Ошибка unable to get local issuer certificate

“Unable to get Local Issuer Certificate” is a common SSL certificate error. It is related to the incomplete certificate chain such as (most commonly) missing the intermediate certificate. The fix is to ensure the entire certificate chain is present.

We will dive into this issue to see why this happens and how to fix it.

Understanding certificate chain

A certificate chain is an ordered list of certificates, containing an SSL/TLS server certificate, intermediate certificate, and Certificate Authority (CA) Certificates, that enable the receiver to verify that the sender and all CA’s are trustworthy.

• Root Certificate. A root certificate is a digital certificate that belongs to the issuing Certificate Authority. It comes pre-downloaded in most browsers and is stored in what is called a “trust store.” The root certificates are closely guarded by CAs.
• Intermediate Certificate. Intermediate certificates branch off root certificates like branches of trees. They act as middle-men between the protected root certificates and the server certificates issued out to the public. There will always be at least one intermediate certificate in a chain, but there can be more than one.
• Server Certificate. The server certificate is the one issued to the specific domain the user is needing coverage for.

We will use these files in this example.

• CA certificate file (usually called ca.pem or cacerts.pem)
• Intermediate certificate file (if exists, can be more than one. If you don’t know if you need an intermediate certificate, run through the steps and find out)
• Server certificate file

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How do Certificate Chains work?

When we install our TLS certificate, we also be sent an intermediate root certificate or bundle.

When a browser downloads our website’s TLS certificate upon arriving at our homepage, it begins chaining that certificate back to its root. It will begin by following the chain to the intermediate that has been installed, from there it continues tracing backwards until it arrives at a trusted root certificate.

If the certificate is valid and can be chained back to a trusted root, it will be trusted. If it can’t be chained back to a trusted root, the browser will issue a warning about the certificate.

View Certificate Chain

Use the openssl utility that can display a certificate chain. The following command will display the certificate chain for google.com.

openssl s_client -connect google.com:443 -servername google.com 

0 s:/C=US/ST=California/L=Mountain View/O=Google Inc/CN=*.google.com
i:/C=US/O=Google Inc/CN=Google Internet Authority G2
1 s:/C=US/O=Google Inc/CN=Google Internet Authority G2
i:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=GeoTrust Global CA
2 s:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=GeoTrust Global CA
i:/C=US/O=Equifax/OU=Equifax Secure Certificate Authority

In the openssl output, the numbered lines start with the server certificate (#0) followed by the intermediate (#1) and the root (#2).

The s: indicates the certificate subject, and i: indicates the issuing certificate’s subject.

Guidelines to verify the certificate chain is valid

• Subject of each certificate matches the Issuer of the preceding certificate in the chain (except for the Entity certificate).
• Subject and Issuer are the same for the root certificate.

If the certificates in the chain adhere to these guidelines, then the certificate chain is considered to be complete and valid.

• The Subject of the intermediate certificate matches the Issuer of the entity certificate.
• The Subject of the root certificate matches the Issuer of the intermediate certificate.
• The Subject and Issuer are the same in the root certificate.

Example of a valid certificate chain

server certificate

openssl x509 -text -in entity.pem | grep -E '(Subject|Issuer):'

Issuer: C = US, O = Google Trust Services, CN = GTS CA 1O1
Subject: C = US, ST = California, L = Mountain View, O = Google LLC, CN = *.enterprise.apigee.com

Intermediate certificate

openssl x509 -text -in intermediate.pem | grep -E '(Subject|Issuer):'

Issuer: OU = GlobalSign Root CA – R2, O = GlobalSign, CN = GlobalSign
Subject: C = US, O = Google Trust Services, CN = GTS CA 1O1

Root certificate

openssl x509 -text -in root.pem | grep -E '(Subject|Issuer):'

Issuer: OU = GlobalSign Root CA – R2, O = GlobalSign, CN = GlobalSign
Subject: OU = GlobalSign Root CA – R2, O = GlobalSign, CN = GlobalSign

Check SSL Certificate with OpenSSL

Validate certificate chain with server and root Certificate

openssl verify cert.pem

cert.pem: C = Country, ST = State, O = Organization, CN = FQDN
error 20 at 0 depth lookup:unable to get local issuer certificate

We can use the following two commands to make sure that the issuer in the server certificate matches the subject in the ca certificate.

openssl x509 -noout -issuer -in cert.pem

issuer= /CN=the name of the CA

$ openssl x509 -noout -subject -in ca.pem

subject= /CN=the name of the CA

In the following case, we need to add the CAfile to verify the root certificate.

