The proxy specification is wrong:

$ENV{https_proxy} = "proxy.kcc.com:80"

The variable value must have a protocol:

$ENV{https_proxy} = "http://proxy.kcc.com:80"

as can be verified with LWP that is used underneath the SOAP::Lite:

$ https_proxy=localhost:80 lwp-request -m GET https://localhost:443/
501 Protocol scheme 'localhost' is not supported
$ https_proxy=http://localhost:80 lwp-request -m GET https://localhost:443/
500 Can't connect to localhost:80 (connect: Connection refused)

But you are right that SOAP::Lite somehow causes ignoring the https_proxy environment variable:

$ https_proxy=http://localhost:80/ strace -e connect perl -e 'use SOAP::Lite; SOAP::Lite->proxy(q{https://localhost:443/})->call(q{root})'
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_LOCAL, sun_path="/var/run/nscd/socket"}, 110) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_LOCAL, sun_path="/var/run/nscd/socket"}, 110) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(443), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = 0
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET6, sin6_port=htons(443), inet_pton(AF_INET6, "::1", &sin6_addr), sin6_flowinfo=0, sin6_scope_id=0}, 28) = 0
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET6, sin6_port=htons(443), inet_pton(AF_INET6, "::1", &sin6_addr), sin6_flowinfo=0, sin6_scope_id=0}, 28) = -1 ECONNREFUSED (Connection refused)
500 Can't connect to localhost:443 (connect: Connection refused) at -e line 1
+++ exited with 2 +++

The same issue is with plain HTTP.

The reason for the failure is complicated:

SOAP::Lite does not bother with HTTP proxies at all. Everything is relied to LWP::UserAgent.

LWP::UserAgent does not honor environment variables by default:

           LWP::UserAgent->new() [...] If the
           "env_proxy" option is passed in with a TRUE value, then proxy
           settings are read from environment variables (see env_proxy()
           method below).

And thus SOAP::Lite applications do not honor environment variables by default too. But one can fix them by adding env_proxy=>1 arguments to SOAP::Lite->proxy() call:

$ https_proxy=http://localhost:80 strace -e connect perl -e 'use SOAP::Lite; SOAP::Lite->proxy(q{https://localhost:443/}, env_proxy=>1)->call(q{root})'
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_LOCAL, sun_path="/var/run/nscd/socket"}, 110) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_LOCAL, sun_path="/var/run/nscd/socket"}, 110) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(80), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = -1 EINPROGRESS (Operation now in progress)
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(80), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = -1 ECONNREFUSED (Connection refused)
500 Can't connect to localhost:80 (connect: Connection refused) at -e line 1
+++ exited with 2 +++

This was discussed in upstream SOAP::Lite bug report <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=58981>.

The reason why lwp-request tool honors the environment is that it explicitly calls env_proxy() on an LWP::UserAgent object.

The reason why your program stopped working after upgrading to perl-libwww-perl-5.883-3 is that the updated package started using IO::Socket::SSL instead of Net::SSL for implementing TLS and Net::SSL unfortunately processes the environment variable on its own and diverges the HTTPS requests to a proxy covertly.

In other words, your application controlled Net::SSL instead of SOAP::Lite (and thus LWP::UserAgent).

You have two options how to fix your application:

(1) The best fix is to add ", env_proxy => 1" to SOAP::Lite->proxy call like this:

my $soap = SOAP::Lite
        -> proxy('https://kcc.service-now.com/change_request.do?SOAP',
                  env_proxy => 1);

(2) You can export PERL_NET_HTTPS_SSL_SOCKET_CLASS=Net::SSL environment variable that will reverts LWP::UserAgent behavior to use Net::SSL instead of the recommended and default IO::Socket::SSL.

Red Hat could modify perl-libwww-perl package to always honor the proxy environment variables. But this modification would be implemented only in Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6. Not in version 7 or newer.

I will try to amend the perl-libwww-perl package to honor the proxy variables by default to restore compatibility with existing systems, but I strongly recommend you you fix your applications to pass the "env_proxy => 1" arguments as documented in LWP::UserAgent.

Created attachment 1227272 [details]
Fix

This patch enables processing HTTPS_PROXY and https_proxy variables if env_proxy LWP::UseAgent option is not specified. It also allows to specify the proxy server without a schema.

How to test:

(1) Use LWP::UserAgent without env_proxy option to connect to an HTTPS server while https_proxy environment variable is set to a HTTP proxy server and verify the TCP connection is opened to the proxy server, not to the HTTPS server. Example:

$ https_proxy=http://localhost:80 perl -e 'use LWP::UserAgent; LWP::UserAgent->new->get(q{https://localhost:443/})'

Before: There it connects to localhost:443.
After: It connects to localhost:80.

(2) Repeat the same with HTTPS_PROXY with the same results as in (1).

(3) Specify https_proxy without the "http://" schema. It should also work.

Please note that this applies to HTTPS proxy. Not to HTTP (http_proxy or HTTP_PROXY) variables. Please also note that it does not apply to LWP::UserAgent->new() invocations that have env_proxy argument.

Thanks for quick and insightful updates over it!

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2017-0599.html

Hi All,

We have recently upgraded RHEL OS from 6.7 to 6.9. After upgrade we have observed that service-now incidents are not creating and failing with below error.

Can't connect to rstproxy.rwe.com:8080 (SSL connect attempt failed with unknown errorerror:140770FC:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:unknown protocol)

Could you please help on this error ?

We have perl-libwww-perl-5.833-5 version.

(In reply to vani from comment #14)
> We have recently upgraded RHEL OS from 6.7 to 6.9. After upgrade we have
> observed that service-now incidents are not creating and failing with below
> error.
> 
> Can't connect to rstproxy.rwe.com:8080 (SSL connect attempt failed with
> unknown errorerror:140770FC:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:unknown
> protocol)
> 
> Could you please help on this error ?
> 
Please contact Red Hat support <https://access.redhat.com/support/contact/technicalSupport>.