Nodejs https request UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY

Question

OS: debian sid

Nodejs: v0.10.38

I have a request to a private service that use authentication:

var https = require('https');

var options = {
    host: 'private.service.com',
    path: '/accounts/' + '123323' + '/orders',
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
        'Content-Length': 0,
        'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + 'asdsdgcvxcvxcv'
    }
};

var request = https.request(options, function (res) {
    console.log(res);
});

When i run the script, node throws this error:

events.js:72
    throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
          ^
Error: UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY
    at SecurePair.<anonymous> (tls.js:1381:32)
    at SecurePair.emit (events.js:92:17)
    at SecurePair.maybeInitFinished (tls.js:980:10)
    at CleartextStream.read [as _read] (tls.js:472:13)
    at CleartextStream.Readable.read (_stream_readable.js:341:10)
    at EncryptedStream.write [as _write] (tls.js:369:25)
    at doWrite (_stream_writable.js:226:10)
    at writeOrBuffer (_stream_writable.js:216:5)
    at EncryptedStream.Writable.write (_stream_writable.js:183:11)
    at write (_stream_readable.js:602:24)

The same exact script worked well for months, and i'm sure the authentication is correct. Today is the first time i have this situation.

Which can be the cause for this error?

Answer 1

After some study i found that this is a problem of the server that i'm trying to make the https request to.

Node https cannot find the ssl ISSUER_CERT on the private.service server and so it throw that exception.

The solution i used, since i'm sure i can trust that server, was to add

            rejectUnauthorized: false

to the options of the https request, this way node will not throw an exception in case of certificates problem.

Anyway this solution is valid only if you know you can trust the host of your request, otherwise it's probably not the best solution.