Web Client Exception: The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel

Question

I have a simple app that uses the C# Web Client class to download a websites HTML. This is a stripped down sample of the code I\'m using:

WebClient wc = new Web         


        

Answer 1

I had this issue with message:

Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel.

I was connecting to a web service on an Apache server using a .NET client. This is what corrected the problem for me.

(proxy).UserAgent = "Apache-HttpClient/4.1.1 (java 1.5)";

Answer 2

Try this:
What you would want to do is, to install the certificate into your local machine.

The procedure if it was not in code would be to do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer in Administrator mode (not Chrome).
2. Go to the site
3. Select proceed
4. Click the titelbar / url bar on the certificate, to view the certificate.
5. Click install certificate.

So you can try to have a look at these other questions and see if they help you:

• How can I install a certificate into the local machine store programmatically using c#?
• Install certificates in to the Windows Local user certificate store in C#

Try to install the certificate and see if you go to the url again, if it asks to proceed.

****EDIT**:
I read the site certificate, it is because there is a mismatch between the certificate and the site's url.

A simple change would be this:

htmlCode = wc.DownloadString("https://oig.hhs.gov/exclusions/exclusions_list.asp");

Just remove the www.

Answer 3

To go even further building off of Leon Cullens' answer I came up with the following. Like he said in his answer, this should not be something you do as a permanent solution but in a case where you are getting this error intentionally this might help you out. This should add a little more security to situations where you do not have a choice and just need it to work.

My current situation is during development purposes I needed to use a self signed certificate and not a genuine signed certificate. This of course leads to the following error...

"The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel."

Here is what I did to try and make it just a little more secure and try to avoid the "middle man attacks". I tried to make this as short and simple as possible but wanted to make sure I painted the whole picture to make it easy to understand.

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Security;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.Threading;

namespace TestSecurity
{
    class TestDownload
    {
        private void client_DownloadProgressChanged(object sender, DownloadProgressChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            //Progress in the download
        }

        private void client_DownloadDataCompleted(object sender, DownloadDataCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            //Download has completed
        }

        private bool client_RemoteCertificateValidation(object sender, X509Certificate certificate, X509Chain chain, SslPolicyErrors sslPolicyErrors)
        {
            if (sslPolicyErrors == SslPolicyErrors.RemoteCertificateChainErrors)
            {
                //Check to make sure the domain is correct
                X509Certificate2 certificate_details = (X509Certificate2)certificate;
                if (certificate_details.Thumbprint == "91A92CA60555DB51BEDDFE1AE4ECE54C8EBEBA97")
                {
                    #region Fingerprint for certificate
                    string storedFingerprint = "" +
                    "42048c788db687ed84407da10f78182e3487d1fc31c07ee131151f4e19b360ad2a8c452c2e7d614a5691d5479787fe70dabd" +
                    "64617465732e626c75656172726f77646576656c6f706d656e742e636f6d3110300e06035504080c0747656f72676961311f" +
                    "301d060355040a0c16426c7565204172726f7720446576656c6f706d656e74310b3009060355040613025553312f302d0609" +
                    "2a864886f70d0109011620737570706f727440626c75656172726f77646576656c6f706d656e742e636f6d31123010060355" +
                    "04070c09436c6576656c616e64301e170d3136303232393231313733335a170d3137303232383231313733335a3081b03129" +
                    "302706035504030c20757064617465732e626c75656172726f77646576656c6f706d656e742e636f6d3110300e0603550408" +
                    "42048c788db687ed84407da10f78182e3487d1fc31c07ee131151f4e19b360ad2a8c452c2e7d614a5691d5479787fe70dabd" +
                    "0613025553312f302d06092a864886f70d0109011620737570706f727440626c75656172726f77646576656c6f706d656e74" +
                    "2e636f6d3112301006035504070c09436c6576656c616e6430820122300d06092a864886f70d01010105000382010f003082" +
                    "010a0282010100a1cdf5af6f1bba5cc8495d8061895f39858fde814f5581266505bf4cbe0b26506278bc247963bb7c42f0b8" +
                    "b00638871932ed7d0a3c6562be8e5b513f24da2768051acde875b53bf94c8ea2cec397145db206b2524c42a2019a0bfa14e2" +
                    "a7ef0d311235e07b7e0363345fd7f397e365c0865b1b8fa8ad7eebdc1fcdce360db04f2822438621534ae10744155a710641" +
                    "9a69c16745974a37c5b06917036351b92c06540a6c70aa776c143eef6f7b8ec31c0c40a9eab8a399c9065bea688ea7bd1db2" +
                    "30af56d2ca0f8983f9e8dacb5613755fbcd8229d7042668a9130468a7480a2afde8c18bab895472ddf1ed2c49291c04e8cc2" +
                    "ff24db33d231b3a2498c03a5650203010001a34d304b301d0603551d0e0416041476b5c2c82ff138b87c0e2d6c046af4c634" +
                    "55040a0c16426c75652048c1f54dcb82e3487d1fc31c07ee1313fba9204c7b3232ba9204c7b323a021abcbda85bfca9c9931" +
                    "092a864886f70d01010b050003820101001ab0dfd318cc2e93a997445d0950ffcb63544c58fe1ded6e234aa7ccdcb5c890b1" +
                    "61b51ae08c1f54dcb3fbeca9c9932bde91d202b89c0b6f0af1a370017fa9f6a021abcbda85bfecebebc6d6067d4dc1e51ec5" +
                    "02cf95867516a84f01410cf80d7af4f0d3e9a86cf7b0323dba9204c7b3232c58b2289032a12aaa1ec4f64065da8bbde4fe47" +
                    "42048c788db687ed84407da10f78182e3487d1fc31c07ee131151f4e19b360ad2a8c452c2e7d614a5691d5479787fe70dabd" +
                    "de819522bb7ef870595d9738a6acdd39b7fcf6f36948ef2b404c2b6d7ebe577555148ad90013a5c2e812b2b907c808288040" +
                    "0db6702407585328f7e6c84b40451384391783001174d0";
                    #endregion

