Troubleshooting TLS verification errors installing VS Code extensions

SSL

TLS

VS Code

Published

January 6, 2026

Abstract

TLS verification errors installing VS Code extensions

Description

When installing VS Code extensions, an SSL error may occur similar to this:

Failed to install extension. ms-python.python
Error: self signed certificate in certificate chain
at TLSSocket.onConnectSecure (node:tlswrap:1532:34)
at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:527:28)
at TLSSocket.finishInit (node:tls_wr","seqId":2}]

This error may occur in environments where outbound TLS traffic is inspected or decrypted.

Solution

If a TLS certificate is injected by an inspection process, for example a proxy server, and that certificate is already added to the trusted system CA store, you can instruct the use of that CA store through an environment variable.

Edit or create the launcher-env configuration file to pass in the environment variable NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS with /path/to/root/ca/file:

/etc/rstudio/launcher-env


JobType: Session
Workbench: vs code
Environment: NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/path/to/root/ca/file

/path/to/root/ca/file is different based on your Linux distribution.

RHEL locates the system CA bundle at this path: /etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/pem/tls-ca-bundle.pem

Ubuntu locates the system CA bundle at this path: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

Then restart the rstudio-launcher and rstudio-server service.

See the complete configuration options in the Posit Workbench’s Launcher environment section of the documentation: https://docs.posit.co/ide/server-pro/admin/job_launcher/configuration.html#launcher-env-conf

If you’re still having issues, you can reach out to Support by opening a ticket.