python - pip: cert failed, but curl works

Question

We installed the our root cert on the client, and the https connection works for curl.

But if we try to use pip, it fails:

Could not fetch URL https://installserver:40443/pypi/simple/pep8/:
There was a problem confirming the ssl certificate: 
<urlopen error [Errno 1] _ssl.c:499: error:14090086:SSL
routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed>

The cert is on the client. See:

(foo_fm_qti)foo_fm_qti@vis-work:~$ curl -v https://installserver:40443/pypi/simple/pep8/
* About to connect() to installserver port 40443 (#0)
*   Trying 127.0.0.1... connected
* Connected to installserver (127.0.0.1) port 40443 (#0)
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: none
  CApath: /etc/ssl/certs/
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS alert, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server key exchange (12):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server finished (14):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16):
* SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
* Server certificate:
*    subject: C=DE; ST=Sachsen; L=Chemnitz; O=FOO-COM GmbH; OU=DV; CN=gray.foo-com.lan; [email protected]
*    start date: 2013-09-09 10:47:50 GMT
*    expire date: 2019-05-24 10:47:50 GMT
*    subjectAltName: installserver matched
*    issuer: C=DE; ST=Sachsen; L=Chemnitz; O=FOO-COM GmbH; CN=FOO-COM Root CA; [email protected]
*    SSL certificate verify ok.
> GET /pypi/simple/pep8/ HTTP/1.1

Version: pip 1.4.1

Answer 1

Unfortunately pip does not use the system certs, but curl does.

I found a solution:

pip --cert /etc/ssl/certs/FOO_Root_CA.pem install pep8

This is not nice (curl and other libraries find the cert without adding a parameter) but works.

If you don't want to use the command line argument, you can set the cert in ~/.pip/pip.conf:

[global]
cert = /etc/ssl/certs/Foo_Root_CA.pem