diff --git a/tempest_horizon/config.py b/tempest_horizon/config.py
index a66ab86..1e29aed 100644
--- a/tempest_horizon/config.py
+++ b/tempest_horizon/config.py
@@ -23,9 +23,12 @@
                default='http://localhost/auth/login/',
                help="Login page for the dashboard",
                deprecated_for_removal=True),
+    cfg.BoolOpt('disable_ssl_certificate_validation',
+                default=False,
+                help="Set to True if using self-signed SSL certificates."),
 ]
 
-#service_opt = cfg.BoolOpt(
+# service_opt = cfg.BoolOpt(
 #    'horizon', default=True,
 #    help="Whether or not Horizon is expected to be available")
 #
diff --git a/tempest_horizon/tests/scenario/test_dashboard_basic_ops.py b/tempest_horizon/tests/scenario/test_dashboard_basic_ops.py
index 37bf603..e4a13d9 100644
--- a/tempest_horizon/tests/scenario/test_dashboard_basic_ops.py
+++ b/tempest_horizon/tests/scenario/test_dashboard_basic_ops.py
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@
 from tempest.scenario import manager
 from tempest import test
 
+import ssl
+import sys
+
 CONF = config.CONF
 
 
@@ -65,6 +68,7 @@
     * logs in as a regular user
     * checks that the user home page loads without error
     """
+    opener = None
 
     @classmethod
     def skip_checks(cls):
@@ -78,12 +82,11 @@
         super(TestDashboardBasicOps, cls).setup_credentials()
 
     def check_login_page(self):
-        response = request.urlopen(CONF.dashboard.dashboard_url)
-        self.assertIn("id_username", response.read())
+        response = self._get_opener().open(CONF.dashboard.dashboard_url).read()
+        self.assertIn("id_username", response)
 
     def user_login(self, username, password):
-        self.opener = request.build_opener(request.HTTPCookieProcessor())
-        response = self.opener.open(CONF.dashboard.dashboard_url).read()
+        response = self._get_opener().open(CONF.dashboard.dashboard_url).read()
 
         # Grab the CSRF token and default region
         parser = HorizonHTMLParser()
@@ -105,11 +108,30 @@
                   'region': parser.region,
                   'domain': CONF.auth.default_credentials_domain_name,
                   'csrfmiddlewaretoken': parser.csrf_token}
-        self.opener.open(req, parse.urlencode(params))
+        self._get_opener().open(req, parse.urlencode(params))
 
     def check_home_page(self):
-        response = self.opener.open(CONF.dashboard.dashboard_url)
-        self.assertIn('Overview', response.read())
+        response = self._get_opener().open(CONF.dashboard.dashboard_url).read()
+        self.assertIn('Overview', response)
+
+    def _get_opener(self):
+        if not self.opener:
+            if (CONF.dashboard.disable_ssl_certificate_validation and
+               self._ssl_default_context_supported()):
+                ctx = ssl.create_default_context()
+                ctx.check_hostname = False
+                ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_NONE
+                self.opener = request.build_opener(
+                    request.HTTPSHandler(context=ctx),
+                    request.HTTPCookieProcessor())
+            else:
+                self.opener = request.build_opener(
+                    request.HTTPCookieProcessor())
+        return self.opener
+
+    def _ssl_default_context_supported(self):
+        return ((sys.version_info[0] == 2 and sys.version_info[2] >= 9) or
+                (sys.version_info[0] == 3))
 
     @test.idempotent_id('4f8851b1-0e69-482b-b63b-84c6e76f6c80')
     def test_basic_scenario(self):