How to make Java 6, which fails SSL connection with "SSL peer shut down incorrectly", succeed like Java 7?

Question

I'm seeing an SSL connection from a client running Java 6 fail with an exception like:

Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host closed connection during handshake
    at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:882)
    at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1188)
    at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1215)
    at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1199)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(HttpsClient.java:434)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.java:166)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.connect(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:133)
    ... 35 more
Caused by: java.io.EOFException: SSL peer shut down incorrectly
    at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.InputRecord.read(InputRecord.java:462)
    at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:863)
    ... 41 more

The server is a Tomcat 7-based app, running on Java 7, Linux, and on Amazon EC2, for what that's worth.

I've found a lot of suggestions on possible casues, including connecting accidentally to a non-SSL port, etc. I believe I've ruled it all out, mostly because the exact same client works when running Java 7 with no change. (OS X in both cases.)

Below I include the debug output from Java 6's and Java 7's SSL connection procedure. My question to experts is, does this suggest that some possible cipher or protocol setting, maybe a default in Java 7, could be enabled in Java 6 to make it work?

Java 6:

Allow unsafe renegotiation: false
Allow legacy hello messages: true
Is initial handshake: true
Is secure renegotiation: false
%% No cached client session
*** ClientHello, TLSv1
RandomCookie:  GMT: 1363993281 bytes = { 77, 153, 100, 72, 45, 178, 253, 243, 195, 167, 17, 151, 39, 247, 148, 102, 213, 129, 39, 17, 26, 139, 157, 154, 63, 88, 41, 160 }
Session ID:  {}
Cipher Suites: [SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5, SSL_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSV]
Compression Methods:  { 0 }
***
main, WRITE: TLSv1 Handshake, length = 81
main, WRITE: SSLv2 client hello message, length = 110
main, received EOFException: error
main, handling exception: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host closed connection during handshake
main, SEND TLSv1 ALERT:  fatal, description = handshake_failure
main, WRITE: TLSv1 Alert, length = 2
main, called closeSocket()

Java 7:

Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
Ignoring unavailable cipher suite: TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
Ignoring unsupported cipher suite: TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Allow unsafe renegotiation: false
Allow legacy hello messages: true
Is initial handshake: true
Is secure renegotiation: false
main, setSoTimeout(0) called
%% No cached client session
*** ClientHello, TLSv1
RandomCookie:  GMT: 1363993435 bytes = { 131, 83, 80, 186, 215, 90, 171, 131, 231, 18, 184, 183, 249, 155, 197, 204, 73, 1, 74, 79, 32, 142, 236, 28, 111, 37, 58, 255 }
Session ID:  {}
Cipher Suites: [TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5, TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSV]
Compression Methods:  { 0 }
Extension elliptic_curves, curve names: {secp256r1, sect163k1, sect163r2, secp192r1, secp224r1, sect233k1, sect233r1, sect283k1, sect283r1, secp384r1, sect409k1, sect409r1, secp521r1, sect571k1, sect571r1, secp160k1, secp160r1, secp160r2, sect163r1, secp192k1, sect193r1, sect193r2, secp224k1, sect239k1, secp256k1}
Extension ec_point_formats, formats: [uncompressed]
Extension server_name, server_name: [host_name: ec2-xx-xx-xx-xx.compute-1.amazonaws.com]

Answer 1

Bruno's answer was the correct one in the end. This is most easily controlled by the https.protocols system property. This is how you are able to control what the factory method returns. Set to "TLSv1" for example.

Answer 2

It seems that in the debug log for Java 6 the request is send in SSLv2 format.

main, WRITE: SSLv2 client hello message, length = 110

This is not mentioned as enabled by default in Java 7.
Change the client to use SSLv3 and above to avoid such interoperability issues.

Look for differences in JSSE providers in Java 7 and Java 6

Answer 3

Remove "SSLv2ClientHello" from the enabled protocols on the client SSLSocket or HttpsURLConnection.

Answer 4

update the server arguments from -Dhttps.protocols=SSLv3 to -Dhttps.protocols=TLSv1,SSLv3

Answer 5

Do it like this:

SSLSocket socket = (SSLSocket) sslFactory.createSocket(host, port);
socket.setEnabledProtocols(new String[]{"SSLv3", "TLSv1"});