Firebase Cloud Functions Error: connect ECONNREFUSED - node.js

Question

I am trying to create a Kik Messenger bot according to their API using Firebase Cloud Functions. I am using Blaze Plan. I am trying to reply to a message that my bot received. I can receive messages on my API but when I try to reply to them I get an error. An error is not from the request callback. I see the error on Firebase Console.
Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 72.14.246.44:443
at Object.exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
at exports._exceptionWithHostPort (util.js:1041:20)
at TCPConnectWrap.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (net.js:1086:14)
code: 'ECONNREFUSED',
errno: 'ECONNREFUSED',
syscall: 'connect',
address: '72.14.246.44',
port: 443
Requests to the Kik Messenger API works on local and remote node/express app. I tried to use kik-node on Cloud Functions but it gave the same result. What I have discovered so far is that https://auth.kik.com resolves to Amazon and https://api.kik.com resolves to Google Hosting. I think they are also using Firebase Cloud Functions for their API. Can it be possible that they are blocked inbound requests? Here is the sample code of what I tried.
exports.messagepost = functions.https.onRequest((req, res) => {
// Gives the error below
// {
// Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 72.14.246.44:443
// at Object.exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
// at exports._exceptionWithHostPort (util.js:1041:20)
// at TCPConnectWrap.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (net.js:1086:14)
// code: 'ECONNREFUSED',
// errno: 'ECONNREFUSED',
// syscall: 'connect',
// address: '72.14.246.44',
// port: 443
// }
request.post({
uri: 'https://api.kik.com/v1/message',
body: JSON.stringify({
foo: 'bar'
}),
json: true,
auth:{
user:'{API_USER}',
pass:'{API_KEY}'
},
headers: {
'Content-Type' : 'application/json'
}
}, (error, response) => {
if (error) console.error(error);
else console.log('Response: ', response.headers);
res.status(200).end('OK');
});
});
exports.messageget = functions.https.onRequest((req, res) => {
// Gives the error below
// {
// Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 72.14.246.44:443
// at Object.exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
// at exports._exceptionWithHostPort (util.js:1041:20)
// at TCPConnectWrap.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (net.js:1086:14)
// code: 'ECONNREFUSED',
// errno: 'ECONNREFUSED',
// syscall: 'connect',
// address: '72.14.246.44',
// port: 443
// }
request.get({
uri: 'https://api.kik.com/v1/message',
auth:{
user:'{API_USER}',
pass:'{API_KEY}'
}
}, (error, response) => {
if (error) console.error(error);
else console.log('Response: ', response.headers);
res.status(200).end('OK');
});
});
exports.verificationget = functions.https.onRequest((req, res) => {
// Runs with no errors
request.get({
uri: 'https://auth.kik.com/verification/v1/check',
qs: {
u: 'username',
d: 'hostname',
debug: true
},
body: JSON.stringify({ data: 'debugsigneddata' }),
headers: {
'Content-Type' : 'application/json' ,
'Content-Length' : JSON.stringify({ data: 'debugsigneddata' }).length
},
auth:{
user:'{API_USER}',
pass:'{API_KEY}'
}
}, (error, response) => {
if (error) console.error(error);
else console.log('Response: ', response.headers);
res.status(200).end('OK');
});
});
exports.verificationpost = functions.https.onRequest((req, res) => {
// Runs with no errors
request.post({
uri: 'https://auth.kik.com/verification/v1/check',
qs: {
u: 'username',
d: 'hostname',
debug: true
},
body: JSON.stringify({ data: 'debugsigneddata' }),
headers: {
'Content-Type' : 'application/json' ,
'Content-Length' : JSON.stringify({ data: 'debugsigneddata' }).length
},
auth:{
user:'{API_USER}',
pass:'{API_KEY}'
}
}, (error, response) => {
if (error) console.error(error);
else console.log('Response: ', response.headers);
res.status(200).end('OK');
});
});

Answer 1

I ran into a similar issue while implementing an OAuth2 token exchange using cloud functions instead of running a dedicated server.
This might not help the OP but to fix this error in my case, I had to add the https:// protocol to my post URL as it was missing.
If others run into this issue it might be worth checking your POST url is written correctly.