Problems with LWP and access to https URL’s : 500 read failed: error:1408F10B:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_RECORD:wrong version number

If you’re using perl scripts on your server that use LWP and suddenly find them failing with connections to https resources with the following type error:


500 read failed: error:1408F10B:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_RECORD:wrong version number

then you’ve probably got LWP v5.811 installed which breaks SSL connections! The author fixed the problem he created after about two days with v5.812 but the damage was done on many servers. cPanel have put a hold back on cpan module updates for LWP to v5.810 but if your servers already upgraded LWP then you’ll need to either upgrade it manually from the cpan source to v5.812 or downgrade to v5.810.

Downgrading LWP:

wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/G/GA/GAAS/libwww-perl-5.810.tar.gz
tar -xzf libwww-perl-5.810.tar.gz
cd libwww-perl-5.810
perl Makefile.PL
make
(take the default options unless you want to additional binaries installed)
make install

OR

Easier Way is to upgrade using cpan

Upgrading LWP:

# cpan
CPAN: File::HomeDir loaded ok (v0.80)
Exiting subroutine via last at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/CPAN.pm line 1450.
cpan>upgrade LWP
This should fix the error 🙂

Leave a Comment