You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

FIX for: "Safari can't verify the identity of the website" - certificate not valid

If you are getting a message like this:

Safari can't verify the identity of the website "static.ak.facebook.com" (or ANY other address)

This certificate is not valid (host name mismatch)

There is an EASY FIX for this...

Go to:

/Applications/Utilities/KeyChain Access

Select "KeyChain First Aid" from "KeyChain Access" (menu choice)

Make sure the radio button for "Verify" is selected, and then click the "Start" button.

Once completed, it will tell you if any problems were found just above "Verification Completed".

(In my case "no problems found").

It is not necessary to perform a "repair" if no problems were found.

If problems were found, follow up the verification process with the "repair" process.

FYI: "KeyChain Access" stores info for Certificates. If a "mismatch" occurs, or a certificate is deamed "invalid" you get a warning. (This is part of your security). Performing "KeyChain First Aid" will verify ALL certificates and correct any "mismatching" by updating the certificate OR will tell you there was a problem (ie. a website using a fake certificate), in which case you need to follow through with "repair" and if necessary, not use the problematic website. BUT, in most cases, this message is NOT about anything malicious, its just part of the security settings that are trying to ensure ALL certificates associated to ANY website is correct, and since certificates expire and/or get updated, these conflicts can occur.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), White, Model A1342

Posted on Oct 24, 2012 1:31 AM

Top-ranking reply

canucksgirl01 Author

Level 1

57 points

Posted on Oct 24, 2012 2:04 PM

Here is the LATEST UPDATE:

The Akamai Network (the hosting service for many websites like Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter) which uses the a248.e.akamai.net URL (in this case for Facebook), has FINALLY become aware of this issue and is pushing out the fix as I type...

For everyone who was able to go through the KeyChain First Aid process (described above in the start of this thread) has been able to correct the problem already. For everyone else, the "fix" may take some time to populate over ALL the websites that are affected (i.e. millions...) so, you may have to be patient. I don't have specific help available for all iOS devices, but the update from Akamai will correct this problem.

*** Just be aware that websites have different schedules for when they push out updates. Some do this once a day, but others can do this as infrequently as once a week (depends on the website you're having trouble with).

View in context

112 replies

Nov 30, 2012 2:40 PM in response to mightymilk

I can understand your hesitation, however the FB certificate only applies to Facebook (and FB functionality on a website), so you can safely accept that certificate (and it will apply to all instances).

Regarding malicious websites, if you visit a website that's using a fake certificate (regardless of whether they use Facebook functionality or not), you would get a unique alert from Safari about the problem, and it wouldn't be affected by your acceptance of the Facebook Certificate (because a website requires their own certificate). They are independent of eachother.

I hope that helps.

Nov 30, 2012 2:43 PM in response to canucksgirl01

I was under the impression I had to make an exception for all Certificates, hence my hesitation. If there's a way to select which Certificates are marked as always allow... Then I have no issue doing that.

Cheers

Nov 30, 2012 3:01 PM in response to mightymilk

When you select "always allow" or "never allow" under the "Trust" section of a certificate, it ONLY applies to that certificate, which is why it says "When using this certificate"...

It will not create an exception for every certificate Safari checks.

Dec 10, 2012 12:04 PM in response to canucksgirl01

Hi, what do I do when my iPad 2 has "invalid URL" (similar problem with my Mac which you helped fix with going into Terminal and paste that empty cache message). I can't find Terminal on my iPad 2.

Thanks.

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Dec 10, 2012 12:29 PM in response to MsVanessa

MsVanessa wrote:

Hi, what do I do when my iPad 2 has "invalid URL" (similar problem with my Mac which you helped fix with going into Terminal and paste that empty cache message). I can't find Terminal on my iPad 2.

You should really post this to a different forum as this one only covers Mac OS, but a quick answer is that there is no way to enter command lines on an iOS device that I'm aware of. I doubt Apple would allow a third party app that could do this.

You may be having issues with your router or whatever DNS server your ISP uses. Try changing your DNS settings.

Dec 10, 2012 1:21 PM in response to MsVanessa

Terminal isn't included on iPad, so I'm not sure what else you could do to get it working. Like MadMacs0 suggested, you may want to post this as a new question in the iPad section. Chances are someone has a solution for you over there.

Feb 6, 2013 4:25 PM in response to canucksgirl01

I found a solution that fixed the error for me. I had changed the date and time on my Ipad which seemed to mess everything up. Go into settings, general, date and time, and turn set automatically to on. Once i switched this back on the error message went away.

resmith

Level 1

0 points

Jun 17, 2013 9:37 AM in response to canucksgirl01

I see no menu choice for KeyChain Access. OS 10.8.3. Safari 6.0.4. I can't even connect to the App Store because it says I have no Internet connection (but I do!).

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Jun 17, 2013 10:27 AM in response to resmith

resmith wrote:

I see no menu choice for KeyChain Access.

I don't see where anybody said there was a menu choice.

KeyChain Access is an app located in /Applications/Utilities/. You have to open it to take the steps outlined by canucksgirl01.

resmith

Level 1

0 points

Jun 17, 2013 3:44 PM in response to canucksgirl01

I seem to have resolved this irritating problem simply by clicking on "Set date and time automatically" in Date & Time of System Preferences. How and why this has resolved the problem makes no sense to me, but I'm certainly glad it has.

Jun 17, 2013 3:56 PM in response to resmith

@resmith - The reason it fixed the problem is because website certificates are dated (with a start date and expiry date). If your computer has the wrong date, it will think the certificate is invalid and will alert you to that fact.

resmith

Level 1

0 points

Jun 17, 2013 4:04 PM in response to canucksgirl01

Thanks for the explanation. Fixing the problem wasn't intuitive when I was struggling to figure it out, but your explanation makes sense and clears up a big mystery for me.

Jun 17, 2013 8:15 PM in response to resmith

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

Ruliyah

Level 1

4 points

Jun 28, 2013 11:12 PM in response to MadMacs0

Dear MadMacs0,

I have the problem since four weeks with my yahoo email: no access possible. Certificate warning shows up etc. The solutions of Keychain access, time and date don't work because Key Chain Access doesn't detect a problem and Time and Date is already automatically set: changing this and back did not help. It is ridiculous to have it and I don't understand that Apple doesn't fix it! My IMac 27 inch is three months old.

Facebook, I don't have.

Would you please so kind to tell how to get my yahoo email again without interfering with my hotmail which is working fine. I am now 3 months on IMac/Apple so brand new.

Thanks and kind regards

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Jun 29, 2013 10:46 PM in response to Ruliyah

Ruliyah wrote:

Dear MadMacs0,

Not sure why you addressed this to me..., canucksgirl01 started this thread and has been the one with most of the answers. I am mostly here to address questions about malware.

It is ridiculous to have it and I don't understand that Apple doesn't fix it! My IMac 27 inch is three months old.

I've never seen this behaviour and my 21.5 inch iMac is the same age as yours. From what others have said it doesn't seem to be Apple's problem to fix.

Would you please so kind to tell how to get my yahoo email again

I have no idea. Why not contact Yahoo about their Certificate and / or Apple if you are using Apple Mail as your e-mail reader.

FIX for: "Safari can't verify the identity of the website" - certificate not valid