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Can't open bookmarked website

I have a website bookmarked, and have never had issues with it before. Now, I keep getting an error message that "Safari cannot establish a secure connection". I've cleared my history, reset Safari, cleared the cookies related to the site, deleted my saved passwords. I just can't get it to open this particular site.


I'm not having trouble opening other "secure" sites (i.e., my bank and credit cards sites), so that's not it.


Any suggestions as to what could be going on?


I did recently clear my history and delete cookies for another site, and one other thing that I can't remember. Whatever that one thing was deleted my cached info, so when I went to bookmarked sites, I had to re-enter my username and passwords. Not sure if that's relevant or not.


Any suggestions? My Safari is up-to-date.

Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Feb 27, 2015 12:24 AM

Reply
3 replies

Feb 27, 2015 8:31 AM in response to ScubaJenn

This could be a complicated problem to solve, as there are several possible causes for it.

Back up all data, then take each of the following steps that you haven't already taken. Stop when the problem is resolved.

Step 1

From the menu bar, select

 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Date & Time

Select the Time Zone tab in the preference pane that opens and check that the time zone matches your location. Then select the Date & Time tab. Check that the data and time shown (including the year) are correct, and correct them if not.

Check the box marked

Set date and time automatically

if it's not already checked, and select one of the Apple time servers from the menu next to it.

Step 2

Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem.


Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

If the problem is not reproducible in safe mode, then it's caused by third-party "anti-virus" or "security" software. If you know what that software is, remove it as directed by the developer after backing up all data. If you don't know what it is, ask for instructions.

Step 3


Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/System/Library/Keychains/SystemCACertificates.keychain

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services Show Info

from the contextual menu.* An Info dialog should open. The dialog should show "You can only read" in the Sharing & Permissions section.

Repeat with this line:

/System/Library/Keychains/SystemRootCertificates.keychain

If instead of the Info dialog, you get a message that either file can't be found, reinstall OS X.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Open a TextEdit window and paste into it by pressing command-V. Select the line you just pasted and continue as above.

Step 4

Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

In the upper left corner of the window, you should see a list headed Keychains. If not, click the button in the lower left corner that looks like a triangle inside a square.

In the Keychains list, there should be items named System and System Roots. If not, select

File Add Keychain

from the menu bar and add the following items:

/Library/Keychains/System.keychain

/System/Library/Keychains/SystemRootCertificates.keychain

Open the View menu in the menu bar. If one of the items in the menu is

Show Expired Certificates

select it. Otherwise it will show

Hide Expired Certificates

which is what you want.

From the Category list in the lower left corner of the window, select Certificates. Look carefully at the list of certificates in the right side of the window. If any of them has a blue-and-white plus sign or a red "X" in the icon, double-click it. An inspection window will open. Click the disclosure triangle labeled Trust to disclose the trust settings for the certificate. From the menu labeled

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

select

no value specified

Close the inspection window. You'll be prompted for your administrator password to update the settings.

Now open the same inspection window again, and select

When using this certificate: Use System Defaults

Save the change in the same way as before.

Revert all the certificates with non-default trust settings. Never again change any of those settings.

Step 5

Select My Certificates from the Category list. From the list of certificates shown, delete any that are marked with a red X as expired or invalid.

Export all remaining certificates, delete them from the keychain, and reimport. For instructions, select

Help Keychain Access Help

from the menu bar and search for the term "export" in the help window. Export each certificate as an individual file; don't combine them into one big file.

Step 6

From the menu bar, select

Keychain Access Preferences... Certificates

There are three menus in the window. Change the selection in the top two to Best attempt, and in the bottom one to CRL.

Step 7

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

/var/db/crls

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

A folder named "crls" should open. Move all the files in that folder to the Trash. You’ll be prompted for your administrator login password.

Restart the computer, empty the Trash, and test.

Step 8

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

open -e /etc/hosts

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the built-in Terminal application in the same way you launched Keychain Access.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting. A TextEdit window should open. At the top of the window, you should see this:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost

If that's not what you see, post the contents of the window.

Mar 22, 2015 10:09 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for the detailed instructions. I am on step 4 and was checking the certificates for the "no value specified" and "Use System Defaults". The ones that were there were all set to both of those settings, but I clicked them all again just to be sure. The red "x"s are still there though. Should they be?


I moved on to Step 5, and the My Certificates. There are only three there and they all have red "x"s. The first one gave me a message that said deleting it could cause me not to be able to read encrypted messages, etc., and did I want to continue. I just wanted to check with you to make sure.


The first certificate is: com.apply.ubiquity.peer-uuid.8B092190-7A43-45B2-8E39-4FA6DE217ED. The other two are similar.


Am I good to go to delete those? They all expired December 31, 2012.

Can't open bookmarked website

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