Can't generate certificates using dev-certs in devops ubuntu-22.04 and 24.04 agents

[kicr1]

Description

My pipeline has a step that generates a certificate which is used by a later task. This has been working fine for months with no failures but since yesterday I have started seeing intermittent failures and as of this evening (18th October) this task fails every time the pipeline runs.

The script I am running is:
dotnet dev-certs https -ep $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/.aspnet/https/aspnetapp.pfx -p xxxxxxx

I have tried this on all ms-hosted ubuntu agent images available and I have found that it works fine on Image: ubuntu-20.04.
But does not work on Image: ubuntu-24.04 or Image: ubuntu-22.04

I have now had to revert to using ubuntu-20.04 to unblock the pipeline.

We have been using ubuntu-latest with no issues until now.

Please can you investigate on what has changed to cause this issue to start happening?

Many thanks

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 12
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022

Image version and build link

Current agent version: '3.246.0'
Operating System
Ubuntu
22.04.5
LTS
Runner Image
Image: ubuntu-22.04
Version: 20241015.1.0

Is it regression?

Current agent version: '3.246.0' Operating System Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS Runner Image Image: ubuntu-22.04 Version: 20241006.1.0

Expected behavior

Task to generate certificate using dev-certs should run as expected and not error.

Actual behavior

The certificate creation fails with the following error message (debug content included):

##[debug]script=dotnet dev-certs https -ep /home/vsts/work/1/s/.aspnet/https/aspnetapp.pfx -p xxxxxxxxx
##[debug]workingDirectory=/home/vsts/work/1/s
##[debug]check path : /home/vsts/work/1/s
Generating script.
##[debug]Agent.Version=3.246.0
##[debug]agent.tempDirectory=/home/vsts/work/_temp
##[debug]check path : /home/vsts/work/_temp
Script contents:
dotnet dev-certs https -ep /home/vsts/work/1/s/.aspnet/https/aspnetapp.pfx -p password
========================== Starting Command Output ===========================
##[debug]which ‘bash’
##[debug]found: ‘/usr/bin/bash’
##[debug]which ‘/usr/bin/bash’
##[debug]found: ‘/usr/bin/bash’
##[debug]/usr/bin/bash arg: --noprofile
##[debug]/usr/bin/bash arg: --norc
##[debug]/usr/bin/bash arg: /home/vsts/work/_temp/f63661a1-9976-43ca-85c2-071f253bac65.sh
##[debug]exec tool: /usr/bin/bash
##[debug]arguments:
##[debug] --noprofile
##[debug] --norc
##[debug] /home/vsts/work/_temp/f63661a1-9976-43ca-85c2-071f253bac65.sh
/usr/bin/bash --noprofile --norc /home/vsts/work/_temp/f63661a1-9976-43ca-85c2-071f253bac65.sh

There was an error exporting the HTTPS developer certificate to a file.

##[debug]Exit code 3 received from tool ‘/usr/bin/bash’
##[debug]STDIO streams have closed for tool ‘/usr/bin/bash’
##[error]Bash exited with code ‘3’.
##[debug]Processed: ##vso[task.issue type=error;source=TaskInternal;correlationId=ebb46927-2edb-4725-8910-d9c7c92d24fa;]Bash exited with code ‘3’.
##[debug]task result: Failed
##[debug]Processed: ##vso[task.complete result=Failed;done=true;]
Finishing: Create aspnet developer certificate

Repro steps

Step 1: Set up a pipeline using ubuntu-latest or ubuntu-24.04 agent
Step 2: Create a script task.

- script: |
     dotnet dev-certs https -ep $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/.aspnet/https/aspnetapp.pfx -p xxxxxxx

Step 3: Run pipeline

[kishorekumar-anchala]

Hi @kicr1 ,

Thanks for raising the issue with us , we will update on this once investigation completes.

[thommaa]

This is most likely related to the dotnet sdk version 8.0.403 having these two issues
dotnet/aspnetcore#58330
dotnet/aspnetcore#58337

[kishorekumar-anchala]

Hi @thommaa thanks for your comments.

@kicr1 - i agree with @thommaa , this issue not related to runner images . I request kindly raise an issue with aspnetcore team. Thank you !

[kicr1]

Thanks for alerting me to this. I looked at both issues and the top one was the one causing my problem. I have since updated the pipeline to create the folder beforehand and it works again using the ubuntu-latest image. Thanks again

[kishorekumar-anchala]

Thank you @kicr1 for your update , hence we're closing this issue as completed.