I have received the popup with: Something is trying to trick Firefox into accepting an insecure update. a couple of times. The message seems to appear at random intervals, not when I am updating. There is no website address in the box.

I am using 4.0 on Windows XP professional version 2002, service pack 3.

A pdf with the troubleshooting information is accessible here:
     http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15484883/Firefox-v4.0-troubleshooting-info-20110514.pdf

Hope this helps a bit.

Anyone seeing the popup about being tricked should try this and post the results into an answer.

Hi heraclitus,

What we are trying to investigate is the cases where this error message is being generated by Firefox. Firefox generates the popup after five or more background updates fail because of a certificate problem

What we are really after is the error console messages a relating to certificates both

• immediately after the popup message has been seen

• OR any certificate related error message immediately after you have tried to manually update firefox - to check that please do as follows:

• 1. open the error console for instance using Ctrl + Shift + J or
     Firefox button -> Web Developer -> Error Console
  2. clear the error messages using the clear icon
  3. make a note of you version of firefox then attempt to manually update firefox using
     Firefox button -> Help -> About Firefox - Check for updates
  4. then reopen the error console and copy and paste any new error messages
     (you should not have many if you just cleared them)
     we are particularly interested in messages mentioning certificates

@weathervane

Thanks for posting.

What we really are after are the error console reports relating to certificates, as I mention in a post, above, a few minutes ago.

The request about preferences was only a curiosity for that particular user. Although as you have posted I note you have modified prefs for

security.disable_button.openCertManager false security.disable_button.openDeviceManager false security.warn_viewing_mixed false

I am not sure what they are, I do not even have those preferences
(could they be TB related ? )

John: Here is the Modified Preferences listing you asked about earlier. I'll do the error console reports next. accessibility.blockautorefreshtrueaccessibility.browsewithcarettrueaccessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar0browser.fixup.alternate.enabledfalsebrowser.history_expire_days.mirror180browser.history_expire_days_min120browser.places.importBookmarksHTMLfalsebrowser.places.importDefaultsfalsebrowser.places.leftPaneFolderId-1browser.places.migratePostDataAnnotationsfalsebrowser.places.smartBookmarksVersion2browser.places.updateRecentTagsUrifalsebrowser.startup.homepagehttp://www.google.com/igbrowser.startup.homepage_override.buildID20110413222027browser.startup.homepage_override.mstonerv:2.0.1browser.zoom.fullfalsebrowser.zoom.siteSpecificfalseextensions.lastAppVersion4.0.1font.name.serif.x-westernArialfont.size.variable.x-western14general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C)gfx.blacklist.direct2d2gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d102gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d10-12keyword.URLhttp://mystart.incredimail.com/?loc=ff_address_bar&a=6OxVvkIh0G&search=layout.css.dpi96network.cookie.lifetimePolicy1network.cookie.prefsMigratedtruenetwork.http.max-connections32network.http.max-connections-per-server8network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server4network.http.pipeliningtruenetwork.http.pipelining.firstrequesttruenetwork.http.pipelining.maxrequests8network.http.proxy.pipeliningtruenetwork.http.request.max-start-delay0network.protocol-handler.expose.mailtotruenetwork.protocol-handler.external.mailtofalseplaces.database.lastMaintenance1304980219places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages112400places.last_vacuum1298481962print.print_printerDell Color Printer 725print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_bgcolorfalseprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_bgimagesfalseprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_commandprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_downloadfontstrueprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_edge_bottom0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_edge_left0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_edge_right0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_edge_top0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_evenpagestrueprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_footercenterprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_footerleft&PTprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_footerright&Dprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_headercenterprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_headerleft&Tprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_headerright&Uprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_in_colortrueprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_margin_bottom0.5print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_margin_left0.5print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_margin_right0.5print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_margin_top0.5print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_oddpagestrueprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_orientation0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_page_delay50print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_pagedelay500print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_paper_data1print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_paper_height 11.00print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_paper_size4259891print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_paper_size_type0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_paper_size_unit0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_paper_width 8.50print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_reversedfalseprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_scaling 1.00print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_shrink_to_fittrueprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_to_filefalseprint.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_unwriteable_margin_left0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_unwriteable_margin_right0print.printer_Dell_Color_Printer_725.print_unwriteable_margin_top0privacy.cpd.downloadsfalseprivacy.cpd.extensions-nosquintfalseprivacy.cpd.historyfalseprivacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefstrueprivacy.sanitize.timeSpan0security.warn_viewing_mixed.show_once

Thanks, nothing jumps out in that listing as likely to be an obvious cause of the problem, but it is good to have the info as you started the thread, but were using IE at that time.

Initially it looked as if a large number of users may be getting this problem but at the moment we do not see many reports maybe the problem was an infrastructure problem, as some of the techies suspected, and someone has silently fixed it. If not hopefully more users will post in with error console info and that will aid the investigation.

We are probably only days away from another update to the standard release of Firefox. Lets see if this time you get that automatically without problems, or whether you need to manually upgrade again.

(I think 4.0.2 is scheduled for 17th May [- and new Beta ] and possibly 24th May will be 4.0.3 )

UPDATE
Possible progress in the other thread in that some with this problem may have a specific preference app.update.url set as ...aus2.mozilla. ... instead of an expected ...aus3. ...

As a first step to check this

1. open preferences eg by typing into the location bar about:config , hitting return, and dismissing any warning message (see http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config )
2. type into the filter bar what you are looking for - app.update.url
3. what is that shown as ? (you will be able to click it and get an option yo copy it )

Others will no doubt be already be proceeding to the second step of checking for a firefox.js

I have been getting the same error message since I updated to 4.0. Here are the error console messages about the certificates:

Error: Expected certificate attribute 'commonName' value incorrect, expected: 'aus3.mozilla.org', got: '*.mozilla.org'. Source File: resource://gre/modules/CertUtils.jsm Line: 60

Error: Expected certificate attribute 'commonName' value incorrect, expected: 'aus3.mozilla.org', got: '*.mozilla.org'. Source File: resource://gre/modules/CertUtils.jsm Line: 60

Error: Certificate checks failed. See previous errors for details. Source File: resource://gre/modules/CertUtils.jsm Line: 72

I get the error message periodically throughout the week and every time I try to manually update.

Try to change https://aus2.mozilla.org to https://aus3.mozilla.org in the pref app.update.url on the about:config page if that pref shows aus2 in the value.

• https://aus3.mozilla.org/update/3/%PRODUCT%/%VERSION%/%BUILD_ID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/update.xml

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.
You can use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a pref more easily.

"Try to change https://aus2.mozilla.org to https://aus3.mozilla.org in the pref app.update.url on the about:config page if that pref shows aus2 in the value. "

I changed the about:config settings and am still getting the same errors:

Error: Expected certificate attribute 'commonName' value incorrect, expected: 'aus3.mozilla.org', got: '*.mozilla.org'. Source File: resource://gre/modules/CertUtils.jsm Line: 60

Error: Expected certificate attribute 'commonName' value incorrect, expected: 'aus3.mozilla.org', got: '*.mozilla.org'. Source File: resource://gre/modules/CertUtils.jsm Line: 60

Error: Certificate checks failed. See previous errors for details. Source File: resource://gre/modules/CertUtils.jsm Line: 72

If you have problems with updating then best is to download the full version and uninstall the currently installed version.

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

• Firefox 4.0.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

• Uninstall your current Firefox version and remove the Firefox program folder before installing that copy of the Firefox installer.
• Do not remove personal data if you uninstall the current version.

• It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.

Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.