API service masks SSL certificate errors with the misleading "Cannot specify targets" message

[jess-tech-lab]

Summary

Testing the API service with invalid certificate paths (e.g., /etc/hosts) caused the SSL handshake to fail (e.g., PEM lib error). The child process dies, and the parent process "falls through" to the CLI target validation, resulting in a misleading Cannot specify the target(s) error instead of the actual SSL failure.

Steps to Reproduce

Start the API service with the command:

poetry run nettacker --start-api --api-host 127.0.0.1 --api-port 8080 --api-debug-mode --api-cert /etc/hosts --api-cert-key /etc/hosts

The error message of Cannot specify the target(s) was returned:

Expected Behavior

The API service should terminate immediately with a clear message such as Failed to load SSL configuration. Please check your --api-cert and --api-cert-key files..

Environment

• macOS (Apple Silicon, Homebrew Python)
• Python 3.12
• Nettacker 0.4.0
• Installed and executed via Poetry