SSL Error When installing rubygems, Unable to pull data from 'https://rubygems.org/

Question

For RVM & OSX users

Make sure you use latest rvm:

rvm get stable

Then you can do two things:

1. Update certificates:

   rvm osx-ssl-certs update all
   

2. Update rubygems:

   rvm rubygems latest
   

---

For non RVM users

Find path for certificate:

cert_file=$(ruby -ropenssl -e 'puts OpenSSL::X509::DEFAULT_CERT_FILE')

Generate certificate:

security find-certificate -a -p /Library/Keychains/System.keychain > "$cert_file"
security find-certificate -a -p /System/Library/Keychains/SystemRootCertificates.keychain >> "$cert_file"

The whole code: https://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/blob/master/scripts/functions/osx-ssl-certs

---

For non OSX users

Make sure to update package ca-certificates. (on old systems it might not be available - do not use an old system which does not receive security updates any more)

Windows note

The Ruby Installer builds for windows are prepared by Luis Lavena and the path to certificates will be showing something like C:/Users/Luis/... check https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/issues/249 for more details and this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/27298259/497756 for fix.

Latest findings...

https://gist.github.com/luislavena/f064211759ee0f806c88

Most importantly...download https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rubygems/rubygems/master/lib/rubygems/ssl_certs/rubygems.org/AddTrustExternalCARoot-2048.pem

Figure out where to stick it

C:\>gem which rubygems
C:/Ruby21/lib/ruby/2.1.0/rubygems.rb

Then just copy the .pem file in ../2.1.0/rubygems/ssl_certs/ and go on about your business.

For windows users

Goto link http://rubygems.org/pages/download

1. Download the latest zip file (In my case 2.4.5)
2. Unzip it
3. run "ruby setup.rb" in unzipped folder
4. now run gem install command

If you want to use the non-SSL source, try removing the HTTPS source first, and then adding the HTTP one:

sudo gem sources -r https://rubygems.org
sudo gem sources -a http://rubygems.org  

UPDATE:

As mpapis states, this should be used only as a temporary workaround. There could be some security concerns if you're accessing RubyGems through the non-SSL source.

Once the workaround is not needed anymore, you should restore the SSL-source:

sudo gem sources -r http://rubygems.org
sudo gem sources -a https://rubygems.org

On Windows you'll have to use HTTP source to update gem then change back to using HTTPS.

gem sources -r https://rubygems.org/
gem sources -a http://rubygems.org/
gem update --system
gem sources -r http://rubygems.org/
gem sources -a https://rubygems.org/

Edit: Warning I'm not sure if this is safe. Does anyone know if ruby packages are signed? The accepted answer looks like a better solution.

For Windows Users (and maybe others)

Rubygems.org has a guide that not only explains how to fix this problem, but also why so many people are having it: SSL Certificate Update The reason for the problem is rubygems.org switched to a more secure SSL certificate (SHA-2 which use 256bit encryption). The rubygems command line tool bundles the reference to the correct certificate. Therefore rubygems itself can’t be updated using an older version of rubygems. Rubygems must first be updated manually.

First find out what rubygems you have:

rubygems –v

Depending on whether you have a 1.8.x, 2.0.x or 2.2.x, you will need to download an update gem, named “rubygems-update-X.Y.Z.gem”, where X.Y.Z is the version you need. Running 1.8.x: download: https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/releases/tag/v1.8.30 Running 2.0.x: download: https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/releases/tag/v2.0.15 Running 2.2.x: download: https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/releases/tag/v2.2.3

Install update gem:

gem install –-local full_path_to_the_gem_file

Run update gem:

update_rubygems --no-ri --no-rdoc

Check that rubygems was updated:

rubygems –v

Uninstall update gem:

gem uninstall rubygems-update -x

At this point, you may be OK. But it is possible that you do not have the latest public key file for the new certificate. To do this:

Download the latest certificate, (currently AddTrustExternalCARoot-2048.pem) from https://rubygems.org/pages/download. All of the certs are also located at: https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/tree/master/lib/rubygems/ssl_certs

Find out where to put it:

gem which rubygems

Put this file in the “rubygems\ssl_certs” directory at this location.

As per rubygems commit, the certificates are moved to more specific directories. Thus, currently the certificate(AddTrustExternalCARoot-2048.pem) is expected to be on the following path lib/rubygems/ssl_certs/rubygems.org/AddTrustExternalCARoot-2048.pem

Try to use the source website for the gems, i.e rubygems.org. Use http instead of https. This method does not involve any work such as installing certs and all that.

Example -

gem install typhoeus --source http://rubygems.org

This works, but there is one caveat though.

The gem is installed, but the documentation is not because of cert errors. Here is the error I get

Parsing documentation for typhoeus-0.7.0 WARNING: Unable to pull 
data from 'https://rubygems.org/': SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 
state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed 
(https://rubygems.org/latest_specs.4.8.gz)