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com.apple.WebKit.Networking.xpc want to sign using key "Apple ID Authentication (date, time) in your keychain

I get this communicate all the time:


com.apple.WebKit.Networking.xpc want to sign using key "Apple ID Authentication (date, time) in your keychain


User uploaded file



Please help, it is incredibly annoying, it appears all the time if I allow or deny.

MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 4, 2013 11:59 AM

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38 replies

Nov 15, 2013 6:58 AM in response to jbsjax

I have this problem too, but with only one web site (a school portal). The person in charge says that Safari started to show this behavior since they change their certificate during last spring period. He suggested me to switch my browser to Chrome, which doesn't show this behavior. I rejected the suggestion, because I don't like the idea of having many web browsers.


To temporiraly get rid of the problem, I just delete the suspect certificate from my keychain. It is the one shown in the the message that follows the one above, where we are prompted to select a certificate. In Keychain, the certificate to delete is found under the "My certificates" category of the "session" or "login" keychain. This is not a permanent fix, because it comes back after a few weeks, but it allows to overide the problem for the short term.


If someone has some url's that have the problem, without any security or privacy issues, I would like to try them.

Jun 30, 2017 7:42 PM in response to Almightyfly

I have this question on 10.12.5.


I think I found the cause. Every time when I launch Safari I was leaded to 'Favorite' page and get the popup. There are hundreds of bookmark page there. I guess the Safari may pre-read the bookmark each time I got into this page and some of my bookmarks require to sign. I am not sure which ones require it.


My solution is. Change the option 'New windows open with:' and 'New tabs open with:' in Safari preference to 'Empty Page'


I hope it helped.

Nov 19, 2013 4:36 AM in response to Almightyfly

This problem is not related to Maverics. I got this problem since late 2011 and I was running Lion (10.7) at the time, with Safari 5.1. I had the problem too with Mountain Lion (10.8) and Safari 6. And now with Maverics.


May be I can give more technical details on what is happening. When Safari goes on a secure web site, the web site gives a certificate to be signed, and Safari has to sign that certificate using one from the keychain. There are plenty of them already in the keychain (added during the installation of the OS). In fact, all the ones we need should be there, and specifically the one needed for that web site. The web site certificate could be displayed by clicking on the lock on the left of the URL field on the top of the Safari window. For example, the one used in this web site here was delivered by Cybertrust Public SureServer. For some people, it seems that there is a confusion in the keychain between the right certificate and a wrong one, and then Safari tries to sign using the wrong certificate. I my case, after suppressing that unwelcomed certificate, the signing process starts to work as it should... at least for some time. Be careful not to suppress any system or root certificates, which will cause an access problem to their related web sites. The one shown on the top of this discussion is located in "my certificates" in the login or session keychain.


What I don't know so far is how that annoying certificate gets in the keychain and how can we prevent it to get there. I thought I came with some secured e-mails I received, but I did not succeed to match it. I am still looking for a solution.


I hope it helped.

Nov 19, 2013 9:47 AM in response to Almightyfly

I too have got this pop up message. I have never had this using Snow Leopard or Lion but on a new iMac I got this today (running Mavericks).


Bizarrely it popped up using the BBC weather page which I had visited yesterday and other days without any problem... I had a couple of other tabs open but again websites I regularly visit, so I see no particular reason why the message popped up at that point. Viaiting the same BBC weather page a few minutes ago as a test, no popup message...


Will join the sleuthing efforts...

Nov 19, 2013 9:59 AM in response to Almightyfly

My issue actually occured on one of our own websites and I was trying to figure out why as only Safari seemed to have an issue. I finally replicated the issue again though (using BrowserStack) with Windows XP and IE7 and saw the application was requesting a client certificate. I then saw a solution here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/205244/ie-choose-a-digital-certificate-from-a -blank-empty-list


The solution said that in IIS, to modify the SSL Settings and change "Client certificates" from "Accept" to "Ignore". Evidentally in IIS / Client Certificates, "Accept" really means "Require".


Anyway, that fixed the issue for me. It would have been nice if the error on Safari had been in plain language to begin with. Thanks for all the responses.

Nov 21, 2013 12:51 AM in response to Steve Hayes1

I'm yet another who is getting this on the BBC. Not all the time and mainly when I use the back button. I can't for the life of me understand why this should be happening. As far sa I can tell, there have been no changes to the BBC site and even if it is Mavericks, why should it suddenly start in the past week or so instead of after installation?


I click deny but have to do so about three times on average before it vanishes. Annoying.

Nov 21, 2013 5:42 AM in response to David Ross17

Hi David. I don't know about the others, but in my case, clicking on any button doesn't help going thru. If I deny, I will have to deny 2 or 3 times like you, but after that I got a blank page generated by Safari that says it can't access the web site. If I allow, I get another box for choosing the certificate to use, then it gets back to the first box like the one shown above. Since a couple weeks ago, I don't have the problem, but when it will start to show, it will remain until I decide to delete the undesired certificate. You seem to have a different behavior.

Nov 21, 2013 6:40 AM in response to Almightyfly

I had the same problem occur once again yesterday (BBC site).


From jbsjax helpful info, it seems the problem / conflict lies within / between a Microsoft development system (IIS) and Safari on certain websites.


Not sure where the 'blame' lies in this instance. Unfortunately I did a screen capture of my error message but deleted it. I'll try and submit a tech query to the BBC and link to this page to see if they can help.


In my case the popup message does disappear when I click 'Always Allow'

com.apple.WebKit.Networking.xpc want to sign using key "Apple ID Authentication (date, time) in your keychain

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