Unable to verify leaf signature

Question

I'm using node.js request.js to reach an api. I'm getting this error

[Error: UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE]

All of my credentials are accurate and valid, and the server's fine. I made the same request with postman.

request({
    "url": domain+"/api/orders/originator/"+id,
    "method": "GET",
    "headers":{
        "X-API-VERSION": 1,
        "X-API-KEY": key
    },
}, function(err, response, body){
    console.log(err);
    console.log(response);
    console.log(body);
});

This code is just running in an executable script ex. node ./run_file.js, Is that why? Does it need to run on a server?

Answer 1

Note: the following is dangerous, and will allow API content to be intercepted and modified between the client and the server.

This also worked

process.env['NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED'] = '0';

Answer 2

It's not an issue with the application, but with the certificate which is signed by an intermediary CA. If you accept that fact and still want to proceed, add the following to request options:

rejectUnauthorized: false

Full request:

request({
    "rejectUnauthorized": false,
    "url": domain+"/api/orders/originator/"+id,
    "method": "GET",
    "headers":{
        "X-API-VERSION": 1,
        "X-API-KEY": key
    },
}, function(err, response, body){
    console.log(err);
    console.log(response);
    console.log(body);
});

Answer 3

The Secure Solution

Rather than turning off security you can add the necessary certificates to the chain. First install ssl-root-cas package from npm:

npm install ssl-root-cas

This package contains many intermediary certificates that browsers trust but node doesn't.

var sslRootCAs = require('ssl-root-cas/latest')
sslRootCAs.inject()

Will add the missing certificates. See here for more info:

https://git.coolaj86.com/coolaj86/ssl-root-cas.js

Also, See the next answer below

Answer 4

CoolAJ86's solution is correct and it does not compromise your security like disabling all checks using rejectUnauthorized or NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED. Still, you may need to inject an additional CA's certificate explicitly.

I tried first the root CAs included by the ssl-root-cas module:

require('ssl-root-cas/latest')
  .inject();

I still ended up with the UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE error. Then I found out who issued the certificate for the web site I was connecting to by the COMODO SSL Analyzer, downloaded the certificate of that authority and tried to add only that one:

require('ssl-root-cas/latest')
  .addFile(__dirname + '/comodohigh-assurancesecureserverca.crt');

I ended up with another error: CERT_UNTRUSTED. Finally, I injected the additional root CAs and included "my" (apparently intermediary) CA, which worked:

require('ssl-root-cas/latest')
  .inject()
  .addFile(__dirname + '/comodohigh-assurancesecureserverca.crt');

Answer 5

For Create React App (where this error occurs too and this question is the #1 Google result), you are probably using HTTPS=true npm start and a proxy (in package.json) which goes to some HTTPS API which itself is self-signed, when in development.

If that's the case, consider changing proxy like this:

"proxy": {
  "/api": {
    "target": "https://localhost:5001",
    "secure": false
  }
}

secure decides whether the WebPack proxy checks the certificate chain or not and disabling that ensures the API self-signed certificate is not verified so that you get your data.

Answer 6

It may be very tempting to do rejectUnauthorized: false or process.env['NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED'] = '0'; but don't do it! It exposes you to man in the middle attacks.

The other answers are correct in that the issue lies in the fact that your cert is "signed by an intermediary CA." There is an easy solution to this, one which does not require a third party library like ssl-root-cas or injecting any additional CAs into node.

Most https clients in node support options that allow you to specify a CA per request, which will resolve UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE. Here's a simple example using node's built-int https module.

import https from 'https';

const options = {
  host: '<your host>',
  defaultPort: 443,
  path: '<your path>',
  // assuming the bundle file is co-located with this file
  ca: readFileSync(__dirname + '/<your bundle file>.ca-bundle'),
  headers: {
    'content-type': 'application/json',
  }
};
https.get(options, res => {
  // do whatever you need to do
})

If, however, you can configure the ssl settings in your hosting server, the best solution would be to add the intermediate certificates to your hosting provider. That way the client requester doesn't need to specify a CA, since it's included in the server itself. I personally use namecheap + heroku. The trick for me was to create one .crt file with cat yourcertificate.crt bundle.ca-bundle > server.crt. I then opened up this file and added a newline after the first certificate. You can read more at

https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/10050/33/installing-an-ssl-certificate-on-heroku-ssl

Answer 7

You can also try by setting strictSSL to false, like this:

{  
   url: "https://...",
   method: "POST",
   headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json"},
   strictSSL: false
}

Answer 8

I had the same issues. I have followed @ThomasReggi and @CoolAJ86 solution and worked well but I'm not satisfied with the solution.

Because "UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE" issue is happened due to certification configuration level.

I accept @thirdender solution but its partial solution.As per the nginx official website, they clearly mentioned certificate should be combination of The server certificate and chained certificates.

Answer 9

Just putting this here in case it helps someone, my case was different and a bit of an odd mix. I was getting this on a request that was accessed via superagent - the problem had nothing to do with certificates (which were setup properly) and all to do with the fact that I was then passing the superagent result through the async module's waterfall callback. To fix: Instead of passing the entire result, just pass result.body through the waterfall's callback.

Answer 10

I had an issue with my Apache configuration after installing a GoDaddy certificate on a subdomain. I originally thought it might be an issue with Node not sending a Server Name Indicator (SNI), but that wasn't the case. Analyzing the subdomain's SSL certificate with https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/ returned the error Chain issues: Incomplete.

After adding the GoDaddy provided gd_bundle-g2-g1.crt file via the SSLCertificateChainFile Apache directive, Node was able to connect over HTTPS and the error went away.

Answer 11

You have to include the Intermediate certificate in your server. This solves the [Error: UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE]

Answer 12

Another approach to solving this securely is to use the following module.

node_extra_ca_certs_mozilla_bundle

This module can work without any code modification by generating a PEM file that includes all root and intermediate certificates trusted by Mozilla. You can use the following environment variable (Works with Nodejs v7.3+),

NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS

To generate the PEM file to use with the above environment variable. You can install the module using:

npm install --save node_extra_ca_certs_mozilla_bundle

and then launch your node script with an environment variable.

NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=node_modules/node_extra_ca_certs_mozilla_bundle/ca_bundle/ca_intermediate_root_bundle.pem node your_script.js

Other ways to use the generated PEM file are available at:

https://github.com/arvind-agarwal/node_extra_ca_certs_mozilla_bundle

NOTE: I am the author of the above module.

Answer 13

If you come to this thread because you're using the node postgres / pg module, there is a better solution than setting NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED or rejectUnauthorized, which will lead to insecure connections.

Instead, configure the "ssl" option to match the parameters for tls.connect:

{
  ca: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/server-ca.pem').toString(),
  cert: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/client-cert.pem').toString(),
  key: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/client-key.pem').toString(),
  servername: 'my-server-name' // e.g. my-project-id/my-sql-instance-id for Google SQL
}

I've written a module to help with parsing these options from environment variables like PGSSLROOTCERT, PGSSLCERT, and PGSSLKEY:

https://github.com/programmarchy/pg-ssl

Answer 14

Following commands worked for me :

> npm config set strict-ssl false
> npm cache clean --force

The problem is that you are attempting to install a module from a repository with a bad or untrusted SSL[Secure Sockets Layer] certificate. Once you clean the cache, this problem will be resolved.You might need to turn it to true later on.