Using VS Code with self signed SSL certificates behind proxy

Similar to the case I mentioned in my previous post, you may want to use VS Code behind a proxy which also signs SSL traffic with a self signed certificate. In that case, Internet related features of the VS Code like Extensions Marketplace won’t work.

Solution

SSL certificate

If we know that the proxy checks the certificates correctly and signs the packets with a self signed certificate, we can safely ignore certificate errors by trusting the proxy.

Just start the VS Code with the --ignore-certificate-errors flag like

$ code --ignore-certificate-errors

Uyarı

This approach is suitable if you know that you are behind a proxy or a similar equipment that signs the traffic with self-signed certificates. Since --ignore-certificate-errors flag disables SSL checking, this will cause a potential security risk if you are not in such network, like working at home.

Proxy

You can set proxy for system wide or just for VS Code.

Using environment variables

On Linux (and probably somehow on Windows), you can use environment variables to pass proxy information to VS Code. Environment variables are processed in an order [^1f]. According to this, setting https_proxy should be sufficient. Generally, I set both http_proxy and https_proxy on my systems. I did a small test to check effects of setting variables on VS Code.

https_proxy	http_proxy	Works?
Correct	Correct	Yes
Correct	Incorrect	Yes
Incorrect	Correct	No
Incorrect	Incorrect	No

As you can see, setting https_proxy is sufficient but I recommend to set both https_proxy and http_proxy on your system because other software may use both of them.

For example, you can set an environment variable on Linux with ~/.bashrc. You may add the following commands at the end of the file

export http_proxy="http://<ip.addr>:<port>"
export https_proxy=$http_proxy

Only for VS Code

You can also set proxy information just for VS Code. To set proxy URL just for VS Code, go to File → Preferences → Settings and search for Proxy then enter the proxy URL in Http: Proxy. You can leave other settings at default values. (You don’t need to disable Http: Proxy Strict SSL.)

Without using GUI, in settings.json set "http.proxy":"http://<ip.addr>:<port>"

Published on: 2020-11-26