Rancher Desktop fails to start: X.509 certificate routines OPENSSL error on macOS Sequoia 15.2

[dnddinesh22]

Actual Behavior

Rancher Desktop opens and immediately crashes on macOS Sequoia 15.2. Logs show an OpenSSL error (INVALID_FIELD_FOR_VERSION) related to X.509 certificate parsing.

Steps to Reproduce

Install Rancher Desktop v1.16.0 - arm64 on macOS Sequoia 15.2.
Open Rancher Desktop.
Observe that the application opens briefly and then closes.

Result

background.log Output:

rancher-desktop cat background.log
2024-12-17T00:22:22.680Z: Error starting up: Error: error:0b00008b:X.509 certificate routines:OPENSSL_internal:INVALID_FIELD_FOR_VERSION Error: error:0b00008b:X.509 certificate routines:OPENSSL_internal:INVALID_FIELD_FOR_VERSION
at new X509Certificate (node:internal/crypto/x509:119:21)
at P (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:203425)
at async /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:208514
at async te (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:208036)
at async ee (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:206393)
at async /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:41:128316

networking.log Output:
cat networking.log
...certificate verification successful.
...certificate verification successful.
2024-12-17T00:22:22.679Z: Error getting system certificates: Error: error:0b00008b:X.509 certificate routines:OPENSSL_internal:INVALID_FIELD_FOR_VERSION
at new X509Certificate (node:internal/crypto/x509:119:21)
at P (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:203425)
at async /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:208514
at async te (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:208036)
at async ee (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:2:206393)
at async /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:41:128316 {
opensslErrorStack: [
'error:0c00006d:ASN.1 encoding routines:OPENSSL_internal:DECODE_ERROR',
'error:0900000c:PEM routines:OPENSSL_internal:ASN.1 encoding routines'
],
library: 'X.509 certificate routines',
function: 'OPENSSL_internal',
reason: 'INVALID_FIELD_FOR_VERSION',
code: 'ERR_OSSL_X509_INVALID_FIELD_FOR_VERSION'
}

Expected Behavior

Rancher Desktop should start successfully without errors.

Additional Information

No response

Rancher Desktop Version

1.16.0

Rancher Desktop K8s Version

Not sure

Which container engine are you using?

containerd (nerdctl)

What operating system are you using?

macOS

Operating System / Build Version

MacOS - Apple M3 - macOS Sequoia 15.2 (24C101)

What CPU architecture are you using?

arm64 (Apple Silicon)

Linux only: what package format did you use to install Rancher Desktop?

None

Windows User Only

No response

[jandubois]

I agree that Rancher Desktop should handle this more gracefully, but I suspect you are behind some kind of MitM proxy server that intercepts all traffic, and that presents an invalid cert back to you.

Can you confirm that you are behind a proxy server?