cURL error 60: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate (see https:\/\/curl.haxx.se\/libcurl\/c\/libcurl-errors.html)

The error message “cURL error 60: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate” indicates that cURL is unable to verify the SSL certificate of the Rockstar SMS API endpoint.

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✅ How to Fix It

There are three possible solutions depending on your environment.

🔹 1. Update the cURL CA Bundle (Recommended)

If you are running Laravel on a local development environment (Windows, macOS, Linux), your cURL installation may not have the latest Certificate Authority (CA) bundle.

Steps to update it:

1. Download the latest CA certificate bundle:

• Visit https://curl.se/ca/cacert.pem
• Save it to a location like C:\cacert.pem (Windows) or /etc/ssl/cacert.pem (Linux/macOS)

2. Modify the php.ini file to use this certificate:

• Open php.ini (Find its location using php --ini)
• Look for curl.cainfo and openssl.cafile, then set them to the downloaded file:iniCopyEditcurl.cainfo = "C:\cacert.pem" # For Windows openssl.cafile = "/etc/ssl/cacert.pem" # For Linux/macOS
• Restart Apache/Nginx or your PHP server.

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🔹 2. Temporarily Disable SSL Verification (Not Recommended for Production)

If this issue is blocking local development and you just want to bypass SSL verification, you can disable SSL verification in Laravel’s HTTP client by adding withOptions(['verify' => false]):

$response = Http::asForm()->withOptions(['verify' => false])->post($url, $fields);

🔴 Warning:

• This bypasses SSL verification, making your application vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Only use this for debugging on localhost, NOT in production.

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🔹 3. Update Your System’s CA Certificates (Linux/macOS Servers)

If your Laravel project is running on a Linux or macOS server, update your CA certificates:

For Ubuntu/Debian:

apt update && sudo apt install --reinstall ca-certificates
update-ca-certificates

For CentOS/RHEL:

yum update ca-certificates

For macOS (Homebrew Users):

brew update
brew reinstall ca-certificates

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✅ Which Solution Should You Choose?

Solution	Use Case	Security Impact
1. Update cURL CA bundle (Recommended)	Local development, missing CA certificates	✅ Secure
2. Disable SSL verification (Quick Fix)	Debugging, temporary fix	🔴 Insecure
3. Update system CA certificates	Live servers (Linux/macOS)	✅ Secure

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