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The "Invalid Security Certificate Problem"


When accessing for the first time Community Single Sign-On (CSSO) enabled web sites like

your web browser will certainly announce a severe security problem to you. Depending on your web browser, you will encounter one of the following dialogs:

  • Firefox 3.5

[!wikiFirefoxInvalidSecurityCertificateFirefox35-ConnectionUntrustedpng|align=center!]

  • Firefox 3.0

[!wikiFirefoxInvalidSecurityCertificateFirefox30-SecurityConnectionFailedpng|align=center!]

  • Internet Explorer 6

[!wikiIEInvalidSecurityCertificateIE6-SecurityAlert-Yespng|align=center!]

  • Internet Explorer 7-8

[!wikiIEInvalidSecurityCertificateIE7-CertificateError-Continuepng|align=center!]

  • Safari

TBD

Don't be afraid, this is the usual behaviour !

The reason for these security advices is that EDIT is operating its own Certification Authority":http://dev.e-taxonomy.eu/trac/wiki/WP57CertificationAuthority. While this Certification Authority issues the certificates for all CSSO enabled web server, it is an EDIT internal solution. Therefore, common web browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari can not verify the trustworthiness of certificates issued by our "EDIT WP 5.7 Certification Authority

In order to securely access any CSSO enabled EDIT web site, you have the following options to upgrade your web browser with the missing certificates:

  • Add the missing certificates of the EDIT WP 5.7 Certification Authority to your web browser

  • Add a security exception to your web browser whenever you visit a CSSO enabled EDIT web site for the first time

Initially, the first option is a little bit more time-consuming. But, once the browser is equipped with the certificates of the EDIT WP 5.7 Certification Authority you will not be bothered by these security problems anymore.

The second option needs less time in executing the necessary steps, but you will have to repeat these steps once whenever you visit a CSSO enabled EDIT web site for the first time

In order to make you the necessary steps as easy as possible, we provide you with installation guides for both options and for the most common web browsers respectively as follows.

Option 1: Import the certificates of the EDIT WP 5.7 Certification Authority

Option 2: Add security exceptions to your web browser

Please contact the EDIT Support Team at editsupport-at-bgbm.org for any problems.

Updated by Andreas Müller almost 2 years ago · 13 revisions