This wget recipe shows you how to make wget skip the SSL/TLS certificate check. It's often useful when your system has outdated root certificates and wget is failing for all sites.
Ignore SSL Certificate
wget --no-check-certificate https://catonmat.net
In this recipe, we use the --no-check-certificate
argument that makes wget skip checking the server's certificate. Wget will still make an encrypted connection to port 443 but no security checking will be performed.
Download a File Behind a Self-Signed Certificate
wget --no-check-certificate https://dev.myserver.local/download.zip
This recipe is useful when working on a development server that uses a self-signed SSL certificate. In this case, there's no need to import the cert. You can just skip it via the --no-check-certificate
argument.
Use with Content-Disposition File Naming
wget --no-check-certificate --content-disposition https://insecure.example.com/file
This combo of arguments lets you bypass SSL checks and respect the filename provided by the server in the Content-Disposition
header. This recipe is great for awkward endpoints that want to be helpful but can't get their TLS together.
Use with POST Request and SSL Skipping
wget --no-check-certificate --method=POST --body-data='name=catonmat&love=ssl-free-life' https://insecure.example.com/api
If you're posting data to a sketchy SSL endpoint, then this recipe lets you do it. Combine --no-check-certificate
with --method
and --body-data
to make full POST requests without certificate validation.
Save Output to Specific File Despite SSL Issues
wget --no-check-certificate -O latest.zip https://expired.badssl.com/download.zip
This recipe shows you how to download a file from a server with an expired cert. It saves the download download.zip
to a custom filename latest.zip
while ignoring SSL issues. It's handy for scripting automated downloads from crusty endpoints.
Created by Browserling
These wget recipes were written down by me and my team at Browserling. We use recipes like this every day to get things done and improve our product. Browserling itself is an online cross-browser testing service powered by alien technology. Check it out!
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