User Request : Open Case
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Summary: SSL locks up when using the java plugin on Solaris

I am having a problem with SSL hanging up when using the
java plugin on Solaris. Here is the configuration
information:
client:
  Solaris 8u6 beta
  JDK 1.3.1
  netscape 4.76 (shipped with s8u6)
server:
  Solaris 8u6 beta
  Apache 1.3.20
  OpenSSL 0.9.6b
  Apache-JServ 1.1.2
  JDK 1.3.1

The symptom I see is that the plugin locks up when
transfering larger amounts of data. The problem appears
to be specific to RC4-MD5, and if you turn off that
encryption in the browser, the hangup goes away. Also
the identical post request from an html page works fine
and we are not seeing the problem with netscape on Windows
just Solaris. We also don't see the problem when using
JSSE on Solaris with an identical request.

The following applet locks up when transfering 10k of
data.

import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLConnection;
import javax.swing.JApplet;
import java.io.OutputStream;
public class test2 extends JApplet {
    static String url = "https://hoth.stsci.edu/gmsdev/servlet/showStatistics";

    public void start() {
        try {
            URL u = new URL(url);
            for(int i=1024;i<=1024*24;i+=1024) {
                byte []data = generateData(i);
                URLConnection c = u.openConnection();
                c.setDoInput(true);
                c.setDoOutput(true);
                OutputStream out = c.getOutputStream();
                out.write(data);
                System.out.println("Wrote "+data.length+" bytes, waiting for clo
se");
                out.close();
                System.out.println("After close");
            }

        } catch (Throwable e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    byte []generateData(int size) {
        StringBuffer b = new StringBuffer();
        b.append("data=");
        size -= 5;
        for(int j=0;j!=size;j++)
            b.append((char)((j%26)+'A'));
        return b.toString().getBytes();
    }
}

A copy of the applet is available via:

http://hoth.stsci.edu/public/test/applet.html

You can see the output in the java console window.


We do have several work arounds to the problem. One is that
you can turn off RC4-MD5 in the SSL setup in the browser.
This corrects the problem. We also provide an application
for Solaris that uses JSSE that also works fine. Also
using IE or Netscape on Windows works fine.