6

I'm getting an error in WSL while trying to download using wget

 wget -O quotefile.txt "https://www.google.com"

Output

Will not apply HSTS. The HSTS database must be a regular and non-world-writable file.
ERROR: could not open HSTS store at '/home/atul/.wget-hsts'. HSTS will be disabled.
--2020-04-08 12:47:43--  https://www.google.com/
Resolving www.google.com (www.google.com)... 2404:6800:4002:80f::2004, 172.217.166.196
Connecting to www.google.com (www.google.com)|2404:6800:4002:80f::2004|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]
Saving to: ‘quotefile.txt’

quotefile.txt                     [ <=>                                              ]  14.68K  --.-KB/s    in 0.002s

2020-04-08 12:47:45 (6.43 MB/s) - ‘quotefile.txt’ saved [15029]

Why i am getting this error

Will not apply HSTS. The HSTS database must be a regular and non-world-writable file.
ERROR: could not open HSTS store at '/home/atul/.wget-hsts'. HSTS will be disabled.

and how to solve this ?

I am facing this problem after fresh reinstall.Earlier I was using Windows 10 Pro Version 19035 but right now i am using Windows 10 Pro Version 1909.

Improve this question
3
  • Do you mean 1903? HSTS is a security feature designed to insure website domains go to their proper location. You must configure wget to work with a secure connection. Try --no-check-certificate
    – Ramhound
    Apr 8, 2020 at 13:14
  • @Ramhound --no-check-certificates disables tls cert check completely which is dangerous and not necessary as you can just disable hsts using --no-hsts
    – Robert
    Apr 8, 2020 at 13:28
  • @Robert - Sounds like you should answer the question. I only suggested a possible solution as I wasn’t sure
    – Ramhound
    Apr 8, 2020 at 13:39

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

HSTS is an optional security measurement on top on HTTPS. As the HTTPS connection itself works and the file has been downloaded this seems to be rather a warning than an error. Therefore I see three options:

  1. Disable HSTS on each call using the wget option --no-hsts
  2. Try to create a file in /home/atul/.wget-hsts with the appropriate permissions and try if wget makes use of this file
  3. Just ignore this warning
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7

I just came across the issue myself and in my case the .wget-hsts file was group and world writeable. I've just limited it to be user writable and the error vanished:

Before

-rw-rw-rw-  1 matthias matthias  165 Mar 13 13:57 .wget-hsts

After

-rw-r--r--  1 matthias matthias  165 Mar 13 13:57 .wget-hsts
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1
  • 5
    This fixed it for me. For reference, running chmod 644 .wget-hsts will do the job of setting the file to user writable.
    – Cobra
    Sep 3, 2020 at 17:34

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