$ openssl verify -CAfile ca.pem cert.pem

cert.pem: OK

Validate certificate chain with server, intermediate, and root Certificate

$ openssl verify cert.pem

cert.pem: C = Countrycode, ST = State, O = Organization, CN = yourdomain.com
error 20 at 0 depth lookup:unable to get local issuer certificate

To complete the validation of the chain, we need to provide the CA certificate file and the intermediate certificate file when validating the server certificate file.

We can do that using the parameters CAfile (to provide the CA certificate) and untrusted (to provide intermediate certificate):

$ openssl verify -CAfile ca.pem -untrusted intermediate.cert.pem cert.pem

cert.pem: OK

If we have multiple intermediate CA certficates, we can use the untrusted parameter multiple times like -untrusted intermediate1.pem -untrusted intermediate2.pem .

Fix routines:X509_check_private_key:key values mismatch in 2 Ways

Related:

• Exploring SSL Certificate Chain with Examples
• Understanding X509 Certificate with Openssl Command
• OpenSSL Command to Generate View Check Certificate
• Converting CER CRT DER PEM PFX Certificate with Openssl
• SSL vs TLS and how to check TLS version in Linux
• Understanding SSH Key RSA DSA ECDSA ED25519
• Understanding server certificates with Examples

Problem

The following is seen on the command line when pushing or pulling:

SSL Certificate problem: unable to get local issuer

Cause

There are two potential causes that have been identified for this issue.

1. A Self-signed certificate cannot be verified. 
2. Default GIT crypto backend (Windows clients)

Resolution

Resolution #1 — Self Signed certificate

Workaround

Tell git to not perform the validation of the certificate using the global option:

git config --global http.sslVerify false

 Please be advised disabling SSL verification globally might be considered a security risk and should be implemented only temporarily

Resolution — Client Side

There are several ways this issue has been resolved previously. Below we suggest possible solutions that should be run on the client side:

1.  Ensure the root cert is added to git.exe’s certificate store. The location of this file will depend on how/where GIT was installed. For instance, the trusted certificate store directory for Git Bash is C:Program FilesGitmingw64sslcerts. This is also discussed on this Microsoft blog.

2. Tell Git where to find the CA bundle, either by running:

   git config --system http.sslCAPath /absolute/path/to/git/certificates

   where /absolute/path/to/git/certificates  is the path to where you placed the file that contains the CA certificate(s).

   or by copying the CA bundle to the /bin  directory and adding the following to the gitconfig file:

   sslCAinfo = /bin/curl-ca-bundle.crt

3. Reinstall Git.

4. Ensure that the complete certificate chain is present in the CA bundle file, including the root cert.

Resolution — Server Side

This issue can also happen on configurations where Bitbucket Server is secured with an SSL-terminating connector rather than a proxy

1. Ensure that the Java KeyStore has the entire certificate chain (Intermediate CA and Root CA) 
   • View the Certificate Chain Details inside the KeyStore using a tool like the KeyStore Explorer to check

Resolution #2 — Default GIT crypto backend

When using Windows, the problem resides that git by default uses the «Linux» crypto backend, so the GIT operation may not complete occasionally. Starting with Git for Windows 2.14, you can configure Git to use SChannel, the built-in Windows networking layer as the crypto backend. To do that, just run the following command in the GIT client:

git config --global http.sslbackend schannel

This means that it will use the Windows certificate storage mechanism and you don’t need to explicitly configure the curl CA storage (http.sslCAInfo) mechanism.

What is the ‘ssl certificate problem unable to get local issuer certificate’ error

The unable to get local issuer certificate is a common issue faced by developers when trying to push, pull, or clone a git repository using Git Bash, a command-line tool specific to Windows.

The unable to get local issuer certificate error often occurs when the Git server’s SSL certificate is self-signed. The issue with self-signed certificates is that the private key associated with them cannot be revoked, making it a security vulnerability.

Alternatively, it can be due to incorrect configuration for Git on your system or when using git inside Visual Studio Code (VS Code) terminal.

What causes ‘ssl certificate problem unable to get local issuer certificate’

The unable to get local issuer certificate error is caused by the misconfiguration of the SSL certificate on your local machine. When pushing, pulling, or cloning, Git cannot verify your SSL certification, which leads to the error.

A valid HTTPS handshake requires both the client and the server to create a secure connection, allowing for safe communication between your local machine and where the source code is hosted. When the SSL certificate cannot be verified, Git cannot complete the HTTPS handshake with the server that hosts the repository.

When the unable to get local issuer certificate error occurs in VS Code, it is often because Visual Studio cannot locate the SSL certificate. This may be due to the path being misconfigured on the local machine.

How can you fix ‘ssl certificate problem unable to get local issuer certificate errors’

When ssl certificate problem unable to get local issuer certificate error is caused by a self-signed certificate, the fix is to add the certificate to the trusted certificate store.

