Hitting OPENSSL_internal:BAD_DECRYPT error on call to `v1/user-info`.

[imBlanker]

Description

Only after a new action of installing or enabling the extension of Colab in VSCode, I am able to add a new runtime only in one way - choose the “Auto Connect" function, as "New Colab Server" is usually unavailable. So I can only use a runtime with CPU by default! If I close that runtime manually, nothing would happen after I click any button while selecting a remote server. This extension is nearly unusable now..

Environment

• Version: 1.109.0-insider (user setup)
• Date: 2026-01-15T22:32:27.277Z
• OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200
• Colab extension version: 0.1.6
• Jupyter extension version: 2025.9.1

Additional context

There are too many bugs and few functions in the extension.

Logs

[2026-01-16T11:54:48.071Z] [Info] Visual Studio Code - Insiders: 1.109.0-insider
[2026-01-16T11:54:48.071Z] [Info] Remote: N/A
[2026-01-16T11:54:48.071Z] [Info] App Host: desktop
[2026-01-16T11:54:48.071Z] [Info] Jupyter extension version: 2025.9.1
[2026-01-16T11:57:11.970Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers called with
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T11:57:11.970Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T11:57:11.970Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers Promise resolved, args and error:
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[]
[2026-01-16T11:57:11.975Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands called with
undefined
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T11:57:11.975Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T11:57:13.087Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands Promise resolved, args and error:
undefined
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[
{
"label": "$(symbol-event) Auto Connect",
"description": "1-click connect! Most recently created server, or a new one."
},
{
"label": "$(add) New Colab Server",
"description": "CPU, GPU or TPU."
},
{
"label": "$(link-external) Open Colab Web",
"description": "Open Colab web."
}
]
[2026-01-16T11:57:27.270Z] [Trace] Kr.handleCommand called with
{
"label": "$(add) New Colab Server",
"description": "CPU, GPU or TPU."
}
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T11:57:27.270Z] [Trace] Kr.handleCommand returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T11:57:51.514Z] [Trace] Kr.handleCommand Promise rejected, args and error:
{
"label": "$(add) New Colab Server",
"description": "CPU, GPU or TPU."
}
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
Canceled: Canceled
at Kr.assignServer (c:\Users\WSZ03.vscode-insiders\extensions\google.colab-0.1.6\out\extension.js:67:56121)
at Kr.handleCommand (c:\Users\WSZ03.vscode-insiders\extensions\google.colab-0.1.6\out\extension.js:67:55694)
at Vb.selectRemoteServerFromRemoteKernelFinder (c:\Users\WSZ03.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-toolsai.jupyter-2025.9.1-win32-x64\dist\extension.node.js:309:152718)
at Vb.getRemoteServersFromProvider (c:\Users\WSZ03.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-toolsai.jupyter-2025.9.1-win32-x64\dist\extension.node.js:309:152373)
at sE.stepThrough (c:\Users\WSZ03.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-toolsai.jupyter-2025.9.1-win32-x64\dist\extension.node.js:183:11953)
at Vb.selectRemoteKernel (c:\Users\WSZ03.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-toolsai.jupyter-2025.9.1-win32-x64\dist\extension.node.js:309:147349)
at Lb.onSelectRemoteKernel (c:\Users\WSZ03.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-toolsai.jupyter-2025.9.1-win32-x64\dist\extension.node.js:309:124890)
at xA.h (file:///e:/Program%20Files/Microsoft_VS_Code_Insiders/1656700d1d/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:116:41743)
at xA.h (file:///e:/Program%20Files/Microsoft_VS_Code_Insiders/1656700d1d/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:116:41743)
[2026-01-16T11:58:48.759Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers called with
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T11:58:48.759Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T11:58:48.760Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers Promise resolved, args and error:
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[]
[2026-01-16T11:58:48.760Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands called with
undefined
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T11:58:48.760Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T11:58:49.624Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands Promise resolved, args and error:
undefined
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[
{
"label": "$(symbol-event) Auto Connect",
"description": "1-click connect! Most recently created server, or a new one."
},
{
"label": "$(add) New Colab Server",
"description": "CPU, GPU or TPU."
},
{
"label": "$(link-external) Open Colab Web",
"description": "Open Colab web."
}
]
[2026-01-16T11:58:53.308Z] [Trace] Kr.handleCommand called with
{
"label": "$(add) New Colab Server",
"description": "CPU, GPU or TPU."
}
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T11:58:53.308Z] [Trace] Kr.handleCommand returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T11:58:54.389Z] [Trace] Kr.handleCommand Promise rejected, args and error:
{
"label": "$(add) New Colab Server",
"description": "CPU, GPU or TPU."
}
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
FetchError: Invalid response body while trying to fetch https://colab.pa.googleapis.com/v1/user-info: 272640:error:1e000065:Cipher functions:OPENSSL_internal:BAD_DECRYPT:....\third_party\boringssl\src\crypto\fipsmodule\cipher\e_aes.cc.inc:839:

