Summary

Attempting to create an application link from Confluence to another application will fail if that application runs over HTTPS with an SSL certificate that uses Subject Alternative Name (SAN). This will also impact existing Application Links, causing them to stop working.

Environment

Confluence 6.6.0 bundled with Apache HttpClient 4.5.3.

Steps to reproduce

1. Configure JIRA and Confluence to run over HTTPS with an SSL certificate using SAN
2. Ensure Confluence certificate has been imported into JIRA's trust store (and vice-versa)
3. From Confluence, create an application link to Jira

Expected behavior

The applinks creation is successful on both sides.

Actual behavior

The applinks fails on JIRA side with the following symptoms:

• Jira is not detected and Confluence is asked to provide Consumer key and Shared secret as if Jiras`s SSL cert hadn't been imported. However, there's no PKIX error in the log.

  ...
  java.lang.ClassCastException: [B cannot be cast to java.lang.Stringjava.lang.ClassCastException: [B cannot be cast to java.lang.String 
  at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.DefaultHostnameVerifier.getSubjectAltNames(DefaultHostnameVerifier.java:309) 
  at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.DefaultHostnameVerifier.verify(DefaultHostnameVerifier.java:112) 
  at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.DefaultHostnameVerifier.verify(DefaultHostnameVerifier.java:99) 
  at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.SSLConnectionSocketFactory.verifyHostname(SSLConnectionSocketFactory.java:463) 
  at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.SSLConnectionSocketFactory.createLayeredSocket(SSLConnectionSocketFactory.java:397) 
  at org.apache.http.conn.ssl.SSLConnectionSocketFactory.connectSocket(SSLConnectionSocketFactory.java:355) 
  ...
  

Cause

Confluence 6.6.0 uses Apache HttpClient 4.5.3 as can be seen in /confluence/WEB-INF/lib/httpclient-4.5.3.jar
This version carries this bug that affects SSL certificates with SAN:

• https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HTTPCLIENT-1836

Workarounds

1. Use unproxied applinks that would bypass the SSL check
   • Temporarily use the linked application/s over HTTP
2. Temporarily use a certificate that doesn't use SAN
   • This could be a problem if you use Chrome 58+

Note

• Version of client in prior versions like Confluence 6.5.1 is httpclient-4.4.1.jar and not affected with bug.
• Also note that Chromium/Chrome removed support for matching common name (CN) in certificates in M58, so enforcing users to switch to SAN, so that makes bug more critical.
  • https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=308330