                    //Use the following to get the server's fingerprint to be saved and compared against
                    StringBuilder hex = new StringBuilder(certificate_details.RawData.Length * 2);
                    foreach (byte b in certificate_details.RawData)
                        hex.AppendFormat("{0:x2}", b);
                    string serverFingerprint = hex.ToString();

                    if (serverFingerprint == storedFingerprint) return true;
                    else return false;
                }
                else return false;
            }
            else if (sslPolicyErrors == SslPolicyErrors.None)
                return true;
            else
                return false;
        }

        public void TestDownload(Uri targetURL, bool useCredentials, string user, string pass)
        {
            WebClient client = new WebClient();
            bool taskCompleted = false;

            //Create the event handlers to monitor progress
            client.DownloadProgressChanged += new DownloadProgressChangedEventHandler(client_DownloadProgressChanged);
            client.DownloadDataCompleted += new DownloadDataCompletedEventHandler(client_DownloadDataCompleted);
            ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback += new RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(client_RemoteCertificateValidation);

            //Resolve the host
            IPHostEntry host = Dns.GetHostEntry(targetURL.Host);
            IPAddress ip = (host.AddressList.Length > 0 ? host.AddressList[0] : null);

            //Show the UI the resolved host

            //Account for credentials
            if (useCredentials)
            {
                NetworkCredential credentials = new NetworkCredential(
                    user,
                    pass);
                client.Credentials = credentials;
            }
            else client.Credentials = null;

            //Download file
            client.DownloadDataAsync(targetURL, taskCompleted);

            //Go to sleep until the file download has completed
            do { Thread.Sleep(500); } while (client.IsBusy);

            //File download complete

            //Destory the event handlers as they are no longer needed
            ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback -= client_RemoteCertificateValidation;
            client.DownloadProgressChanged -= client_DownloadProgressChanged;
            client.DownloadDataCompleted -= client_DownloadDataCompleted;
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

As far as I know this is because they use a invalid or expired SSL certificate. You can bypass (ignore) it by using:

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

Edit 2015:

This post is getting a lot of upvotes, but I regret my answer. It may remove your error, but it won't fix the issue. Accepting any SSL certificates will leave you vulnerable for man in the middle attacks, so it's generally a very bad idea. I will leave this answer for future reference, but please take note that you should try to fix the issue at the root, namely by making sure the SSL certificate is valid.

Answer 5

According to this Answer, add this line before using WebClient instance:

ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = new        
RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(delegate { return true; });