How to ignore the certificate check when ssl

Question

For anyone interested in applying this solution on a per request basis, this is an option and uses a Lambda expression. The same Lambda expression can be applied to the global filter mentioned by blak3r as well. This method appears to require .NET 4.5.

String url = "https://www.stackoverflow.com";
HttpWebRequest request = HttpWebRequest.CreateHttp(url);
request.ServerCertificateValidationCallback += (sender, certificate, chain, sslPolicyErrors) => true;

In .NET 4.0, the Lambda Expression can be applied to the global filter as such

ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback += (sender, certificate, chain, sslPolicyErrors) => true;

Since there is only one global ServicePointManager, setting ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback will yield the result that all subsequent requests will inherit this policy. Since it is a global "setting" it would be prefered to set it in the Application_Start method in Global.asax.

Setting the callback overrides the default behaviour and you can yourself create a custom validation routine.

This worked for me:

System.Net.ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback +=
delegate(object sender, System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate certificate,
                        System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Chain chain,
                        System.Net.Security.SslPolicyErrors sslPolicyErrors)
    {
        return true; // **** Always accept
    };

Snippet from here: http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/2011/Feb/11/HttpWebRequest-and-Ignoring-SSL-Certificate-Errors

Also there is the short delegate solution:

ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = delegate { return true; }; 

Just incidentally, this is a the least verbose way of turning off all certificate validation in a given app that I know of:

ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = (a, b, c, d) => true;

Rather than adding a callback to ServicePointManager which will override certificate validation globally, you can set the callback on a local instance of HttpClient. This approach should only affect calls made using that instance of HttpClient.

Here is sample code showing how ignoring certificate validation errors for specific servers might be implemented in a Web API controller.

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Security;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;

public class MyController : ApiController
{

    // use this HttpClient instance when making calls that need cert errors suppressed
    private static readonly HttpClient httpClient;

    static MyController()
    {
        // create a separate handler for use in this controller
        var handler = new HttpClientHandler();

        // add a custom certificate validation callback to the handler
        handler.ServerCertificateCustomValidationCallback = ((sender, cert, chain, errors) => ValidateCert(sender, cert, chain, errors));

        // create an HttpClient that will use the handler
        httpClient = new HttpClient(handler);
    }

    protected static ValidateCert(object sender, X509Certificate cert, X509Chain chain, SslPolicyErrors errors)
    {

        // set a list of servers for which cert validation errors will be ignored
        var overrideCerts = new string[]
        {
            "myproblemserver",
            "someotherserver",
            "localhost"
        };

        // if the server is in the override list, then ignore any validation errors
        var serverName = cert.Subject.ToLower();
        if (overrideCerts.Any(overrideName => serverName.Contains(overrideName))) return true;

        // otherwise use the standard validation results
        return errors == SslPolicyErrors.None;
    }

}

For .net core

using (var handler = new HttpClientHandler())
{ 
    // allow the bad certificate
    handler.ServerCertificateCustomValidationCallback = (request, cert, chain, errors) => true;
    using (var httpClient = new HttpClient(handler))
    {
        await httpClient.PostAsync("the_url", null);
    }
}