Cannot compile ssl_verify_fun in Windows 11

Background

I have a phoenix application in Windows 11. Unfortunately for me, I cannot compile the application because of a dependency error in Windows.

What I tried

First I tried the downloading Erlang from the official website (Downloads - Erlang/OTP), and Elixir
1.15.4 for OTP 26 (Installing Elixir - The Elixir programming language)

Unfortunately for me, I was greeted with an error when running mix phx.server.

$ mix deps.compile ssl_verify_fun
==> ssl_verify_fun
Compiling 7 files (.erl)
src/ssl_verify_hostname.erl:16: can't find include lib "public_key/include/public_key.hrl"

So, this lead me into this Elixir thread where the same issue happens for Ubuntu:

The solution found was for the user to install a special erlang package for Ubuntu, erlang-dev. However, since I am on Windows, I don’t really have that option.

So I removed both Erlang and Elixir and installed them using scoop, hoping the older versions of both Elixir and Erlang available there would be free of this issue.

With scoop I am now using:

elixir 1.15.4   main   2023-07-27 10:27:04
erlang 25.3.2.4 main   2023-07-27 10:10:31

Error

However, this still does not fix the issue, as I am greeted with a barrage of errors:

==> ssl_verify_fun
Compiling 7 files (.erl)
src/ssl_verify_fingerprint.erl:15:14: can't find include lib "public_key/include/public_key.hrl"
%   15| -include_lib("public_key/include/public_key.hrl").
%     |              ^

src/ssl_verify_pk.erl:14:14: can't find include lib "public_key/include/public_key.hrl"
%   14| -include_lib("public_key/include/public_key.hrl").
%     |              ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:13:14: can't find include lib "public_key/include/public_key.hrl"
%   13| -include_lib("public_key/include/public_key.hrl").
%     |              ^

src/ssl_verify_fingerprint.erl:27:26: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   27| -spec verify_fun(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{},
%     |                          ^

src/ssl_verify_pk.erl:26:26: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   26| -spec verify_fun(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{},
%     |                          ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:23:34: undefined macro 'id-ce-subjectAltName'
%   23|   AltSubject = select_extension(?'id-ce-subjectAltName', Extensions),
%     |                                  ^

src/ssl_verify_fingerprint.erl:29:39: record 'Extension' undefined
%   29|                           {extension, #'Extension'{}}, InitialUserState :: term()) ->
%     |                                       ^

src/ssl_verify_pk.erl:28:39: record 'Extension' undefined
%   28|                           {extension, #'Extension'{}}, InitialUserState :: term()) ->
%     |                                       ^

src/ssl_verify_hostname.erl:16:14: can't find include lib "public_key/include/public_key.hrl"
%   16| -include_lib("public_key/include/public_key.hrl").
%     |              ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:9:2: function extract_dns_names/1 undefined
%    9| -export([extract_dns_names/1,
%     |  ^

src/ssl_verify_fingerprint.erl:52:39: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   52| -spec verify_cert_fingerprint(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}, Fingerprint :: fingerprint()) ->
%     |                                       ^

src/ssl_verify_pk.erl:51:30: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   51| -spec verify_cert_pk(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}, Pk :: pk()) ->
%     |                              ^

src/ssl_verify_hostname.erl:28:26: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   28| -spec verify_fun(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{},
%     |                          ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:19:2: spec for undefined function extract_dns_names/1
%   19| -spec extract_dns_names(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}) -> [] | [string()].
%     |  ^

src/ssl_verify_hostname.erl:30:39: record 'Extension' undefined
%   30|                           {extension, #'Extension'{}}, InitialUserState :: term()) ->
%     |                                       ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:19:33: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   19| -spec extract_dns_names(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}) -> [] | [string()].
%     |                                 ^

src/ssl_verify_hostname.erl:46:36: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   46| -spec verify_cert_hostname(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}, Hostname :: hostname()) ->
%     |                                    ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:32:26: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   32| -spec extract_cn(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}) -> {error, no_common_name} | {ok, string()} | {error, invalid}.
%     |                          ^

