letsencrypt / letsencrypt/boulder

Handle "no route to host" during validation as a specific error type.

Open
#2,879 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

area/va kind/enhancement layer/api
Dominant language
Go
Stars
5.8k
Forks
649
Avg merge
3d 23h
Merged PRs (30d)
24

Description

Similar to #2851 presently we return "Error getting validation data" when the VA encounters a "no route to host error" (E.g. see this forum thread).

We should try and provide a more meaningful error. In particular, if possible, it seems looking at the underlying ICMP code may allow for setting a more specific error ("Host administratively prohibited - Check your firewall!") vs "No route to host".

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing the validation-authority path that currently reports "Error getting validation data" and inspect how the underlying "no route to host" error is exposed. Done means these failures produce a more meaningful specific error, distinguishing "Host administratively prohibited" when the underlying ICMP code allows it.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
networking
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.