Troubleshooting 'SSL error: parse tlsext' error message

Symptoms

When performing a large commit to VisualSVN Server over the HTTPS protocol, the Subversion client sometimes fails with the following error message:

SSL negotiation failed: SSL error: parse tlsext

The above error message can also occur for other Subversion operations with massive throughput (such as svnsync).

Cause

In most cases the problem is caused by the OpenSSL library bug on the client side. This issue is resolved in the OpenSSL 0.9.8m release.

Resolution

Upgrade your Subversion client to the version built agains OpenSSL 0.9.8m or later.

Workaround

If you are unable to upgrade your Subversion client, you can workaround this problem by disabling TLSv1 protocol support in VisualSVN Server. Please include the following string into the %VISUALSVN_SERVER%\conf\httpd-custom.conf configuration file and then restart the VisualSVN Server:

SSLProtocol -ALL +SSLv3
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