src/ssl_verify_hostname.erl:76:38: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   76|                              Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{},
%     |                                      ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:34:17: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   34|   TBSCert = Cert#'OTPCertificate'.tbsCertificate,
%     |                 ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:35:32: record 'OTPTBSCertificate' undefined
%   35|   {rdnSequence, List} = TBSCert#'OTPTBSCertificate'.subject,
%     |                                ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:38:26: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   38| -spec extract_pk(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}) -> {error, no_common_name} | #'SubjectPublicKeyInfo'{}.
%     |                          ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:38:76: record 'SubjectPublicKeyInfo' undefined
%   38| -spec extract_pk(Cert :: #'OTPCertificate'{}) -> {error, no_common_name} | #'SubjectPublicKeyInfo'{}.
%     |                                                                            ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:40:17: record 'OTPCertificate' undefined
%   40|   TBSCert = Cert#'OTPCertificate'.tbsCertificate,
%     |                 ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:41:26: record 'OTPTBSCertificate' undefined
%   41|   PublicKeyInfo = TBSCert#'OTPTBSCertificate'.subjectPublicKeyInfo,
%     |                          ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:42:16: record 'OTPSubjectPublicKeyInfo' undefined
%   42|   PublicKeyInfo#'OTPSubjectPublicKeyInfo'.subjectPublicKey.
%     |                ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:48:24: record 'Extension' undefined
%   48| -spec extensions_list([#'Extension'{}] | asn1_NOVALUE) -> [] | [#'Extension'{}].
ean it with "mix deps.clean ssl_verify_fun"n, "mix compile" failed. Errors may have been logged above. You can recompile this dependency with "mix deps.compile ssl_verify_fun --force", update it with "mix deps.update ssl_verify_fun" or cl%     |                        ^
src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:48:65: record 'Extension' undefined
%   48| -spec extensions_list([#'Extension'{}] | asn1_NOVALUE) -> [] | [#'Extension'{}].
%     |                                                                 ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:55:39: record 'Extension' undefined
%   55| -spec select_extension(Id :: term(), [#'Extension'{}]) -> undefined | #'Extension'{}.
%     |                                       ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:55:71: record 'Extension' undefined
%   55| -spec select_extension(Id :: term(), [#'Extension'{}]) -> undefined | #'Extension'{}.
%     |                                                                       ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:57:28: record 'Extension' undefined
%   57|   Matching = [Extension || #'Extension'{extnID = ExtId} = Extension <- Extensions, ExtId =:= Id],
%     |                            ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:57:84: variable 'ExtId' is unbound
%   57|   Matching = [Extension || #'Extension'{extnID = ExtId} = Extension <- Extensions, ExtId =:= Id],
%     |                                                                                    ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:75:15: record 'AttributeTypeAndValue' undefined
%   75| extract_cn2([[#'AttributeTypeAndValue'{type={2, 5, 4, 3},
%     |               ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:77:39: variable 'CN' is unbound
%   77|   ssl_verify_fun_encodings:get_string(CN);
%     |                                       ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:49:1: Warning: function extensions_list/1 is unused
%   49| extensions_list(E) ->
%     | ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:56:1: Warning: function select_extension/2 is unused
%   56| select_extension(Id, Extensions) ->
%     | ^

src/ssl_verify_fun_cert_helpers.erl:64:1: Warning: function extract_dns_names_from_alt_names/2 is unused
%   64| extract_dns_names_from_alt_names([ExtValue | Rest], Acc) ->
%     | ^

At this point, given my setup is on Windows, I don’t know what else to try.

Question

How can I fix this issue?

Hate to be that guy but have you considered using WSL2 and install whatever Linux you want inside of it?

After some more digging I found out this issue:

Which represents my problem. Basically Elixir does not check the correct paths for the missing file:

Now, there is a possible workaround for this issue. By forcing your application to use a more updated version of the dependency in question (ssl_verify_fun), you can add this to your mix.exs file:

 {:ssl_verify_fun, "~> 1.1.7", manager: :rebar3, override: true}

However, I don’t really like this. If tomorrow the same thing happens, you have to overwrite again. And when overwrites start conflicting with each other, then you really have a problem.

In my case, I found which application was using the old version of ssl_verify_fun by looking at mix.lock. It was hackney.

I still don’t fully understand if updating hackney will fix this issue without the need to use override.

I develop in Windows because my application is for Windows users. I literally have no other choice if I want to use Elixir.

Besides, given my investigation, I have reason to believe this is not a Windows specific issue, even though I admit I have found my fair share of them thus far …

Instead of going through every dependency and trying to fix it, I took the more nuclear approach. I deleted my mix.lock and then run mix deps.update --all.

This forced some older dependencies to update. After that a simple mix deps.get fixed the issue and mix phx.server worked.

3 Likes

can confirm that i got this error on Ubuntu after upgrading to 1.15. updating to :ssl_verify_fun, "~> 1.1.7" fixed it (I didn’t override). i did also do the nuclear option, not sure if it was needed, but worked out.

2 Likes

Note that this error can also happen with the combination of :ssl_verify_fun version < 1.1.7 and Elixir version >= 1.15. You’ll need to either upgrade :ssl_verify_fun or use an older version of Elixir.