SSL/TLS Error – SEC_E_INTERNAL_ERROR

Problem:
An SSL/TLS connection failed and the LastErrorText contains “SEC_E_INTERNAL_ERROR”, such as in the error text below:

(See cause solution below)

ChilkatLog:
  Connect:
    DllDate: Dec  4 2009
    UnlockPrefix: ****
    Username: ****
    Component: .NET 2.0
    objectId: 1
    hostname: *.*.*.*
    port: 443
    ssl: 1
    maxWaitMs: 20000
    windowsAccount: ****
    ClientCertDN: ****
    protocol: default
    An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
    Failed to receive on the TCP socket
    connectionClosed: 0
    timedOut: 0
    Error reading data from server in handshake loop
    Setting scRet = SEC_E_INTERNAL_ERROR
    Error performing handshake
    Failed.

Cause #1:
This is caused when the server-side expect an SSL 3.0 initial packet and cannot handle an SSL 2.0 initial packet. Normally, when a client and server connect and begin the SSL/TLS handshake, the SSL 2.0 packet is the first one sent. It allows the client and server to negotiate and agree upon protocols starting from SSL 2.0 and up (SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, etc.) Normally, the most secure protocol is used and SSL 2.0 is never actually used (unless there is some very very old legacy server that only supports SSL 2.0).

In some cases, the server does not expect the 1st packet to be SSL 2.0 formatted. One such case is the following OpenSSL command:

OpenSSL> s_server -accept 443 -Verify 5 -ssl3 -cert c:\certs\server.pem

Solution #1:
Set the SslProtocol property equal to the string “SSL 3.0”. For example:

socket.SslProtocol = "SSL 3.0";

This applies to all components capable of using SSL/TLS connections: FTP2, HTTP, Socket, IMAP, MailMan, etc.

Cause #2
The server requires the client to provide a certificate for authentication, but none was provided.

Solution #2
Load a Chilkat certificate object with the appropriate client-side certificate (there are many ways of doing this..) and then set the clients-side certificate by calling the SetSslClientCert method. This method exists on all Chilkat objects that use SSL/TLS connections (FTP2, HTTP, Socket, IMAP, MailMan, etc.)

Important: It’s entirely possible that your application might need to apply both solutions.