The role of a Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) key manager is to retrieve the certificate that is used to identify the client or server during a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) handshake.
With WebSphere Application Server, you can configure only one key manager at a time for a given SSL configuration. If you want custom certificate selection logic on the client side, you must write a new custom key manager. The custom key manager could provide function that prompts the user to choose a certificate dynamically. Also, you can implement an extended interface so that a key manager can provide information during connection time. For more information on the extended interface, see the com.ibm.wsspi.ssl.KeyManagerExtendedInfo interface. For more information on custom key manager development, see Creating a custom key manager for SSL.
The default IbmX509 key manager chooses a certificate to serve as the identity for an SSL handshake. The key manager is called to enable client authentication on either side of the SSL handshake; frequently on the server-side, and less frequently on the client side according to client and server requirements. If a keystore is not configured on the client-side and SSL client authentication is enabled, the key manager cannot select a certificate to send to the server. Therefore, the handshake fails.
<keyManagers xmi:id="KeyManager_1" name="IbmX509" provider="IBMJSSE2" algorithm="IbmX509" keyManagerClass="" managementScope="ManagementScope_1"/>You do not specify the keyManagerClass class because the key manager is provided by the IBMJSSE2 provider. However, you can specify whether the key manager is a custom class implementation, in which case you must specify the keyManager class, or an algorithm name that WebSphere Application Server can start from the Java security provider framework.
<keyManagers xmi:id="KeyManager_2" name="CustomKeyManager" keyManagerClass="com.ibm.ws.ssl.core.CustomKeyManager" managementScope="ManagementScope_1"/>The custom class must implement the javax.net.ssl.X509KeyManager interface and, optionally, implement the com.ibm.wsspi.ssl.KeyManagerExtendedInfo interface to retrieve additional WebSphere Application Server information. This interface replaces the function of the default key manager because you can configure only one key manager at a time. Therefore, the custom key manager has sole responsibility for selecting the alias to use from the configured keystore. The benefit of a custom key manager is its ability, on the client side, to prompt for an alias. This process enables the user to decide which certificate to use in situations where the user knows the client certificate identity. For more information, see Creating a custom key manager for SSL.