I'm trying to make a HTTPS request-promise. I already know that the PFX is good and that is not the issue (I have a similar sample app working).

I am doing the following:

var request = require('request-promise');

...

options.pfx = fs.readFileSync('myfile.pfx');
options.passphrase = 'passphrase';

I am passing my options into an request.

request.post(options);

I then try to build the request I get the following error:

_tls_mon.js:130
  c.context.loadPKCS12(pfx, passphrase);
            ^

Error: Unable to load BIO
at Error (native)
at Object.createSecureContext (_tls_mon.js:130:17)
at Object.exports.connect (_tls_wrap.js:955:21)
at Agent.createConnection (https.js:73:22)
at Agent.createSocket (_http_agent.js:174:16)
at Agent.addRequest (_http_agent.js:143:23)
at new ClientRequest (_http_client.js:133:16)
at Object.exports.request (http.js:31:10)
at Object.exports.request (https.js:163:15)
at Request.start (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:747:30)
at Request.write (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:1369:10)
at end (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:561:16)
at Immediate._onImmediate (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:589:7)
at processImmediate [as _immediateCallback] (timers.js:374:17)

I have a sample app where the same code works. I've tried to convert to .p12 without success.

Does anyone have an idea what this error might refer to?

Edit: I'm using lodash to do a merge of 2 objects with dinamic properties and static properties

_.merge(options, _this.requestOptions);

And that was causing the problem

I'm trying to make a HTTPS request-promise. I already know that the PFX is good and that is not the issue (I have a similar sample app working).

I am doing the following:

var request = require('request-promise');

...

options.pfx = fs.readFileSync('myfile.pfx');
options.passphrase = 'passphrase';

I am passing my options into an request.

request.post(options);

I then try to build the request I get the following error:

_tls_mon.js:130
  c.context.loadPKCS12(pfx, passphrase);
            ^

Error: Unable to load BIO
at Error (native)
at Object.createSecureContext (_tls_mon.js:130:17)
at Object.exports.connect (_tls_wrap.js:955:21)
at Agent.createConnection (https.js:73:22)
at Agent.createSocket (_http_agent.js:174:16)
at Agent.addRequest (_http_agent.js:143:23)
at new ClientRequest (_http_client.js:133:16)
at Object.exports.request (http.js:31:10)
at Object.exports.request (https.js:163:15)
at Request.start (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:747:30)
at Request.write (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:1369:10)
at end (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:561:16)
at Immediate._onImmediate (/Users/filomeno/workspace/sla-crawler/node_modules/request/request.js:589:7)
at processImmediate [as _immediateCallback] (timers.js:374:17)

I have a sample app where the same code works. I've tried to convert to .p12 without success.

Does anyone have an idea what this error might refer to?

Edit: I'm using lodash to do a merge of 2 objects with dinamic properties and static properties

_.merge(options, _this.requestOptions);

And that was causing the problem

• javascript
• node.js
• ssl
• https
• pfx

Share Improve this question Follow edited Apr 6, 2016 at 21:24 fasantos asked Mar 1, 2016 at 17:25 fasantosfasantos 18911 gold badge33 silver badges1212 bronze badges 3

• Did you find anything? I'm getting the exact same error – Nikoloz Shvelidze Commented Apr 4, 2016 at 8:26
• What's different between this code, and the sample app where "the same code works"? I.e. are the two apps run by different users (suggesting filesystem permissions on the myfile.pfx file)? Does the PFX file in question use the same passphrase for protecting the container and the private key, or different passphrases? – Castaglia Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 19:17
• My problem was lodash I was doing a '_.merge(options, _this.requestOptions); ' that was messing with my encoding. – fasantos Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 21:18

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 6 +50

Looking at the nodejs source code (specifically this file https://github./nodejs/node/blob/master/src/node_crypto)

the error is thrown by this function

// Takes .pfx or .p12 and password in string or buffer format
void SecureContext::LoadPKCS12(const FunctionCallbackInfo<Value>& args) {
   Environment* env = Environment::GetCurrent(args);
   ...

In line 964

in = LoadBIO(env, args[0]);
if (in == nullptr) {
   return env->ThrowError("Unable to load BIO");
}

Where the LoadBIO returns null

// Takes a string or buffer and loads it into a BIO.
// Caller responsible for BIO_free_all-ing the returned object.
static BIO* LoadBIO(Environment* env, Local<Value> v) {
  HandleScope scope(env->isolate());

  if (v->IsString()) {
    const node::Utf8Value s(env->isolate(), v);
    return NodeBIO::NewFixed(*s, s.length());
  }

  if (Buffer::HasInstance(v)) {
    return NodeBIO::NewFixed(Buffer::Data(v), Buffer::Length(v));
  }

  return nullptr;
}

Perhaps the buffer is somehow not readable? Also it seems that the function is expecting an utf-8 encoded string.

Some ideas:

Are you sure the path to the file is correct?

Maybe encoding issue? Did you try to set fs.readFileSync() encoding explicitly?

Try with fs.readFile(<filename>, <encoding>, function(error, data){}) to see if it throws an error?