1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. Products Blog
  4. WebCopy 1.7 - tls/ssl invalid certificate handling

Products Blog Articles and information on Cyotek's products

This content has moved - please find it at https://blog.cyotek.com.

Although these pages remain accessible, some content may not display correctly in future as the new blog evolves.

Visit https://blog.cyotek.com.

WebCopy 1.7 - tls/ssl invalid certificate handling

Richard Moss Cyotek WebCopy 1 comment

You should add an option to ignore checking for an SSL certificate.

The above quote is the last part of a piece of uninstallation feedback I received about WebCopy on Friday. This isn't the first time I've had an anonymous feedback about ignoring SSL errors and each time it has happened it has been frustrating and even bewildering as the option is already there and has been since 2013!

As a result a small usability change has been made to 1.7. Now, when you copy a website, if your project hasn't been configured to ignore SSL errors and it detects the primary website is using an invalid certificate it will prompt you on what to do.

An example of WebCopy prompting how to handle an invalid certificate

In the above dialog, clicking Cancel will abort the crawl. Clicking Ignore will resume crawling the website, ignoring any certificate issues. There is also a View button to display the actual certificate itself.

Viewing an invalid certificate using built in Windows tools

As it stands, I'm not really happy with the Ignore Certificate Errors option as it will apply to any URL detected by the crawl, including 3rd party domains. I've logged #338 to investigate adding more control so you can ignore errors on specific domains for example. Of course I'm fully aware this will add even more complexity... in between a rock and a hard place.

In 1.7, the SSL options have also been moved - previously they were under the Advanced category, now they are under the General category and so hopefully are easier to find.

The slightly reorganised Project Properties dialog

This new prompt is currently available in 1.7 nightly builds, please let us know if the dialog helps or hinders, or if you have any other feedback about either this feature of WebCopy in general.

Update History

  • 2018-11-04 - First published
  • 2020-11-23 - Updated formatting
← Previous: WebCopy 1.7 - web browser authentication
Next: WebCopy 1.7 - local file name generation →

Leave a Comment

While we appreciate comments from our users, please follow our posting guidelines. Have you tried the Cyotek Forums for support from Cyotek and the community?

Styling with Markdown is supported

Comments

Gravatar

Jürgen

# Reply

Hi thanks for your GREAT piece of software. You should also include an option to ignore SSL erros inside quick scan. The very first think I did when entering the url was checking for a quick scan. And there was nothing to see, no page, no error message. Juergen