Hi Mike,

            Thanks because of your code I was able to gain some knowledge about SSL. But when I tried implementing custom socket factory as you mentioned I received an error which says "The error is 10.233.8.21:636". Could you help me out in figuring out whats wrong over here.

            I am pasting the code of my method below and custom socket factory class which is just copy of your BlindSSLSocketFactoryTest.java

==========================authenticate method==================

public DirContext authenticate(String principle, String password) throws Exception
{
  // connect to , authenticate and return directory context
     Debug.out("principle: "+principle);
     Debug.out("password: "+password);

     Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
     env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,"com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");
     env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ldaps://10.241.14.122:636");
     env.put("java.naming.ldap.factory.socket", SecureSSLSocketFactory.class.getName());
     env.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION,"simple");
     env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL,principle);
     env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS,password);    
     DirContext ctx = new InitialDirContext(env);
     return ctx
} 
 

===========================================================

===================SecureSSLSocketFactory=====================

public class SecureSSLSocketFactory extends SocketFactory
{
    private static SocketFactory blindFactory = null;
   
    static
    {
     TrustManager[] blindTrustMan = new TrustManager[]
                                    {
              new X509TrustManager()
              {
               public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() { return null; }
               public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] c, String a) { }
               public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] c, String a) { }
              }
                                    };
    }
   
    public static SocketFactory getDefault()
    {
  return new SecureSSLSocketFactory();
 }
   
    public Socket createSocket(String arg0, int arg1) throws IOException,UnknownHostException
    {
        return blindFactory.createSocket(arg0, arg1);
    }
   
    public Socket createSocket(InetAddress arg0, int arg1) throws IOException
    {
  return blindFactory.createSocket(arg0, arg1);
 }

    public Socket createSocket(String arg0, int arg1, InetAddress arg2, int arg3) throws IOException, UnknownHostException
    {
     return blindFactory.createSocket(arg0, arg1, arg2, arg3);
    }
   
    public Socket createSocket(InetAddress arg0, int arg1, InetAddress arg2,int arg3) throws IOException
    {
  return blindFactory.createSocket(arg0, arg1, arg2, arg3);
 }
      
}

===========================================================