3.63. Disabling SSL verification for a site

SSL certificates are used to ensure that the connection between your server and the server of a target site is secure. There are certificate authorities that assert an SSL certificate is indeed valid. The root certificates of these authorities must be available in your server so that the SSL certificates of the target sites can be verified when a connection between your server and the target site’s server is created.

Sometimes, your server does not have the root certificates that can assert that the SSL certificate of the target site is valid. In this case, because a secure connection cannot be established, the plugin is not able to retrieve the source code from the target site. This is because the plugin, by default, enables SSL verification.

If you cannot configure your server to contain the root certificates that can be used to validate the SSL certificate of the target site, you can disable the SSL verification. To do this, follow the steps below:

Warning

Disabling the SSL verification is dangerous and not recommended. The correct approach is to configure your server to contain the correct root certificates, not to disable SSL verification. Proceed only if you tried to configure your server and could not succeed.

  1. Go to Site Settings Page and use custom general settings by following the Using custom general settings for a site guide.
  2. Go to the Settings Tab and check the checkbox of Disable SSL verification? setting.
  3. Save the site settings (See: Saving The Settings)

After this change, the plugin will not verify the SSL certificate of the site. You can no longer trust that the responses are retrieved from the target site, but the plugin will be able to retrieve the responses.