I am writing scripts in Python2.6 with use of pyVmomi and while using one of the connection methods:

service_instance = connect.SmartConnect(host=args.ip,
                                        user=args.user,
                                        pwd=args.password)

I get the following warning:

/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/requests/packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py:734: InsecureRequestWarning: Unverified HTTPS request is being made. Adding certificate verification is strongly advised. See: https://urllib3.readthedocs.org/en/latest/security.html
  InsecureRequestWarning)

What’s interesting is that I do not have urllib3 installed with pip (but it’s there in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/requests/packages/urllib3/).

I have tried as suggested here

import urllib3
...
urllib3.disable_warnings()

but that didn’t change anything.

You can disable any Python warnings via the PYTHONWARNINGS environment variable. In this case, you want:

export PYTHONWARNINGS="ignore:Unverified HTTPS request"

To disable using Python code (requests >= 2.16.0):

import urllib3
urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)

For requests < 2.16.0, see original answer below.

Original answer

The reason doing urllib3.disable_warnings() didn’t work for you is because it looks like you’re using a separate instance of urllib3 vendored inside of requests.

I gather this based on the path here: /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/requests/packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py

To disable warnings in requests’ vendored urllib3, you’ll need to import that specific instance of the module:

import requests
from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)

This is the answer in 2017. urllib3 not a part of requests anymore

import urllib3
urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)

Per this github comment, one can disable urllib3 request warnings via requests in a 1-liner:

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()

This will suppress all warnings though, not just InsecureRequest (ie it will also suppress InsecurePlatform etc). In cases where we just want stuff to work, I find the conciseness handy.

The correct way is to read the relevant section on the provided link and do as it says. The way specific for requests (which bundles with its own copy of urllib3), as per CA Certificates — Advanced Usage — Requests 2.8.1 documentation:

• requests ships with its own certificate bundle (but it can only be updated together with the module)
• it will use (since requests v2.4.0) the certifi package instead if it’s installed

The HTTPS certificate verification security measure isn’t something to be discarded light-heartedly. The Man-in-the-middle attack that it prevents safeguards you from a third party e.g. sipping a virus in or tampering with or stealing your data.

Which, with today’s government-backed global hacking operations like Tailored Access Operations and the Great Firewall of China that target network infrastructure, is more probable than you think.

For impatient, a quick way to disable python unverified HTTPS warning:

export PYTHONWARNINGS="ignore:Unverified HTTPS request"

The accepted answer doesn’t work if some package vendors it’s own copy of urllib3, in which case this will still work:

import warnings

warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', message='Unverified HTTPS request')

I had a similar issue with PyVmomi Client. With Python Version 2.7.9, I have solved this issue with the following line of code:

default_sslContext = ssl._create_unverified_context()
self.client = \
                Client(<vcenterip>, username=<username>, password=<passwd>,
                       sslContext=default_sslContext )

Note that, for this to work, you need Python 2.7.9 atleast.

Why not using pyvmomi original function SmartConnectNoSSL. They added this function on June 14, 2016 and named it ConnectNoSSL, one day after they changed the name to SmartConnectNoSSL, use that instead of by passing the warning with unnecessary lines of code in your project?

Provides a standard method for connecting to a specified server without SSL verification. Useful when connecting to servers with self-signed certificates or when you wish to ignore SSL altogether

service_instance = connect.SmartConnectNoSSL(host=args.ip,
                                             user=args.user,
                                             pwd=args.password)

For Python 2.7

Add the environment variable PYTHONWARNINGS as key and the corresponding value to be ignored like:

os.environ['PYTHONWARNINGS']="ignore:Unverified HTTPS request"