java.io.IOException: Short read of DER length

I'm trying to create a Java application that can read x509 certificates informations and display them in a TableView.

But i've a problem when i'm trying to display those informations with the code below

@FXML private void handleHDD() throws CertificateException, IOException{ String userDir = System.getProperty("user.home"); File folder = new File(userDir +"\\Desktop\\Certificate_Folder"); File[] certificates = folder.listFiles(); if (certificates!=null){ String columnHeader[] = {"Nom","Version","N°série","Algorithme de signature","Emetteur","Valide à partir de","Valide jusqu'au","Objet","Clé publique"}; int sizeColumns = 9; for (File file : certificates){ if(file.isFile()){ CertificateFactory cf = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509"); InputStream input = new FileInputStream(file); X509Certificate cert = (X509Certificate) cf.generateCertificate(input); input.close(); for (int j = 0; j < sizeColumns; j++) { data.add(new CertificateModel(file.getName().replace(".der", ""),cert.getVersion(),cert.getSerialNumber().toString(),cert.getSigAlgName(),cert.getIssuerDN().toString(),cert.getNotBefore(),cert.getNotAfter(),cert.getSubjectDN().toString(),cert.getPublicKey().toString())); TableColumn col = new TableColumn(); col.setText(columnHeader[j]); col.setMinWidth(200); col.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<CertificateModel, String>(columnHeader[j])); table.getColumns().addAll(col); } table.setItems(data); } } } } 

When i try to execute it, i hav the following exception: java.security.cert.CertificateException

This is the full exception stack:

Exception in thread "JavaFX Application Thread" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$MethodHandler.invoke(FXMLLoader.java:1774) at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$ControllerMethodEventHandler.handle(FXMLLoader.java:1657) at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:86) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:238) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:191) at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventDispatcher.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventDispatcher.java:59) at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:58) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114) at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114) at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114) at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEventImpl(EventUtil.java:74) at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEvent(EventUtil.java:54) at javafx.event.Event.fireEvent(Event.java:198) at javafx.scene.Scene$ClickGenerator.postProcess(Scene.java:3470) at javafx.scene.Scene$ClickGenerator.access$8100(Scene.java:3398) at javafx.scene.Scene$MouseHandler.process(Scene.java:3766) at javafx.scene.Scene$MouseHandler.access$1500(Scene.java:3485) at javafx.scene.Scene.impl_processMouseEvent(Scene.java:1762) at javafx.scene.Scene$ScenePeerListener.mouseEvent(Scene.java:2494) at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:381) at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:295) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler.lambda$handleMouseEvent$354(GlassViewEventHandler.java:417) at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.QuantumToolkit.runWithoutRenderLock(QuantumToolkit.java:389) at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler.handleMouseEvent(GlassViewEventHandler.java:416) at com.sun.glass.ui.View.handleMouseEvent(View.java:555) at com.sun.glass.ui.View.notifyMouse(View.java:937) at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication._runLoop(Native Method) at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication.lambda$null$148(WinApplication.java:191) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:71) at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor1.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:275) at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$MethodHandler.invoke(FXMLLoader.java:1771) ... 33 more Caused by: java.security.cert.CertificateException: Unable to initialize, java.io.IOException: Short read of DER length at sun.security.x509.X509CertImpl.<init>(X509CertImpl.java:198) at sun.security.provider.X509Factory.engineGenerateCertificate(X509Factory.java:102) at java.security.cert.CertificateFactory.generateCertificate(CertificateFactory.java:339) at cm.camgovca.view.CertificateOverviewController.handleHDD(CertificateOverviewController.java:98) ... 43 more Caused by: java.io.IOException: Short read of DER length at sun.security.util.DerInputStream.getLength(DerInputStream.java:582) at sun.security.util.DerValue.<init>(DerValue.java:252) at sun.security.util.DerInputStream.getDerValue(DerInputStream.java:451) at sun.security.x509.X509CertImpl.parse(X509CertImpl.java:1784) at sun.security.x509.X509CertImpl.<init>(X509CertImpl.java:195) ... 46 more 

The line 98 of CertificateOverview.java is

X509Certificate cert = (X509Certificate) cf.generateCertificate(input); 

And my certificate is DER Encoded (.der)

2 Answers

If you look at the documentation of CertificateFactory#generateCertificate it says:

Throws: CertificateException - on parsing errors.

So, as suggested in the comments, most probably your certificate file is not in the expected format.

Especially the following line in the documentation may be of interest:

In the case of a certificate factory for X.509 certificates, the certificate provided in inStream must be DER-encoded and may be supplied in binary or printable (Base64) encoding. If the certificate is provided in Base64 encoding, it must be bounded at the beginning by -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----, and must be bounded at the end by -----END CERTIFICATE-----.

If you post an exception stack, with detailed exception messages, we probably can help more.

If you have a keystore defined, make sure that it is where you have defined and that the application can read it.

In my case the hint was a bit lower down in the stack trace ("java.security.KeyStore.load"):

Caused by: java.io.IOException: Short read of DER length at sun.security.util.DerInputStream.getLength(DerInputStream.java:582) ~[na:1.8.0_212] at sun.security.util.DerValue.init(DerValue.java:391) ~[na:1.8.0_212] at sun.security.util.DerValue.<init>(DerValue.java:332) ~[na:1.8.0_212] at sun.security.util.DerValue.<init>(DerValue.java:345) ~[na:1.8.0_212] at sun.security.pkcs12.PKCS12KeyStore.engineLoad(PKCS12KeyStore.java:1938) ~[na:1.8.0_212] at java.security.KeyStore.load(KeyStore.java:1445) ~[na:1.8.0_212] at org.apache.tomcat.util.security.KeyStoreUtil.load(KeyStoreUtil.java:67) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.27.jar!/:9.0.27]