Overcome the DEPTH_ZERO_SELF_SIGNED_CERT on Node.js

If you are making requests to a server that uses self-signed certificates in Node.js probably you already have seen the error DEPTH_ZERO_SELF_SIGNED_CERT. That's an usual error, for instance, if you are working in a test environment.

I faced this error in my test environment and after google it, I got a lot of answers telling me to set the option "rejectUnhauthorized" as false on my request to the server.

But, that doesn't make me happy. Why?

Because I'm using other node modules that do requests to the same server and I will need to "hack" those modules to inject the rejectUnhauthorized attribute. Seems boring isn't it?!

So, what I've done?

I opened my node start file and I put there the following line of code:

process.env.NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED = "0";

If you, like me, want to apply this rule only to a test/development environment, you can do this:

if ("development" == app.get("env")) {
  process.env.NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED = "0";
}

Now you are conditioning it to the environment that you want.

Hope this helps.

Source: GUIferreira