SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED MONGO ATLAS - PYTHON

Introduction

When working with MongoDB Atlas in Python using SSL, you might come across a common error message: SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED. This error occurs because Python does not recognize the SSL certificate presented by the MongoDB Atlas server.

Causes

This error can be caused by a variety of reasons, including:

1. The local system's root certificate authorities are not up to date.
2. The SSL certificate presented by the MongoDB Atlas server is invalid or expired.
3. The SSL certificate presented by the MongoDB Atlas server is self-signed or signed by an untrusted authority.

Solutions

Depending on the cause of the error, there are several solutions to resolve the SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED error when connecting to MongoDB Atlas in Python:

Updating Root Certificates

To fix this error caused by outdated root certificate authorities, you can update them using the following steps:

1. Visit https://curl.haxx.se/docs/caextract.html and download the cacert.pem file.
2. Save the cacert.pem file to your local system.
3. Set the REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE environment variable to the file path of cacert.pem.

Example code for setting the environment variable:

import os

os.environ['REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE'] = '/path/to/cacert.pem'

Validating SSL Certificate

If the SSL certificate presented by the MongoDB Atlas server is invalid or expired, you can validate it using the following steps:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to the MongoDB Atlas website.
2. Click on the "Security" tab and then click on "TLS/SSL Certificates".
3. Check the certificate's expiration date and ensure it is valid.
4. Check that the certificate's domain matches the domain used to connect to MongoDB Atlas.
5. Check that the certificate's issuer is trusted by your system.

If the certificate is valid, try connecting to MongoDB Atlas again.

Using Untrusted SSL Certificates

If the SSL certificate presented by the MongoDB Atlas server is self-signed or signed by an untrusted authority, you can bypass SSL verification using the following steps:

1. Set the ssl_cert_reqs parameter to ssl.CERT_NONE when creating the MongoClient instance.
2. Wrap the connection code in a try and except block to catch any SSL certificate verification errors.

Example code for bypassing SSL verification:

import ssl
from pymongo import MongoClient

# Set ssl_cert_reqs to ssl.CERT_NONE
client = MongoClient('mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@<cluster>.mongodb.net/test?retryWrites=true&w=majority',
                     ssl=True, ssl_cert_reqs=ssl.CERT_NONE)

try:
   # Use the client to perform operations on the MongoDB Atlas cluster
   db_list = client.list_database_names()
except ssl.CertificateError as e:
   # Handle any SSL certificate verification errors
   print(e)

Conclusion

By using the above solutions, you should now be able to successfully connect to MongoDB Atlas in Python while avoiding the SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED error. It is important to keep your SSL certificates up to date and be aware of any SSL certificate verification errors.