Nodejs HTTPS ECONNRESET

The https library in Nodejs enables us to make https calls to APIs under SSL/TLS protocols (encrypted channels).  When there is a communication problem in the channel, the channel is dropped from the server and the ECONNRESET error is raised on the client-side.

In Nodejs, this exception usually has the following exception detail with code source (this changes with new versions).

{ Error: read ECONNRESET    at TLSWrap.onStreamRead (internal/stream_base_commons.js:111:27)  errno: 'ECONNRESET',  code: 'ECONNRESET', syscall: 'read' }

This error is confusing because it is created by the TLSWrap.onStreamRead which may lead us to think that there is a TLS problem in communication. This is often a case when the client support version TLS 1.1 and the server only has a more recent version like TLS 1.3.  

Before we start making all kinds of changes, we need to make sure that when we make a request, we do not leave the request open.  When a request is made, we must always call the end() method of the ClientRequest object. This method is inherited (extended in TypeScript) from the WritableStream class.

When we make a request and do not call the end method, a socket connection is left open (internal implementation of HTTPS with TLS writable stream). Since there is not an explicit socket connection sending data to the server, the request will just hang, and the server will eventually just reset the connection thus the ECONNRESET exception on the client.

Take a look at this code snippet with the corresponding operations to terminate the request and handle other possible communication errors with the server.  Take notice of the timeout and end operations.

So if you see this error, just make sure to end the request. If this is already done, and the error continues to show, we need to know what version of TLS is supported by the client, so the server can accept the connection properly. Review the secureProtocol option on the http.RequestOption options and read about tls.createSecureContext here.   

Thanks for reading.

Originally published by ozkary.com