cURL PHP hangs just after receive headers

Question

Using PHP i have been able to connect to and process successful purchases with the paypal sandbox endpoint:

https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp

However when i tried to move this application live, i hit a few problems. Firstly, the sandbox account uses a signiture, and the live account uses a certificate. So the new endpoint i have to use it:

https://api.paypal.com/nvp

getting rid of the "-3t" as i am using certificate.

I then send post data in vb.net to this address, which generates a token i can then send out. This works fine, however when the user has come back to our site after confirming in paypal (the ReturnURL) i am using curl to process the next commanded needed for the api, the method: GetExpressCheckoutDetails. Which then if it is a success i move onto using curl on another page to complete the payment using method: DoExpressCheckoutPayment

The problem is curl hangs and the page does not load.

Using a linux terminal if i type try to use curl to the api it just hangs also.

curl --verbose https://api.paypal.com/nvp

the response i get, goes through the handshake and then after the headers, just stops. But it does not return to the comnmand line. Here is curl output:

User-Agent: curl/7.15.5 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.15.5 OpenSSL/0.9.8b zlib/1.2.3 libidn/0.6.5
> Host: api.paypal.com
> Accept: */*
>
* About to connect() to api.paypal.com port 443
*   Trying 173.0.84.66... connected
* Connected to api.paypal.com (173.0.84.66) port 443
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
  CApath: none
* SSLv2, Client hello (1):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Request CERT (13):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server finished (14):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16):
SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
SSL connection using DES-CBC3-SHA
* Server certificate:
*        subject: /C=US/ST=California/L=San Jose/O=PayPal, Inc./OU=PayPal Production/CN=api.paypal.com
*        start date: 2013-07-03 00:00:00 GMT
*        expire date: 2015-07-04 23:59:59 GMT
*        subjectAltName: api.paypal.com matched
*        issuer: /C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)10/CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G3
* SSL certificate verify ok.
> GET /nvp HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.15.5 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.15.5 OpenSSL/0.9.8b zlib/1.2.3 libidn/0.6.5
> Host: api.paypal.com
> Accept: */*
>

(This is not because i have not sent a method, or user or pwd, as even when i do it, it does the same) I am suspecting it has something to do with the API Certificate! Anyone have any ideas what is happening here, thanks.

EDIT: Use wget for test, to get rid of the possibility of it being a curl problem:

wget https://api.paypal.com/nvp

Reply is:

--2013-10-08 08:45:53-- https://api.paypal.com/nvp
Resolving api.paypal.com.. 173.0.88.98, 173.0.84.98, 173.0.84.66, ...
Connecting to api.paypal.com|173.0.88.98|:443... connected.
HTTP request send, awaiting response...

And that is where wget hangs aswell, which proves it is not just a problem with cURL?

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with VB but I did take note of this

CAfile: /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

I also use a certificate (I go back to version 1.0!) and there's no need for a chain(CA) file with this setup (these aren't live signed SSL certificates). That could be your problem.