I sometimes receive a popup dialog starting, "Information you exchange with this site cannot be viewed or changed by others. However there is a problem with the site's security certificate."
The popup goes on to assure me that the certificate is valid and has a valid name that matches the name of the page I'm wanting to view. The only issue appears to be that I have not designated the site as "trusted" site. I'm required to okay the popup in order to proceed.
Does this dialog have any useful purpose? Are there any circumstances under which I would *not* want to proceed? If not, how do I change my settings to prevent the popup?
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Thanks, Neranel, but I don't understand. The popop (as I indicated) assures me that the certificate is valid. How can it be valid but not validating properly? Even if it can be, why should I be concerned, as long as it's valid?
I use IE (v.6), and IE allows me to designate my "Trusted" sites. The implication is that if I so designated the site in question, I wouldn't get the popup. Of course, I don't wish to add sites willy-nilly to my Trusted Sites. Is your view different?
The validity that it is refering to is that the certificate works and secured communications could be established, It just is not validating back to a trusted certificate authority, unless you beleive this to be a problem i would ignore this massage, and the trusted sties is a different area for other security concerns and will not affect this popup.
Microsoft says its a secrurity alert because your computer cannot trace back to a trusted certificate, the identity of the website. For instance i could tell you I am Bill Gates, even give you his birthday and pass every other test you give me to prove this. But no-one else is saying im bill gates, im doing it myself.
Similarly a website can put a self signed SSL Certificate on a website that is Valid and Works, but since you dont inherantly trust the website, you get a sercurity alert because all the more its saying is the website is certifying its own identity as yada yada. Whereas someone that has a Verisign SSL Certificate, has proven thier identity to verisign(or other SSL Provider, verisign is the most common, and windows comes preinstalled trusting thier certificates) and the certificate points you computer back to verisign which it can identify with the trusted certificate it has installed. (This would be the FBI telling you that indeed i am Bill Gates) While both methods ensure encrypted communications between you and the webserver, only the latter makes sure you are talking to who you think you are talking to.
And BTW I am not Bill Gates.
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by: NeranelPosted on 2009-01-22 at 08:23:01ID: 23440755
This can occur if the SSL Certificate (The thing used to encrypt communications between you and the web server) is not validating properly. This can happen for many reasons, many of which are not problems, but may indicate that the site you are looking at is not who they say they are. Many companies publish thier own certificates which would require you to "Trust" thier root certificate in order to alleviate this message. Others simply want the communications encrypted but dont care if the certificate validates and use a self-signed certificate. Difference web browsers have different methods of trusting or installing certificates, if you are sure that you trust the website choose the option to continue anyways, or to trust or install this certificat(which may only be available after choosing the option to view the certificate.