'SSL connect error' when using R download.file("https://..") from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

user_8603693 0
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I am trying to obtain a zip from a https:// website:

url <- 'https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/tbl/csv/23100008-eng.zip'
file_path <- './data/mydata.zip'
download.file(url, file_path)

I also have tried changing the method to 'curl', 'libcurl and 'get'

I get:

trying URL 'https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/tbl/csv/23100008-eng.zip'
Error in download.file(url, file_path) : 
  cannot open URL 'https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/tbl/csv/23100008-eng.zip'
In addition: Warning message:
In download.file(url, file_path) :
  URL 'https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/tbl/csv/23100008-eng.zip': status was 'SSL connect error'

My sessionInfo()

R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
Running under: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Matrix products: default
BLAS:   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/blas/libblas.so.3.9.0
LAPACK: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lapack/liblapack.so.3.9.0

locale:
 [1] LC_CTYPE=en_CA.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C               LC_TIME=en_CA.UTF-8       
 [4] LC_COLLATE=en_CA.UTF-8     LC_MONETARY=en_CA.UTF-8    LC_MESSAGES=en_CA.UTF-8   
 [7] LC_PAPER=en_CA.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C                  LC_ADDRESS=C              
[10] LC_TELEPHONE=C             LC_MEASUREMENT=en_CA.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C       

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] Rcpp_1.0.4.6     lubridate_1.7.9  crayon_1.3.4     dplyr_1.0.0     
 [5] R6_2.4.1         lifecycle_0.2.0  magrittr_1.5     pillar_1.4.4    
 [9] httr_1.4.1       stringi_1.4.6    rlang_0.4.6      rstudioapi_0.11 
[13] snakecase_0.11.0 vctrs_0.3.1      generics_0.0.2   ellipsis_0.3.1  
[17] tools_4.0.2      stringr_1.4.0    glue_1.4.1       purrr_0.3.4     
[21] janitor_2.0.1    compiler_4.0.2   pkgconfig_2.0.3  tidyselect_1.1.0
[25] tibble_3.0.1

Oddly enough, the code runs perfectly in a Win OS but not in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS OS. I am not sure, but the issue seems to be a CA one which I have not been able to solve.

From my terminal:

openssl version -a
OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020
built on: Mon Apr 20 11:53:50 2020 UTC
platform: debian-amd64
options:  bn(64,64) rc4(16x,int) des(int) blowfish(ptr) 
compiler: gcc -fPIC -pthread -m64 -Wa,--noexecstack -Wall -Wa,--noexecstack -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/openssl-P_ODHM/openssl-1.1.1f=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -DOPENSSL_TLS_SECURITY_LEVEL=2 -DOPENSSL_USE_NODELETE -DL_ENDIAN -DOPENSSL_PIC -DOPENSSL_CPUID_OBJ -DOPENSSL_IA32_SSE2 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT5 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_GF2m -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM -DKECCAK1600_ASM -DRC4_ASM -DMD5_ASM -DAESNI_ASM -DVPAES_ASM -DGHASH_ASM -DECP_NISTZ256_ASM -DX25519_ASM -DPOLY1305_ASM -DNDEBUG -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2
OPENSSLDIR: "/usr/lib/ssl"
ENGINESDIR: "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/engines-1.1"
Seeding source: os-specific

I tried using httr:

library(httr)
set_config(config(ssl_verifypeer = FALSE))
httr::GET("https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/tbl/csv/23100008-eng.zip")
Error in curl::curl_fetch_memory(url, handle = handle) : 
  error:1414D172:SSL routines:tls12_check_peer_sigalg:wrong signature type

I also tried modifying the openssl.cnf, but I am still getting the same 'SSL connect error'

ca openssl https r ssl
1 Answers

Instructions to change the openssl.file:

  1. Find where the openssl.cnf file is stored by running from your terminal:

    openssl version -d

  2. Run: sudo nano /usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf

  3. Modify the config file as follows: Add at the begining:

    openssl_conf = default_conf

and at the end add:

[ default_conf ]

ssl_conf = ssl_sect

[ssl_sect]

system_default = ssl_default_sect

[ssl_default_sect]
MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
CipherString = DEFAULT:@SECLEVEL=1

Next open RStudio:

file_path <- './data/raw/nmvs_data.zip'
url <- 'https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/tbl/csv/23100008-eng.zip'
download.file(url, file_path)
trying URL 'https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/tbl/csv/23100008-eng.zip'
Content type 'application/zip' length 3103330 bytes (3.0 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 3.0 MB

I also want to mention that these instructions helped me also to install the sf R package.

Thanks to Matt Caswell for his response. It would be neat to learn how to set up the path to point to another .cnf from RStudio (something similar to export OPENSSL_CONF=/home/Documents/new_openssl.cnf from terminal)

user_86036930
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