This isn’t a solution to your specific problem, but I’m putting it here because this thread is the top Google result for “SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED”, and it lead me on a wild goose chase.
If you have installed Python 3.6 on OSX and are getting the “SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED” error when trying to connect to an https:// site, it’s probably because Python 3.6 on OSX has no certificates at all, and can’t validate any SSL connections. This is a change for 3.6 on OSX, and requires a post-install step, which installs the certifi package of certificates. This is documented in the file ReadMe.rtf, which you can find at /Applications/Python\ 3.6/ReadMe.rtf (see also the file Conclusion.rtf, and the script build-installer.py that generates the macOS installer).
The ReadMe will have you run the post-install script at
/Applications/Python\ 3.10/Install\ Certificates.command (Terminal App, this command alone should, fix the issue. Be sure to update the file path using your current subversion.)
(its source is install_certificates.command), which:
- first installs the Python package
certifi, and - then creates a symbolic link from the OpenSSL certificates file to the certificates file installed by the package
certifi.
Release notes have some more info: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-360/
On newer versions of Python, there is more documentation about this:
- https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e05a703848473b0365886dcc593cbddc46609f29/Mac/BuildScript/resources/ReadMe.rtf#L22-L34
- https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e05a703848473b0365886dcc593cbddc46609f29/Mac/BuildScript/resources/Conclusion.rtf#L15-L19
- https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e05a703848473b0365886dcc593cbddc46609f29/Mac/BuildScript/resources/Welcome.rtf#L23-L25
- https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e05a703848473b0365886dcc593cbddc46609f29/Mac/BuildScript/resources/install_certificates.command
- https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e05a703848473b0365886dcc593cbddc46609f29/Mac/BuildScript/README.rst
- https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e05a703848473b0365886dcc593cbddc46609f29/Mac/BuildScript/build-installer.py#L239-L246