Safari 8.0.7 Certificate and Display Problems

Question

Safari 8.0.7 Certificate and Display Problems

Starting this morning, Safari has been constantly complaining about the X.509 certificates from various news web sites that I access. MarketWatch, CNN, and Google News are examples of sites where Safari complained about the validity of the certificates presented. I discovered that Safari had been updated in the latest OS X security update. I installed Safari 8.0.7 but it still complains about certificates.

Safari 8.0.7 has introduced a new problem with at least one site, The Motely Fool. I can no longer comment on an article because the <TEXTAREA> is no longer displayed.

What causes Safari not to recognize the validity of an X.509 certificate? Can it be corrected without waiting for Apple to release a new version of Safari?

Mac Pro (Early 2008), OS X Yosemite (10.10), OS X Server

Posted on Jun 30, 2015 8:03 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 30, 2015 8:06 PM in response to Merton Crockett

Even though you're having problems with certificates, delete the cache associate with Safari and see if that makes a difference.

Open a Finder window. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder

Type or copy paste the following

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db

Click Go then move the Cache.db file to the Trash.

Quit and relaunch Safari to test.

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Answer 2

Jun 30, 2015 8:39 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

It appears not to have been a wise decision to delete the Cache.db file.

On closer inspection of the X.509 certificate chain, Safari 8.0.7 claims that the root certificate for "Google Internet Authority G2" because it can't locate the CRL listed in the certificate. The CRL and the OCSP server links in the certificate are valid. This appears to be a "bug" introduced in the Security update.

I guess its time to go back to Firefox as my default browser. I don't understand why Apple can't go more than two versions before introducing another major bug.

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Answer 3

Jul 8, 2015 4:36 PM in response to Merton Crockett

I'm experimenting the same issues on Safari 8.0.7 since the update. Can't connect to Facebook half the time, and when I get there, the GUI is screwed, and when it works I still miss a few icons... Google.com is also returning certificates issues...

thx for any help

Eric

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jul 9, 2015 7:24 AM in response to epeloquin

Safari certificate not recognized

From Safari Help

Change the trust settings of a certificate

You can view or change a certificate’strust policies in Keychain Access.

Open Keychain Access for me

In the Category list, select a category.
Select a certificate, then choose File > Get Info.
Click the Trust disclosure triangle to display the trust policies for the certificate.
To override the trust policies, choose new trust settings from the pop-up menus.

Safari Certificate not recognized

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Answer 5

Jul 9, 2015 10:05 AM in response to Eric Root

Eric:

While your solution provides a "workaround" for Safari, this approach doesn't appear to resolve the issue with Mail.

It doesn't really address the issue of why Mail, Safari, and WebKit have problems with X.509 certificates signed by intermediate root certificate authorities. This isn't the first time that Apple has released an update of Mail, Safari, and WebKit with this same problem.

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Answer 6

Jul 9, 2015 5:02 PM in response to Eric Root

This is the Safari 8.0.7 experience for me right now...

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Answer 7

Jul 9, 2015 5:06 PM in response to epeloquin

Apple Support Communities "re-branded by Safari 8.0.7" menu... early 2000 feel...

I have no clue where to begin... any help is appreciated.

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Answer 8

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jul 10, 2015 7:03 AM in response to Merton Crockett

Did you try deleting the certificates as per the link to another discussion?

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Answer 9

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jul 10, 2015 7:04 AM in response to epeloquin

Safari/Preferences/Advanced - enable the Develop menu, then go there and Empty Caches. Quit/reopen Safari and test. Then try Safari/History/Show History and delete all history items. Quit/reopen Safari and test. You can also try try Safari/Clear History and Web Site Data. The down side is it clears all cookies.Doing this may cause some sites to no longer recognize your computer as one that has visited the web site. Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library./Caches/com.apple.Safari/Caches.db and move it to the trash.

Go to Safari Preferences/Extensions and turn all extensions off. Test. If okay, turn the extensions on one by one until you figure out what extension is causing the problem.

Safari Corruption See post by Linc Davis

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Answer 10

Jul 12, 2015 12:42 PM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric. Thank you for the help you've been providing me.

Short of the certificates to delete - I'm not sure which ones specifically I should be deleting or increasing the level of trust - I did all of the resolution recommandations and the ones on the Safari corruption post (the one you referenced) i.e. clearing all files related to Safari, Flash, booting in safe mode, etc.

Everything was working fine before the last 10.10.4 update... it stopped working then and only then...

Unsure you have anymore suggestions, I will try them all as you share so thx in advance for anything you can provide 🙂

Eric

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Answer 11

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jul 13, 2015 7:16 AM in response to epeloquin

Try running the combo update.

10.10.4 Combo Update

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Answer 12

Jul 16, 2015 6:27 PM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric, thanks for your suggestion. Tried the combo update. Tried to reinstall 10.10.4 then the combo update... no go. noticing that Linkedin also shows up without any of the regular visual look... on top of this forum page and Facebook. starting to think 10.10.5 may be the only fix. I get the same certificates issues on all of the different users account on my Mac - including the Root one.

I'm open to trying all that you can throw at me!! 🙂

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