I'm using ssl.get_server_certificate function. It returns a pem string. For each server I try, I get the string, but it is missing a newline "\n" before the -----END CERTIFICATE----- text. Any subsequent use of the string makes openssl throw up with a "bad end line" error.

ssl.PEM_cert_to_DER_cert can be used, and, subsequently the der string can be used elsewhere.

Example:
>>> fncert = ssl.get_server_certificate(("freenode.net", 443), 3)
>>> fncert
'-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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\n+DexDLRI0KqZ-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n'

Notice no "\n" before -----END CERTIFICATE-----\n

Platform: 
Linux x64
python 2.6.4