                                   at Gunzip.<anonymous> (c:\Users\WSZ03\.vscode-insiders\extensions\google.colab-0.1.6\out\extension.js:1:296619)
                                   at Gunzip.emit (node:events:531:35)
                                   at emitErrorNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:170:8)
                                   at emitErrorCloseNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:129:3)
                                   at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21)

[2026-01-16T12:03:40.795Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers called with
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T12:03:40.795Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T12:03:40.795Z] [Trace] Kr.provideJupyterServers Promise resolved, args and error:
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[]
[2026-01-16T12:03:40.795Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands called with
undefined
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[2026-01-16T12:03:40.795Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands returned a Promise
[2026-01-16T12:03:41.707Z] [Trace] Kr.provideCommands Promise resolved, args and error:
undefined
{
"a": false,
"b": null
}
[
{
"label": "$(symbol-event) Auto Connect",
"description": "1-click connect! Most recently created server, or a new one."
},
{
"label": "$(add) New Colab Server",
"description": "CPU, GPU or TPU."
},
{
"label": "$(link-external) Open Colab Web",
"description": "Open Colab web."
},
{
"label": "$(accounts-view-bar-icon) Upgrade to Pro",
"description": "More machines, more quota, more Colab!"
}
]

Colab.log

[kevineger]

"New Colab Server" is usually unavailable

What do you mean by this? The option doesn't exist in the UI? Or it consistently doesn't work?

If I close that runtime manually, nothing would happen after I click any button while selecting a remote server

By close do you mean you removed the server (Commmand: Colab: Remove Server)? There is the known issue #200 which I fixed upstream in the Jupyter extension microsoft/vscode-jupyter#17094. Hopefully they release it soon. I'm unsure given the description if that's what you're hitting, or something else. A screencast would be super helpful if it's possible to record one.

---

Trying to tease things apart from the logs, here's what I'm seeing.

1. You clicked New Colab Server, but then selecting a server was cancelled.
2. Reading on in the logs, I see a failed call to v1/user-info which implies this call to get the subscription tier is failing.

Is this consistently happening to you? Or did it happen once?

OPENSSL_internal:BAD_DECRYPT is strange, as it indicates that maybe the encrypted TLS/SSL stream between your VS Code and the Google server was corrupted or tampered with before it could be successfully decrypted. Do you use a Corporate Proxy, Firewall, or VPN?

[imBlanker]

@kevineger Thank you for reply!

"New Colab Server" is usually unavailable

What do you mean by this? The option doesn't exist in the UI? Or it consistently doesn't work?

I wrote down the only situation that all those buttons except "New Colab Server" could work:

Only after a new action of installing or enabling the extension of Colab in VSCode.

For example, let's click "kernel" in jupyter notebook -> click "Colab" -> click "New Colab Server" -> the choice & input box disappear, game over, and we can see a warning in the "Output" area. This is consistently happening to me. Here are the screencast records:
No. 1
No. 2

The copilot-like extensions keep updated frequently, while colab-vscode's last release was 3 weeks ago, even though there are many interesting products published / released by Deepmind last year.

Reading on in the logs, I see a failed call to v1/user-info which implies this call to get the subscription tier is failing.

Is this consistently happening to you? Or did it happen once?

OPENSSL_internal:BAD_DECRYPT is strange, as it indicates that maybe the encrypted TLS/SSL stream between your VS Code and the Google server was corrupted or tampered with before it could be successfully decrypted. Do you use a Corporate Proxy, Firewall, or VPN?

I have only free tier of Colab, even without PAY AS YOU GO. Today I have used up all the units, so of course it didn't allow me to choose GPU or TPU runtime; but yesterday when I submitted the issue, I had enough GPU compute units left, so I shouldn't have been stopped from choosing them in this way (someone has submitted that issue, but I don't know what problem there exactly was). Maybe it was just a network problem - yeah, I am & was using proxies. I am using WLAN with VPN in a campus, and I am using proxies with VMESS/VLESS/sth else. I tried to load Colab-vscode even with proxy+tun, but neither with tun nor without tun it failed to work.
Encryption combinations:

But I doubt if this is the key because I can connect with most common servers with HTTP(S) or SSH. I used remote servers to work before also with proxies.

So could you help me more?

Colab2.log