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Secure connection failed error and certain websites without pictures after Mozilla refresh

jessboehme
jessboehme
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Hello all. I recently updated to windows 10 and had not been having any issues. However, today Mozilla suggested I "refresh" the browser to allow it to run faster. After doing so sites like facebook and twitter appear with no photos. Just links in random places, and sites like google give me an error message saying Secure Connection Failed (Error code: sec_error_bad_signature). I have windows firewall and have tried to troubleshoot the problem from there but I am unsure of what I am actually doing. Please help!!!!

Hello all. I recently updated to windows 10 and had not been having any issues. However, today Mozilla suggested I "refresh" the browser to allow it to run faster. After doing so sites like facebook and twitter appear with no photos. Just links in random places, and sites like google give me an error message saying Secure Connection Failed (Error code: sec_error_bad_signature). I have windows firewall and have tried to troubleshoot the problem from there but I am unsure of what I am actually doing. Please help!!!!

All Replies (2)

guigs
guigs
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Hi jessboehme, There should be a Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop. This is created each time that you refresh Firefox. In there, there is also a certificate file. Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data or Recovering important data from an old profile

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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The most common reason for getting "sec_error_bad_signature" on numerous sites seems to be the Avast Web Shield. Web Shield intercepts your browsing and filters it, but to filter secure sites, it presents "fake" certificates to Firefox. Firefox may have previously been set to trust Avast to sign certificates (in the cert8.db file), but the Refresh would have cleared that trust.

To test this theory, try turning off scanning of encrypted sites. I saw these steps in another post:

  1. Open the Avast dashboard on the affected system.
  2. Select Settings from the left sidebar menu.
  3. Switch to Active Protection.
  4. Click on Customize next to Web Shield.
  5. Uncheck the "Enable HTTPS Scanning" option and click ok

If that resolves the issue, but you prefer to filter encrypted communications, you may need to import the Avast! signing certficate into Firefox's Certificate Manager, Authorities tab.