By default, the trusted certificate store is located in the following directory for Git Bash:

C:Program FilesGitmingw64sslcerts

Open the file ca-bundle.crt located in the directory above, then copy and paste the Git SSL certificate to the end of the file. Once completed, save the file and run your git pull, push, or clone command.

Disabling SSL certificate validation is not recommended for security purposes. However, it is an option for fixing the ssl certificate problem unable to get local issuer certificate error.

You can disable SSL certificate validation locally in Git using the following command:

$ git -c http.sslVerify=false clone [URL]

You can also disable SSL certificate validation at a global level using the following command:

$ git config --global http.sslVerify false

To re-enable SSL certificate validation, use the following command:

$ git config --global http.sslVerify true

Another method for fixing the ssl certificate problem unable to get local issuer certificate error is to reinstall Git and choose the SSL transport backend option during the installation process.

If the unable to get local issuer certificate error occurs inside Visual Studio Code, you need to grant your repository access to the SSL certificates. To do this, git can be reconfigured with the --global flag on your SSL certificate configuration. This will give the Git server accessibility to the required SSL certificate.

To do this, run the following command in the Terminal:

git config --global http.sslBackend schannel

Accessibility to SSL certificate verification can also be set at the system level. To do this, you must be running in administrator mode before executing the following command:

git config --system http.sslBackend schannel

If the unable to get local issuer certificate error in Visual Studio Code is not due to accessibility but a location misconfiguration, this can be fixed by reassigning the path. This can be done through the following command:

git config --global http.sslcainfo "Path"

How to prevent ‘ssl certificate problem unable to get local issuer certificate’ errors

The main purpose of a SSL certificate is to confirm authentication so that the information passed between client and server is secure. When an unable to get local issuer certificate error occurs, a secure connection cannot be established, and the git client rejects your attempt to push, pull, or clone a repository for security reasons.

While disabling SSL certificates altogether is an option and common fix, it is not recommended. It opens up a security vulnerability for your repository and your local machine. Nevertheless, you can negate the unable to get local issuer certificate error by disabling SSL certificates at a local and global level. If SSL certificates are disabled at a global level, it is good to always enable them again so that other projects are not impacted by the intentional security disablement.

To prevent the error, ensure that you have a valid SSL certificate in your certificate store. Alternatively, you can reinstall your Git Bash with SSL Transport backend selected during the installation process.

If you are using Git via Visual Studio Code and have a valid SSL certificate in your certificate store but still encounter the certificate problem error, use the --global flag on your SSL certificate configuration to grant the Git server accessibility.

Kubernetes Troubleshooting With Komodor

We hope that the guide above helps you better understand the troubleshooting steps you need to take in order to fix the unable to get local issuer certificate error.

Keep in mind that this is just one of many Git errors that can pop up in your k8s logs and cause the system to fail. Due to the complex and distributed nature of k8s, the search for the root cause of each such failure can be stressful, disorienting, and time-consuming.

Komodor is a Kubernetes troubleshooting platform that turns hours of guesswork into actionable answers in just a few clicks. Using Komodor, you can monitor, alert and troubleshoot incidents in your entire K8s cluster.

For each K8s resource, Komodor automatically constructs a coherent view, including the relevant deploys, config changes, dependencies, metrics, and past incidents. Komodor seamlessly integrates and utilizes data from cloud providers, source controls, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring tools, and incident response platforms.

• Discover the root cause automatically with a timeline that tracks all changes made in your application and infrastructure.
• Quickly tackle the issue, with easy-to-follow remediation instructions.
• Give your entire team a way to troubleshoot independently, without having to escalate.

Introduction

When working with NPM/ Node projects, I sometimes come across SSL or certificate errors, like the below error, after running a npm install:

npm ERR! code UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY

npm ERR! node v6.10.2
npm ERR! npm  v3.10.10
npm ERR! code UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY

npm ERR! unable to get local issuer certificate
npm ERR!
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

Another similar example is:

{ Error: unable to get local issuer certificate
    at TLSSocket.<anonymous> (_tls_wrap.js:1116:38)
    at emitNone (events.js:106:13)
    at TLSSocket.emit (events.js:208:7)
    at TLSSocket._finishInit (_tls_wrap.js:643:8)
    at TLSWrap.ssl.onhandshakedone (_tls_wrap.js:473:38) code: 'UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY' }

In the above example, I was firing up a react app on my local machine to get started on development.

What does this mean?

This error just means that NPM could not verify the certificate of the registry that you are trying to download the package from.

Usually the cause is that the SSL certificate is not trusted or that your local machine does not have the certificate.

