Safari can't verify the identity of the website

HI and welcome to Apple Discussions....

From the Safari Menu Bar click Safari/Reset Safari. Select all the boxes. Then from the Menu Bar click Safari/Quit Safari.

Now relaunch Safari. Try logging into one of those sites.

If that didn't help, try troubleshooting the Safari .plist file.

Open a Finder window. Select your Home Folder in the Sidebar on the left. It has a small house icon. Then open the Library folder then the Preferences folder. Move the com.apple.Safari.plist file from the Preferences folder to the Desktop. Now launch Safari. Navigate to a site that normally has a signed certificate like your bank. If you can do this without the invalid certificate dialog, move that .plist file to the Trash.









Carolyn 🙂

HI,

Try something else. From your Safari Menu Bar click Safari/Preferences then select the Security tab.
Click: Show Cookies. Delete all the cookies for the sites you have problems with certificates.

Now relaunch Safari and try one of those sites.

*Delete one of the sites you had Bookmarked prior to the Safari update.* Then navigate to that site. See if you there's a verification issue. If not, then just add that site to your Bookmarks. Same for the rest.






🙂

Is the date and time correctly set on your machine?

Dave

i've got the same problem. in fact even the Apple.com website login is untrusted by my Safari!!!
I've reset Safari, deleted both Safari.plist files, and restarted. Still get the same "can't verify, etc:" popup box. Could this be a computer issue? It make Safari unusable.
Thanks for any help.
-wayne

Well this is a first, since i'm responding to my own post, having located the source of the problem. This verification issue was a result of the computer date being set wrong. Somehow, the automatic date box became unchecked, and this led to the verification problems. When the automatic date box was checked, the problem disappeared!

Wow, Wayne . . .
How nice of you to come back and share your solution with us!
That's one, I have to admit, I would not have thought of!
LOL.

I have the same issue. Aren't sites supposed to provide current security certificates from a known issuing authority, so that companies like Apple can 'push' updated security certificates via Software Update? In the case of CitiBank, they recently re-vamped their credit cards page and now when I use the "www.citicards.com" URL on my credit card, I get the message, "Safari can't verify the identity of the website, "creditcards.citi.com" - The certificate has been signed by an unknown certifying authority...this website may be pretending to be...." , etc.

This is a show-stopper for me, for sure: I can't afford to have such questions raised when visiting my credit card account site!!!

I have wondered if this issue is caused by sloppy webmaster practices, where they just don't bother to update their security certificates after making changes to website structures.

Whatever the cause, it defeats the entire purpose of secure online banking.

Another thing I've noticed (though this is off-topic, since it's about Firefox): On one of my Macs, Firefox's preferences\security tab allows me to check a box to 'tell me if a site I'm visiting is a suspected forgery'. On another one of my macs, this same box is mysteriously greyed out. How's the average user supposed to know if this is the result of some hacker compromising their browser?

I'm having this same problem except its my iPhone not my computer..What can I do in order for this message to go away? It keeps saying:

Cannot verify server identity..Safari cannot verify the identity of facebook.com..would u like to continue? Everytime I go to facebook..Sometimes, it doesn't say that, ONLY when it has that "Lock" logo next to the web browser..I don't know why there are times the logo isn't there and most of the times, no lock logo..This NEVER happened before. What can I do to fix it?? Someone PLEASE help..