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Safari reports it can't establish a secure connection to the server

This began yesterday, May 30, on several sites, all of which are large organizations that have valid certificates. All of these sites open correctly on Chrome, Firefox and Opera. One of the sites is my web host which provides my email; Apple Mail reported a similar problem with an invalid certificate for my email addresses. While I could work around the problem with my email by telling Mail to trust the certificate, that doesn't solve the basic problem of Safari and Mail reporting valid certificates to be invalid. I am using the latest OS available for my early 2009 iMac, OS 10.11.6, which uses Safari 11.1.2. Any help would be much appreciated.

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on May 31, 2020 6:43 AM

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Posted on Jun 3, 2020 6:56 PM

The certificates used by the three websites that were not loading all are issued by Comodo (as shown in Chrome). These certificates were missing from my Keychain Access app, and so it was necessary to locate the certificates and install. Comodo offers downloads of its certificates (https://support.comodo.com/index.php?/comodo/Knowledgebase/List/Index/106/downloads) but using the search function I could not find the ones needed. The Mozilla organization maintains its own certificate store (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/policies/security-group/certs/), which is used by Firefox, and since Firefox was loading the websites correctly I went to the list of Mozilla certificates (https://ccadb-public.secure.force.com/mozilla/IncludedCACertificateReport) and downloaded the ones needed. The download window gives the option of opening the certificate with Keychain Access - clicking that option installs the certificate. However, Keychain Access initially reported two of the downloaded certificates as not being trusted - there is a dropdown menu that allows marking the certificates as trusted. Now all three websites load correctly on Safari.


A few points/questions that came up in the course of resolving the problem:

  • The Comodo search results included expired versions of the certificates I needed, with an expiration date of May 30, 2020, the date my issue arose. So if these certificates were being used by Safari prior to their expiration, why did a Keychain Access search not show the expired certificates - does the app automatically delete expired certificates? The new certificates would not have shown up in Keychain Access because the OS on my machine is no longer supported by Apple.
  • On my machine, User 1's Keychain Access app (Version 9.0) does not show a keychain for System Roots, while the same version of the app in User 2's account does. User 1 can only find System Roots by using the search function. Does Keychain Access has a preference that can make the System Roots keychain visible?
  • The Mozilla certificates, which work on Firefox and were copied to Keychain Access, were initially reported as not being trusted.


Thanks to ejschoen1 who suggested working with Keychain Access and expired certificates as the way to proceed in resolving the issue.


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Jun 3, 2020 6:56 PM in response to fcwolf

The certificates used by the three websites that were not loading all are issued by Comodo (as shown in Chrome). These certificates were missing from my Keychain Access app, and so it was necessary to locate the certificates and install. Comodo offers downloads of its certificates (https://support.comodo.com/index.php?/comodo/Knowledgebase/List/Index/106/downloads) but using the search function I could not find the ones needed. The Mozilla organization maintains its own certificate store (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/policies/security-group/certs/), which is used by Firefox, and since Firefox was loading the websites correctly I went to the list of Mozilla certificates (https://ccadb-public.secure.force.com/mozilla/IncludedCACertificateReport) and downloaded the ones needed. The download window gives the option of opening the certificate with Keychain Access - clicking that option installs the certificate. However, Keychain Access initially reported two of the downloaded certificates as not being trusted - there is a dropdown menu that allows marking the certificates as trusted. Now all three websites load correctly on Safari.


A few points/questions that came up in the course of resolving the problem:

  • The Comodo search results included expired versions of the certificates I needed, with an expiration date of May 30, 2020, the date my issue arose. So if these certificates were being used by Safari prior to their expiration, why did a Keychain Access search not show the expired certificates - does the app automatically delete expired certificates? The new certificates would not have shown up in Keychain Access because the OS on my machine is no longer supported by Apple.
  • On my machine, User 1's Keychain Access app (Version 9.0) does not show a keychain for System Roots, while the same version of the app in User 2's account does. User 1 can only find System Roots by using the search function. Does Keychain Access has a preference that can make the System Roots keychain visible?
  • The Mozilla certificates, which work on Firefox and were copied to Keychain Access, were initially reported as not being trusted.


Thanks to ejschoen1 who suggested working with Keychain Access and expired certificates as the way to proceed in resolving the issue.


May 31, 2020 12:57 PM in response to fcwolf

Are you running any anti - virus programs? Using a VPN?


Try setting up another admin user account in System Preferences/Users & Groups to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked. Also try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.


Isolating an issue by using another user account    


Safe Mode - About.       


If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor.  Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply.        Pastebin.    


Etrecheck – System Information.      


Web site version if required.  https://etrecheck.com



May 31, 2020 7:02 PM in response to Eric Root

Malwarebytes reports no threats. No VPN running. A second admin user receives the message that the connection to the website is not secure and is then given the option to view the website after entering the user's password. Afterwards the second user can access the site with no intervention. First user still receives same "...can't establish secure connection..." message. Safe Mode does not correct the problem. Link to EtreCheck report: https://pastebin.com/gBuxmVR8


Jun 1, 2020 5:50 AM in response to fcwolf

Some additional information - maybe related or just a random anomaly. This morning Safari reported being unable to establish a secure connection to another site I visit frequently for both user 1 and user 2. For user 1, Chrome opens the site but reports the connection as not being secure. Firefox and Opera show a secure connection. For user 2, the opposite - Chrome reports a secure connection while Firefox and Opera open the site but show it as being unsecured.

Jun 1, 2020 7:43 AM in response to fcwolf

An old Sectigo root certificate expired.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/gshh70/sectigo_root_ca_expiring_may_not_be_handled_well/

https://support.sectigo.com/articles/Knowledge/Sectigo-AddTrust-External-CA-Root-Expiring-May-30-2020

Not sure why Safari isn't automatically updating. Of two Macs running Mojave in my house, one is OK with LinkedIn.com and one doesn't trust it.

Jun 1, 2020 10:21 AM in response to fcwolf

I wouldn't expect browser cache cleaning to help, because your browser isn't even able to securely connect to the site. You might run the Keychain Access app and look for expired certificates. It's hard to see certificate details in Safari, but in Chrome, you might be able to see the root or intermediate certificate in question, and perhaps you can see that one of them was issued more recently.

Jun 2, 2020 12:28 PM in response to ejschoen1

Thanks again. Looking at a few of the websites, none has a certificate, root, intermediate or server, with a start or end date that is near May 30, when this began. All are currently valid. (My version of Safari seems to show the same certificate detail as Chrome.) None shows up in Keychain Access as expired.

Safari reports it can't establish a secure connection to the server

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