Cocoapods: Failed to connect to GitHub to update the CocoaPods/Specs specs repo

When running pod repo update the following error is generated:

Updating spec repo `master`
[!] Failed to connect to GitHub to update the CocoaPods/Specs specs repo - Please check if you are offline, or that GitHub is down

Using cocoapods 1.0.1

I'm also aware of this: Master spec-repo rate limiting post‑mortem.

Adding --verbose flag to the call shows the ruby call stack:

.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-core-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods-core/github.rb:100:in `modified_since_commit'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-core-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods-core/master_source.rb:32:in `requires_update?'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-core-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods-core/master_source.rb:14:in `update'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods/sources_manager.rb:88:in `block (2 levels) in update'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods/user_interface.rb:63:in `section'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods/sources_manager.rb:87:in `block in update'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods/sources_manager.rb:86:in `each'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods/sources_manager.rb:86:in `update'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods/command/repo/update.rb:23:in `run'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/claide-1.0.0/lib/claide/command.rb:334:in `run'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/lib/cocoapods/command.rb:50:in `run'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/gems/cocoapods-1.0.1/bin/pod:55:in `<top (required)>'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/bin/pod:23:in `load'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/bin/pod:23:in `<main>'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `eval'
.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `<main>'

Can't find any way to workaround this and cannot run the project.

One of the major issue is "weak cryptographic standards removed" after 2018 February.

Here a note: https://github.com/blog/2507-weak-cryptographic-standards-removed

To solve this, first you need to update openssl, then ruby, then cocoapod.

$ which openssl
/usr/bin/openssl

$ openssl version
OpenSSL 0.9.8zh 14 Jan 2016

$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

$ brew update

$ brew install openssl

$ brew upgrade openssl

`` If you need to have this software first in your PATH run: echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openssl/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

$ echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openssl/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
$ source ~/.bash_profile

$ which openssl
/usr/local/opt/openssl/bin/openssl

$ openssl version
OpenSSL 1.0.2n  7 Dec 2017

$ brew install rbenv ruby-build

$ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
$ echo 'if which rbenv > /dev/null; then eval "$(rbenv init -)"; fi' >> ~/.bash_profile
$ source ~/.bash_profile

$ rbenv install --list

Available versions:
  1.8.5-p52
  1.8.5-p113
  1.8.5-p114
  1.8.5-p115
  1.8.5-p231
  1.8.6
:
  2.5.0-rc1
  2.5.0
  2.5.1
  2.6.0-dev
:

$ rbenv install 2.5.1

$ rbenv versions
* system (set by /Users/username/.rbenv/version)
  2.5.1

$ ruby --version
ruby 2.0.0p648 (2015-12-16 revision 53162) [universal.x86_64-darwin16]

$ rbenv global 2.5.1

$ rbenv versions
  system
* 2.5.1 (set by /Users/username/.rbenv/version)

$ ruby --version
ruby 2.5.1p57 (2018-03-29 revision 63029) [x86_64-darwin16]

$ gem install cocoapods -n /usr/local/bin

$ which pod
/usr/local/bin/pod

$ pod --version
1.5.3

now, you can do

$ pod update

source link: https://qiita.com/satoshi-iwaki/items/ed2c267127dcc80baa21

Finally managed to solve it by deleting ./cocoapods/repos/master and running pod install.

The more formal solution would probably go like this:

pod repo remove master
pod setup
pod install

If pod install fails after performing the first two steps, you may need to delete your Podfile.lock.

Why it initially failed to connect to Github is beyond me.