[SOLVED] Fixing “curl error 60: SSL Certificate Problem” in Laravel on Windows

Introduction

I recently tried to create a new Laravel project on my Windows PC and immediately ran into an annoying SSL certificate error, something that I had never come across before. As soon as I typed laravel new project_name command on the terminal, I faced this weird SSL Certificate Error when creating a new Laravel project!

In this blog post, I’ll share the exact error I faced and the simple yet effective solution that worked for me.

The Problem: SSL Certificate Error When Creating a Laravel Project

While attempting to create a new Laravel project using either of the following commands:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel project_name

and

laravel new project_name

I encountered the (same) following error on my terminal:

[Composer\Downloader\TransportException]
  curl error 60 while downloading https://repo.packagist.org/p2/laravel/laravel.json: SSL certificate problem: unable
   to get local issuer certificate

I did a little digging around and found that this error occurs when Composer is unable to verify the SSL certificate from Packagist, Laravel’s package repository. I was a little confused, honestly.

The Cause: AVG Antivirus Blocking Composer’s SSL Verification

However, after some troubleshooting, I discovered that my AVG antivirus software was interfering with Composer’s ability to verify SSL certificates. Turns out, many modern antivirus programs have built-in web protection features that scan HTTPS requests, and this was causing unexpected issues with development tools.

The Solution: Temporarily Disabling AVG Antivirus

To fix the issue, all I did was I temporarily disabled AVG antivirus while running the Laravel installation commands, and voila! This time it worked, absolutely without any issues.

Here’s what I did:

How to (Temporarily) Disable AVG Temporarily:

1. Open AVG Antivirus:
   • Clicked on the AVG icon in the system tray (bottom-right corner of the screen) or searched for AVG in the Windows Start menu.
2. Disable Web Protection:
   • Navigated to Menu > Settings > Basic Protection > Web & Email Protection.
   • Temporarily turned off HTTPS scanning.

Once the antivirus was disabled, all I did was re-ran the command on the terminal.

1. Ran the Laravel Installation Command Again:
   • Opened my terminal and ran:
     • composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel project_name
   • If using Laravel installer:
     • laravel new project_name
2. Re-enabled AVG Antivirus:

   1. Once Laravel was installed successfully, I went back to AVG settings and turned Web Protection back on to keep my system secure.

Why This Works

AVG (and other antivirus software) often perform deep packet inspection for SSL traffic, which can interfere with development tools like Composer. By disabling HTTPS scanning temporarily, I allowed Composer to verify the SSL certificate properly and download Laravel without any issues.

Conclusion

If you’re facing the curl error 60 issue while creating a new Laravel project, try temporarily disabling AVG antivirus first. This quick fix worked for me, and it might work for you too.

Have you faced a similar issue? Let me know in the comments what solutions worked for you!