Webread certificate problems - roll your own java works, webread doesn't. Why?

Could someone explain to me why this would fail with an obscure message

webread('http://website/', 'Authorization', ['Basic ' matlab.net.base64encode(['me:secr3t'])]) 

The reason is "error:14090086:SSL routines:ssl3_get_server_certificate:certificate
verify failed". Check your certificate file (C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2018a\sys\certificates\ca\rootcerts.pem) for expired, missing or invalid certificates.

Whereas this (lightly modified and shamelessly stolen from stack overflow) appears to have no problems. Is webread doing something kooky that causes it to barf on the proxy server, where java is not? Why does matlab have certificate problems?

urlread_auth('https://website/','me','secr3t' )

function [s,info] = urlread_auth(url, user, password)
%URLREAD_AUTH Like URLREAD, with basic authentication
%
% [s,info] = urlread_auth(url, user, password)
%
% Returns bytes. Convert to char if you're retrieving text.
%
% Examples:
% sampleUrl = 'http://browserspy.dk/password-ok.php';
% [s,info] = urlread_auth(sampleUrl, 'test', 'test');
% txt = char(s)

% Matlab's urlread() doesn't do HTTP Request params, so work directly with Java
jUrl = java.net.URL(url);
conn = jUrl.openConnection();
conn.setRequestProperty('Authorization', ['Basic ' matlab.net.base64encode([user ':' password])]);
conn.connect();
info.status = conn.getResponseCode();
info.errMsg = char(readstream(conn.getErrorStream()));
s = readstream(conn.getInputStream());
end
function out = readstream(inStream)
%READSTREAM Read all bytes from stream to uint8
 try
    import com.mathworks.mlwidgets.io.InterruptibleStreamCopier;
    byteStream = java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream();
    isc = InterruptibleStreamCopier.getInterruptibleStreamCopier();
    isc.copyStream(inStream, byteStream);
    inStream.close();
    byteStream.close();
    out = typecast(byteStream.toByteArray', 'uint8'); %'
 catch err
     out = []; %HACK: quash
 end
end

[Jörgen]

I solved it by setting the options=weboptions; options.CertificateFilename=(''); webread(URL,options);

[Paola Arce]

thanks! It worked for me

Answer 1

[Simon Parten]

See Jörgens comment above. https://ch.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/376318-webread-certificate-problems-roll-your-own-java-works-webread-doesn-t-why#comment_528714

""" I solved it by setting the options=weboptions; options.CertificateFilename=(''); webread(URL,options); """

I also then needed to set the RequestMethod as POST, and crucially, use the 'webwrite' function, as opposed to the 'webread' function. Suddenly, things burst into life ...

[Luis J Gilarranz]

Hi Simon,

could you post some example code?

Cheers

Answer 2

[Darshan Ramakant Bhat]

There is a detailed answer available for the similar issue in the below answer link:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/92506-how-can-i-configure-matlab-to-allow-access-to-self-signed-https-servers

I hope this will help you.

[Adam Schroeder]

It looks like this link is no longer active. I was able to work through this successfully using Simon's accepted answer and Jörgen's comment.

options=weboptions;

options.CertificateFilename=('');

webread(URL,options);