What anti-virus are you using? Can you give the specific cert error you see?

Hi Pete, what Firefox often is telling you is that it cannot verify that the server sending the response is the real site. There are many possible reasons for that, but if numerous unrelated sites are affected, the most likely explanation is a "man in the middle" of your connection. This could be innocent -- your security software may read all your browsing for filtering purposes -- or a serious privacy problem.

The standard error page has an "Advanced" button to access a more technical explanation of the problem. Could you copy/paste that explanation into a reply?

Also, see: How to troubleshoot security error codes on secure websites

The standard error page you describe is what I am seeing, but sometimes it offers an advanced option that allows you to disregard the error and continue to the site at your own risk. But other times it absolutely refuses to let you go to the website, and I have to just quit and go to another browser to get on to the target site. THAT is the biggest issue, but I would prefer to completely avoid all this monitoring and not get any of this. My AV (Kaspersky's) does a very good job of protecting me, I do not need the browser involved. So if there is a way to disable all that in the browser, please fill me in.

Thanks

Pete B

Hi Pete, since you mention Kaspersky, the issue could be caused by its filtering feature.

If you'll allow me to explain: Kaspersky, Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, and probably some other products intercept your browsing to filter what is going out to and coming back from websites. In order to be able to read content sent on a secure connection, Kaspersky generates a fake website certificate for each site. Naturally, these fake certificates do not check out, so Firefox rejects them.

In order to get Firefox to trust the fake site certificates, you need the Kaspersky certificate used to sign the fake certificates set up as a trusted authority in Firefox.

Normally, Kaspersky products take care of this setup for you automatically at Windows startup, and it should stick until your Firefox certificate store is refreshed, for example, by using the Refresh feature or manually deleting the cert9.db file, or if you start using a new profile. In those cases, the setup needs to be done again.

You try going into Kaspersky's settings and pushing the certificate over to Firefox from there. If that or a Windows restart doesn't fix it, there is Plan B and Plan C, but since this post is long already...

That is all true, I am aware of most of that. My point is, Kaspersky's AV does all the monitoring I need, I do not need Firefox to do any such monitoring at all. And the KAV is not perfect, either,it makes a lot of dumb assumptions, too, in this area, especially with certs or with, say, a website that wants tro redirect you to another site, which it assumes is "dangerous". But at least my KAV allows me to ignore this warning in every case, unlike Firefox.

Of course, part of this is the fact that a whole slew of everyday websites have these issues now and then, I get these "alerts" from all kinds of sites that are absolutely secure, lke my bank, my financial manager, my local and national news sites, etc. but at least KAV allows me to add such sites to a list of exmptions from such warnings, unlike Firefox, which has no such provision when it really refuses to allow me to connect to a website it deems "dangerous".

If this whole issue was treated th same by all web browsers, I would agree that it was worht the attention in some cases, but that is not the case. In every instrance I have the lockout by Firefox, I can immediately start up Chrome or IE and go tro the site uninhibited, and it has NEVER caused me a problem. So all I want is for Firefox to let ME decide what is forbidden and what is not.

So if you know of a way to inhibit the total lockouts by Firefox, please let ne know. I like Firefox best of the three browsers I use, but this issue is really aggravating me to the point I may have to switch to another browser as my default.

Thanks,

Pete B

Pete, there's no way to set Firefox not to verify HTTPS connections. Forget about that idea. Understand that Firefox is not giving you an opinion on the website, the question is whether your connection is being intercepted between you and the site.

I asked for information to help get to the cause of the problem. You didn't give me that, but you mentioned that you use Kaspersky. I explained why Kaspersky products can cause this problem and how to solve that, if that is the problem (but we haven't confirmed that).

Your other browsers must already be set up to trust Kaspersky to sign fake website certificates or you would get the same error. Now Firefox needs to be set up, or you can set Kaspersky not to intercept your secure browsing connections.

Again, see: How to troubleshoot security error codes on secure websites.

Note that Kaspersky does more shady things than just hijacking your secure connection.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/kaspersky-av-injected-unique-id-into-webpages-even-in-incognito-mode/

AS I mentioned before, I do not have a problem with tracking, in fact I prefer it.

What Kaspersky does is allow me to make exceptions tp prevent such warnings from causing me to be blocked. I can see the importance of monitoring such cert issues, but I see no reason why that should allow FF to absolutely block me from a website. If I was on a corporate network, OK, but not for my home PC.

Despite the fears expressed, I have been using KAV for about the last couple of decades, I have never ever had **any** problems or indications that it caused me harm. I don't need nor want any such oversight. And as I also said, I do get plenty of such monitoring from KAV every day, but I can always tell KAV to override any blocking.

Pete B

I am not a computer expert; what I am is an everyday consumer simply trying to access the web, do a little bit of word processing, take care of my photos, nothing big. Here's my issue: I NEED HELP with your website. Once upon a time, I was able to use Outlook.live.com from Firefox, now I receive a message, you know the one, YELLOW triangle, message is you are not secure on this website, you may not have given this website permission etc. etc. etc.. I used to be able to get on Outlook.live.com. Now the BIG QUESTION: I have read your information about these symbols, and yet I cannot find anywhere that provides an intelligible process to GIVE permission to websites so that I am secure. I have read about all the different menus I need to access and still NO CONCISE directions. I chose to use Firefox because I have heard and read good things about your browser, but you're becoming more and more like Microsoft Windows 10, where they think we're all computer programmers, IT personnel; I don't even understand some of the terminology you are using. I have been using computers from the good old-fashioned days of DOS, through all of the Windows platforms, but they are becoming NON-USER FRIENDLY, and that's how I'm feeling about Firefox.

Rhonda said

Once upon a time, I was able to use Outlook.live.com from Firefox, now I receive a message, you know the one, YELLOW triangle, message is you are not secure on this website, you may not have given this website permission etc. etc. etc.

Hi Rhonda, does the page appear to behave normally, EXCEPT for the warning? Or does the page fail to load up?

If the page fails to load -- it's blank or shows an error message where the page should be -- please start a new question. You can keep scrolling down past article suggestions to continue with the form:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new/desktop/websites

If the page loads but you get a warning, it can indicate mixed content where the message is retrieved using a secure connection (HTTPS address) but embedded images are retrieved using an insecure connection (HTTP address). The site information panel might have information about that?

I am having an issue with my website and its pages. Clients are telling me when viewing via Firefox the pages are blocked why?

This is definitely stopping my business

What is going on? I am not having that issue

Thanks Damsel in distress..............Natalie

Hi Natalie, let's continue the discussion of your site in your new thread here: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1279769

WHO IS NATALIE? I believe you sent this to the wrong person. My name is Rhonda

Hi Rhonda, Natalie posted in your thread earlier today. Do you want to ask a moderator to lock your thread so no one else joins in?