Linux Commands

Curl Ignore SSL Certificate Errors

You may have heard and encountered many programming errors while coding, compiling, and executing the program in different languages. Some of the errors are syntax errors; some are logical errors, some are technical and system storage errors. There is a known error for SSL certificates in bash while you are trying to access a specific website. The invalid certificate chain can cause these SSL certificate errors, or the certificate for the specific website hasn’t been found so far. The testing situation or cycle may be so far above the architecture that you don’t have time or chance to obtain the necessary SSL certificates for the site.

Many browsers, as well as command-line applications, will notify you if the site you’re connected to has a certification that is absent or outdated or if the domain in the certification is incorrect. This article will discuss the curl instruction to overlook the SSL certificate fault in the Ubuntu 20.04 system. Let’s start with some definitions first.

SSL:

SSL is an abbreviation for Secure Sockets Layer. It’s being cast off to create a protected information broadcast connection between the server and the client. Pair of keys can be used to encode this data, i.e., private and public. The public key is observable to all; however, the secret key is only observable to the user who will be receiving this message. Rather than the traditional “HTTP://,” you’ll encounter “HTTPS://” beside a website’s domain if it has an SSL symbol. This implies your link is protected, and any information you provide on the webpage is encoded to protect it from stealing.

SSL Certificate:

The SSL Certificate is a technique of pledging consumers that data exchanged through a web page is safe and protected. The domain of the webpage, the host’s address, and other pertinent information are all included in SSL certificates. Whenever somebody opens a webpage, they may purchase such certificates, which aid in the development of confidence among internet users and clients. Let’s have a glance at a method to deal with the SSL link issue. Firstly, you need to quickly open the Ubuntu 20.04 system’s command-line shell by utilizing the “Ctrl+Alt+T” shortcut while staying at the Home screen or desktop after the successful login. Your command-line shell terminal application will be opened on your screen and ready to be utilized for curl command in a few seconds.

Curl Command:

The curl command is used to verify the SSL certificate a server has and to make sure that the links are safe. So, we will be using it here as well. It also tells whether the particular website has got SSL certification or not. So, we have been starting from the simple curl command in the shell. The curl command has been executed with the “Enter” key. In return, the output shows us that the mentioned website has some SSL certificate problems. Also, it makes the SSL error clear that the SSL certificate has expired for this website. Due to this SSL certificate issue, we cannot connect our server with the shown website address.

Let’s start with the short way of utilizing the curl query to overlook the SSL certificate errors. This method will utilize the “-k” flag within the curl command, as shown in the photo below.

Another main method to ignore the SSL certificate errors in Linux is using the “insecure” flag option within the curl command. This way of ignoring the SSL certificate issue using the curl command in the command-line terminal is shown below.

By utilizing the insecure parameter, you may complete the URL to disregard SSL certificate problems. The selection will circumvent the SSL vetting process, allowing you to avoid any SSL errors a website may have whilst communicating in such an SSL-encrypted manner. Overlooking SSL issues is not a safe strategy, although it might be handy if you trust the website, which you may or not operate.

Causes of SSL Certificate Error:

SSL connection errors are very prevalent, and they can be instigated by a wide variety of things. The issue might be exposed on the web page hosting server, or it could be revealed on the end of the customer. These are merely a handful of the probable reasons for the untrustworthy certificate problem. It’s likewise worth stating that certain glitches could only be fleeting. We might be incapable of entering a website currently, but we will be capable of doing that later. Such a problem isn’t limited to a particular website/browser. It’s obtainable in Google Chrome besides Mozilla Firefox. Consumers have stumbled upon this error on a range of websites, counting Gmail, Google, etc. This fault can happen due to a diversity of factors, counting:

  • When you have any browser problems.
  • A webpage might be blocked by a spyware application or a firewall.
  • The machine is trying to contact the webpage, which has a flawed date plus time.
  • Using an SSL license that isn’t dependable
  • The website might comprise subtle information.
  • The SSL certificate might cover improper data.

Depending on how the issue develops, there seems to be a range of cures existing. We could, for instance, change anything on your site to fix the problem. If the difficulty displays on WordPress, you may likewise modify the configurations. You may also create variations to the Android phone, as the particular error is very known in it.

Conclusion:

Finally, we have explained the SSL certificate error and how to overcome or ignore it in the Ubuntu 20.04 system. We have defined some terms at the start of this article to make our users understand every little thing, i.e., SSL, SSL certificate, Error causes, etc. After that, we have also discussed the curl command for creating a link to a website. The same curl command has been utilized in the shell with some flags and keywords to ignore the SSL certificate errors. We believe this article will prove itself a good help to every user.

About the author

Omar Farooq

Hello Readers, I am Omar and I have been writing technical articles from last decade. You can check out my writing pieces.