Http client API (original) (raw)

Anthony Vanelverdinghe anthony.vanelverdinghe at gmail.com
Wed Aug 8 11:23:31 PDT 2012

Hi

With the current API (java.net.HttpURLConnection) it 's not possible to follow redirects from one protocol to another (http to https & vice versa). This is a known problem ( http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4620571 ), but out of security concerns this feature was not added.

Will you please reconsider this feature for the new API and possibly: add extra methods: HttpRequest#setFollowRedirectsAccrossProtocols(boolean follows) & HttpRequest#followRedirectsAcrossProtocols() which would be false by default or add a system property (like the ones at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/net/properties.html ) ?

I am not a security expert, but for example Firefox happily follows such redirects, even in a single request like: http (request) -> https -> http (response) The current behavior is also what caused a recent issue with the JavaFX installer ( http://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-21275 ). The solution to this JavaFX issue says the fix "enhanced code to follow https redirects." So JavaFX seems to already implement this feature.

Thanks for your feedback

Anthony Vanelverdinghe

Op 8/08/2012 1:09, Michael McMahon schreef:

Hi,

A new revision of the Http client API planned for jdk 8 can be viewed at the following link http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~michaelm/httpclient/v0.3/ We would like to review the api on this mailing list. So, all comments are welcome. Thanks Michael McMahon.

More information about the net-dev mailing list