HTTPURLConnection Doesn't Follow Redirect from HTTP to HTTPS

user_298182 0
Viewed 97248

I can't understand why Java's HttpURLConnection does not follow an HTTP redirect from an HTTP to an HTTPS URL. I use the following code to get the page at https://httpstat.us/:

import java.net.URL;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.io.InputStream;

public class Tester {

    public static void main(String argv[]) throws Exception{
        InputStream is = null;

        try {
            String httpUrl = "http://httpstat.us/301";
            URL resourceUrl = new URL(httpUrl);
            HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection)resourceUrl.openConnection();
            conn.setConnectTimeout(15000);
            conn.setReadTimeout(15000);
            conn.connect();
            is = conn.getInputStream();
            System.out.println("Original URL: "+httpUrl);
            System.out.println("Connected to: "+conn.getURL());
            System.out.println("HTTP response code received: "+conn.getResponseCode());
            System.out.println("HTTP response message received: "+conn.getResponseMessage());
       } finally {
            if (is != null) is.close();
        }
    }
}

The output of this program is:

Original URL: http://httpstat.us/301
Connected to: http://httpstat.us/301
HTTP response code received: 301
HTTP response message received: Moved Permanently

A request to http://httpstat.us/301 returns the following (shortened) response (which seems absolutely right!):

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Cache-Control: private
Content-Length: 21
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Location: https://httpstat.us

Unfortunately, Java's HttpURLConnection does not follow the redirect!

Note that if you change the original URL to HTTPS (https://httpstat.us/301), Java will follow the redirect as expected!?

http-redirect httpurlconnection https redirect java
6 Answers

Redirects are followed only if they use the same protocol. (See the followRedirect() method in the source.) There is no way to disable this check.

Even though we know it mirrors HTTP, from the HTTP protocol point of view, HTTPS is just some other, completely different, unknown protocol. It would be unsafe to follow the redirect without user approval.

For example, suppose the application is set up to perform client authentication automatically. The user expects to be surfing anonymously because he's using HTTP. But if his client follows HTTPS without asking, his identity is revealed to the server.

erickson_34740

Has something called HttpURLConnection.setFollowRedirects(false) by any chance?

You could always call

conn.setInstanceFollowRedirects(true);

if you want to make sure you don't affect the rest of the behaviour of the app.

user_226560

Another option can be to use Apache HttpComponents Client:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
</dependency>

Sample code:

CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();
HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet("https://media-hearth.cursecdn.com/avatars/330/498/212.png");
CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
InputStream is = entity.getContent();
user_11731120

HTTPUrlConnection is not responsible for handling the response of the object. It is performance as expected, it grabs the content of the URL requested. It is up to you the user of the functionality to interpret the response. It is not able to read the intentions of the developer without specification.

user_807010
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