Received fatal alert: handshake_failure error while making outbound connection with TLS version v1.2 [TLSv1.2] using Java 1.7.x

The below described issue affects the below version of SOA/Weblogic install:

• Oracle SOA Suite - Version 11.1.1.6.0 to 11.1.1.9.0 [Release 11gR1 to 11g]
• Oracle WebLogic Server - Version 10.3.6 and later

While trying to make an outbound connection using TLS 1.2 from SOA 11.1.1.7 running on WLS 10.3.6/JDK 1.7U80 as per my article here one gets the below error.

"javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Received fatal alert: handshake_failure"

As per the article and Oracle notes below startup argument should help enabling the TLS 1.2 protocol to make the outbound connection. Below startup argument will support/enable TLS 1.0 to TLS 1.2 protocols for out bound connections made from the server.

-Dhttps.protocols="TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2"

However there is a bug that the system may in most cases run into. The bug 22612527 may cause JVM to ignore above flag.

How do we solve this ?

Option A:

Install Patch 22612527 (Please Note: required Patch 13866584 is needed before installing 22612527)

After installing the patch, add -Dhttps.protocols="TLSv1.2" to the SOA JVM startup arguments and test if the issue is gone ! This approach is recommended in case you do not want to upgrade the JDK and retest the code.

Option B:

Upgrade Java to version 1.8 or 1.7 131 b12 (or greater) both of these versions use TLSv1.2 by default.

Voila, you just solved a critical issue and turned your Integration server into a more secure system ! Please let me know in the comment section if this article helped you anyways.

Happy Learning ...

Soumya Mishra