Certificates and http client calls

When I tested the connection, I received the following error in Boomi

SSLHandshakeException. ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: unable to find valid certification path to requested target”

I’m pretty sure any Boomi or Java developer has seen this error before. I usually first check the following:

1. Test the API from Postman first
2. Verify if the certificate is looking OK in my Chrome browser
3. Verify the certificate using https://www.ssllabs.com

The results of above tests looked as follows:

1. Postman: PASS
2. Chrome security report: PASS
3. ssllabs.com: PASS, it showed a green A rating
4. Boomi: FAIL

OK, so the Boomi http client connector did not work. And the other tests all looked fine. Hmmm….there’s  something going on here.

If you search the Boomi community, you will get many articles on this error. However, most of these articles are related to certificates used for client authentication. But I could not find an article related to the https client connector and certificate issues.

Without a clear indication, I decided to try an old trick from the past

• Buy a certificate from one of the major certificate vendors like Comodo
• Replace the existing certificate on the platform hosting the API

And guess what? I worked!  But why?

I decided to log a support request at Boomi. They came with the following information