Bypassing a Chrome Security Warning From the DevTools Console

Local development over HTTPS eventually lands you on Chrome’s NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID interstitial, the full-page “Your connection is not private” warning. Usually there is an “Advanced” link that lets you proceed anyway. On certain certificate errors (HSTS, some ERR_CERT_* variants) that link is missing entirely and there is no obvious way through.

The well-known trick is to click anywhere on the page and type thisisunsafe. That still works, and you can also call the command the phrase triggers directly from the DevTools console.

¶The command

Open DevTools on the interstitial page and run:

sendCommand(SecurityInterstitialCommandId.CMD_PROCEED)

Chrome reloads and takes you through to the site. The interstitial is an internal Chrome page that exposes a sendCommand function and a SecurityInterstitialCommandId enum, and CMD_PROCEED is the same code path the thisisunsafe shortcut fires.

CMD_PROCEED resolves to 1, so if the enum isn’t in scope you can fall back to:

sendCommand(1)

¶When to reach for it

This is for your own dev servers and self-signed certificates: the kind of cert warning you have already decided is safe to ignore. Handy when the thisisunsafe typing trick feels flaky, or when you want something scriptable against a known internal page.

Obvious caveat: never do this to get past a certificate warning on a site you do not control.