + bearerToken);
        conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json");
        conn.setRequestMethod("GET");

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
        String output;

StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();
        while ((output = in.readLine()) != null) {
            response.append(output);
        }

in.close();
         printing result from response
        return "Response: - " + response.toString();
    }

@GetMapping(value = { "/add/{name}/{username}/{password}" })
    public ResponseEntity<String> addKey(@PathVariable(value = "name", required = false, name = "name") String name,
            @PathVariable(value = "username", required = false, name = "username") String username,
            @PathVariable(value = "password", required = false, name = "password") String password) throws URISyntaxException {
        Credentials credentials = new Credentials(username, password);
        credentialsService.secureCredentials(name, credentials);
        return new ResponseEntity<>("Add success: " + credentialsService.accessCredentials(name).getUsername(), HttpStatus.OK);
    }

@GetMapping(value = {"/get", "/get/{name}"})
    public ResponseEntity<Credentials> getKey(@PathVariable(value = "name", required = false, name = "name") String name) {
        return new ResponseEntity<>(credentialsService.accessCredentials(name), HttpStatus.OK);
    }

@GetMapping(value= {"/delete", "/delete/{name}"})
    public String removeKey(@PathVariable(value = "name", required = false, name = "name") String name) {
        return "Delete success: " + credentialsService.deleteCredentials(name);
    }

}

Services:

@Service
public class CredentialsService {

private VaultTemplate vaultTemplate;

/**
     * To Secure Credentials
     *
     * @param credentials
     * @return VaultResponse
     * @throws URISyntaxException
     */
    public void secureCredentials(Credentials credentials) throws URISyntaxException {
        vaultTemplate.write("credentials/myapp", credentials);
        initVaultTemplate();
        vaultTemplate.write("kv/myapp", credentials);
    }

public void secureCredentials(String storagePlace, Credentials credentials) {
        initVaultTemplate();
        vaultTemplate.write("kv/" + storagePlace, credentials);
    }

/**
     * To Retrieve Credentials
     *
     * @return Credentials
     * @throws URISyntaxException
     */
    public Credentials accessCredentials() throws URISyntaxException {
        VaultResponseSupport<Credentials> response = vaultTemplate.read("credentials/myapp", Credentials.class);
        initVaultTemplate();
        VaultResponseSupport<Credentials> response = vaultTemplate.read("kv/myapp", Credentials.class);
        return response.getData();
         TODO special case when there are no values
    }

/**
     * @param nameOfsecrets key name
     * @return if is presented or empty object
     */
    public Credentials accessCredentials(String nameOfsecrets) {
        initVaultTemplate();
        VaultResponseSupport<Credentials> response = vaultTemplate.read("kv/" + nameOfsecrets, Credentials.class);
        if (response != null) {
            return response.getData();
        } else {
            return new Credentials();
        }
    }

public boolean deleteCredentials(String name) {
        initVaultTemplate();
        vaultTemplate.delete("kv/" + name);
        return true;
    }
}

private void initVaultTemplate() {
            VaultEndpoint endpoint = new VaultEndpoint();
            endpoint.setHost("localhost");
            endpoint.setPort(8200);
            endpoint.setScheme("http");

vaultTemplate = new VaultTemplate(endpoint, new VaultConfig().clientAuthentication());
        }

Vault configuration:

@Configuration
public class VaultConfig extends AbstractVaultConfiguration {

@Override
    public ClientAuthentication clientAuthentication() {
        return new TokenAuthentication("00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000");
    }

@Override
    public VaultEndpoint vaultEndpoint() {
        return VaultEndpoint.create("localhost", 8200);
    }

}

Vault environment configuration:

@Configuration
@PropertySource(value = { "vault-config.properties" })
@Import(value = EnvironmentVaultConfiguration.class)
public class VaultEnvironmentConfig {

}

Main class:

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableSwagger2
public class SpringVaultTutorial {

public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(SpringVaultTutorial.class, args);
    }

SWAGGER DOCUMENTATION BEANS
     default group contains all endpoints
    @Bean
    public Docket defaultApi() {
        return new Docket(DocumentationType.SWAGGER_2)
                .select()
                .apis(RequestHandlerSelectors.any())
                .paths(PathSelectors.any())//all
                .build().apiInfo(apiInfo());
    }

 Management group contains Spring Actuator endpoints
    @Bean
    public Docket swaggerAdminEndpoints() {
        return new Docket(DocumentationType.SWAGGER_2)
                .groupName(Paths.ROOT)
                .apiInfo(apiInfo())
                .select()
                .paths(PathSelectors.regex("/v1/.*"))
                .build()
                .forCodeGeneration(true);
    }

private ApiInfo apiInfo() {
        return new ApiInfoBuilder()
                .title("Vault Demo Application")
                .description("Demo Application using vault")
                .version("1.0")
                .build();
    }

}

Vault configuration.properties:

vault.uri= http://127.0.0.1:8200
vault.token=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Application properties:

    server.port=8443
    server.ssl.key-alias=selfsigned_localhost_sslserver
    server.ssl.key-password=changeit
    server.ssl.key-store=classpath:ssl-server.jks
    server.ssl.key-store-provider=SUN
    server.ssl.key-store-type=JKS

Path:

public class Paths {
    public static final String ROOT = "/v1";
}

Credentials:

public class Credentials {

private String username;
    private String password;

public Credentials() {

}

public Credentials(String username, String password) {
        this.username = username;
        this.password = password;
    }

public String getUsername() {
        return username;
    }

public String getPassword() {
        return password;
    }

@Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Credential [username=" + username + ", password=" + password + "]";
    }

}