Another reason why this is happening is that you are behind a corporate proxy and its configured for “deep inspection”.
What this means is that as NPM tries to connect to the package registry, the proxy will then “swap” the SSL cert with its own to allow it to inspect your traffic.

So there could be automated systems to make your browser trust the root CA cert that issues these certificates, NPM is not configured to trust that Certificate Authority.

We can fix this issue in a few ways:

1. Disable strict SSL checking strict-ssl=false
2. Use the HTTP version of the NPM registry
3. Set NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable
4. Changing the cafile setting: npm config set cafile /path/to/your/cert.pem
5. Stop rejecting unknown CAs: set NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0

1. Disable strict SSL checking strict-ssl=false

If you are unable to obtain the registry’s SSL certificate or are still experiencing issues after adding it to your trusted list, you can temporarily disable strict SSL checking by running the following command:

npm config set strict-ssl false

Note that disabling strict SSL checking can leave your system vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, so it should only be used as a temporary workaround. Once you have resolved the SSL certificate issue, be sure to re-enable strict SSL checking by running:

npm config set strict-ssl true

2. Use the HTTP version of the NPM registry

We can change the registry to use the HTTP version (http://registry.npmjs.org).

The NPM registry is the location where NPM looks for packages when you use the npm install command.

When we first install NPM the public registry is set to HTTPS (https://registry.npmjs.org), however we can change this with the npm config command.

To set the NPM registry for HTTP, follow these steps:

1. Open a terminal or command prompt window.
2. Enter the following command to set the registry to the public NPM registry:

npm config set registry http://registry.npmjs.org/

The NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable allows you to add additional root certificates to the list of trusted certificates that Node.js and NPM use when making SSL/TLS connections.

This can be useful if you need to connect to a server that uses a certificate signed by a root certificate that is not included in the default list of trusted certificates on your system.

We can set it as follows (Linux or OSX systems):

export NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=path/to/my-certs.pem

If you are on Windows you can do:

set NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=C:\path\to\certificate.pem

When Node.js or an application built on top of it makes an SSL/TLS connection to a server, it checks the server’s certificate against a list of trusted root certificates. If the server’s certificate is signed by a trusted root certificate, the connection is allowed. If the certificate is not signed by a trusted root certificate, the connection is rejected.

Note:

The NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable is only read when the Node.js process is first launched. Changing the value at runtime using process.env.NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS has no effect on the current process.

4. Changing the cafile setting: npm config set cafile /path/to/your/cert.pem

We can change the CA file with the set cafile command like so:

npm config set cafile /path/to/root/certificate.pem

Note:

these CA settings will override the default “real world” certificate authority lookups that npm uses. If you try and use any public npm registries via https that aren’t signed by your CA certificate, you will get errors.

You can also configure ca string(s) directly.

npm config set ca "cert string"

ca can be an array of cert strings too. In your .npmrc:

ca[]="cert 1 base64 string"
ca[]="cert 2 base64 string"

The npm config commands above will persist the relevant config items to your ~/.npmrc file:

cafile=/path/to/cert.pem

We can use the environment variable of NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED. This variable will tell Node to reject certificates that are not valid or just ignore them.

Certificate checks that could end up being invalid includes: expired, unsigned or trusted by a root CA, does not match hostname, etc

The default value of NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED is 1 — reject any certificate thats got verification errors.

NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 means that we ignore any certificate issues. This can be useful when we know what we are doing. Keeping this value to 0 exposes you to man in the middle attacks!

To set NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED, you can use the following command:

export NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0

This sets NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED to 0, which disables SSL/TLS certificate verification.

unable_to_get_issuer_cert_locally and Proxies

If you are behind a company firewall, you can get this unable_to_get_issuer_cert_locally because the proxy might be swapping the SSL cert with its own certificate to be able to inspect the traffic.

This is case, we just need to contact the company network admin to get the .pem file.

Another option is to download it using Firefox or Chrome by connecting to any website which the certificate is swapped (in this case the NPM registry — https://registry.npmjs.org)

Then you may use NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS to provide the certificate file to Node.js.

Summary

In this post, we went over a few ways to fix the error of NPM err code unable_to_get_issuer_cert_locally. This error is caused by NPM not being able to verify the certificate of the registry eg (https://registry.npmjs.org).

The reason for this could be that the SSL certificate is not trusted or your local machine does not have it. We can resolve this with using HTTP registry instead, setting strict-ssl to false, manually add the .pem file to NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS and use NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED to tell node to ignore all cert issues.

Additionally if you are running npm install behind a corporate firewall/ proxy then it could be that the SSL is swapped to inspect the traffic. In this case you will need to get the .pem file from your network admins and then use NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS setting!