tls.checkServerIdentity throws TypeError: Cannot read property 'CN' of undefined (tls.js:182:37)

[andiby]

I have a script that connects to my FTPS server (vsftpd) with a valid TLS certificate.
This script was running with node 0.10.x, but with node 0.12.0 it throws the exception:

tls.js:182
      var commonNames = cert.subject.CN;
                                    ^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'CN' of undefined
    at Object.checkServerIdentity (tls.js:182:37)
    at TLSSocket.<anonymous> (_tls_wrap.js:932:31)
    at TLSSocket.emit (events.js:104:17)
    at TLSSocket._finishInit (_tls_wrap.js:458:8)

My debugging showed me that cert is an empty object.
This object comes from _tls_wrap.js - getPeerCertificate().
The documentation says: "If the peer does not provide a certificate, it returns null or an empty object."
So checkServerIdentity should check if cert has a cert.subject instead of throwing this exception.
And I do not know why cert is an empty object because there should be a valid certificate.

[jasnell]

Agreed on the point that the code ought to be checking cert.subject.

[anweiss]

Any updates on this issue?

[jonathanong]

seeing the same issue. should we reopen in the io.js or node.js-convergence repos?