Installation failed - Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel

[Yunyao Xie]

Hi,

I was installing Bonsai 2.5.1 that I downloaded from the website https://bonsai-rx.org/docs/installation/ on a PC with Windows 7 system. However the installation failed and reported an error message "Attempting to resolve dependency 'Bonsai.Core (≥2.5.0). The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel."

I am wondering what I can do to solve this problem. Please let me know if you need any other information from me.

Thank you!

Best regards,

Yunyao

[Gonçalo Lopes]

Hi Yunyao,

TL;DR: Copy the files attached to this reply next to the Bonsai executables. To find out where they are installed in your system, right-click in the Bonsai shortcut > properties and look for the file location.

More details on why this is happening below (for those interested):

There is a known design decision of how to choose secure connections with .NET framework 4.7.2 where executables started to automatically defer to the recommended TLS standard of the operating system (more info here). This was to ensure that applications upgrade their protocol standards in step with the OS, even if the application itself is not updated.

Unfortunately the default TLS standard on Windows 7 is TLS 1.1 which is not accepted anymore by NuGet/MyGet repositories as it is considered "not secure". Strangely, Windows 7 SP1 does support TLS 1.2 but for some reason was never set as the "default". This likely will never change as Windows 7 is now no longer supported by Microsoft as it has passed its end-of-life date.

Fortunately, there is a workaround which can be used to force the application to not "revert" back to the OS security standards which can be activated by copying the attached files next to the executable. I explicitly decided not to use this workaround for Bonsai deployment as it would risk security upgrades on all systems Windows 8.x or later, so it was basically a choice between leaving Windows 7 behind or going against recommended security settings for all other OSes. I decided to go for it on Bonsai 2.5.2 as Windows 7 was discontinued in January 2020.

In general, I would recommend planning to upgrade Windows 7 machines to Windows 10, as it is likely that starting from 2021 Bonsai will stop being compatible with Windows 7 altogether (this is necessary for cross-platform support in .NET 5 for example, so quite important).

Of course, I understand this is not always easy/doable, and in the meantime things will work with this workaround and I will try to keep backwards compatibility with .NET framework for as long as possible.

Hope this helps.

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[Yunyao Xie]

Hi Goncalo,

The problem is solved by following your instruction. Thank you very much! I really appreciate your help.

Best regards,

Yunyao