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Google.com gives me a bad certificate for icloud.com. It doesn't happen all the time; and adding an exception gets me a "Bad Request" message.

  • 3 replies
  • 7 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by rangergeee

alopekos
alopekos
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Every now and then, I'll open my browser to find - or find in the middle of a browsing session - that I'm completely unable to access Google.com. Secure connection (https) or unsecure (http). Thunderbird also starts giving me repeated error messages about a bad certificate, changing certificate permissions, etc.

The message in both Thunderbird and Firefox tells me that *icloud.com is trying to pass off its certificate as Google's. I called Apple support and they didn't know what to say; Safari was able to access Google with no problem, so they guessed it must be something to do with Mozilla products.

I've tried adding an exception. Going to Google then gets me a "Bad Request" or "Unable to Connect" message.

Why are Mozilla products seeking an icloud certificate for Google?

Every now and then, I'll open my browser to find - or find in the middle of a browsing session - that I'm completely unable to access Google.com. Secure connection (https) or unsecure (http). Thunderbird also starts giving me repeated error messages about a bad certificate, changing certificate permissions, etc. The message in both Thunderbird and Firefox tells me that *icloud.com is trying to pass off its certificate as Google's. I called Apple support and they didn't know what to say; Safari was able to access Google with no problem, so they guessed it must be something to do with Mozilla products. I've tried adding an exception. Going to Google then gets me a "Bad Request" or "Unable to Connect" message. Why are Mozilla products seeking an icloud certificate for Google?

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Try to rename the cert8.db file in the Firefox profile folder to cert8.db.old or delete the cert8.db file to remove intermediate certificates that Firefox has stored.

If that helped to solve the problem then you can remove the renamed cert8.db.old file.
Otherwise you can rename (or copy) the cert8.db.old file to cert8.db to restore the previous intermediate certificates.
Firefox will automatically store intermediate certificates when you visit websites that send such a certificate.

If that didn't help then remove or rename secmod.db (secmod.db.old) as well.

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder
alopekos
alopekos Question owner
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Unfortunately this didn't work.

I renamed cert8.db to cert8.db.old; restarted firefox with no success. Did the same with secmod.db (secmod.db.old); restarted firefox with no success.

Then I deleted both cert8.db.old and secmod.db.old, and still no success.

On another note, I'm still wondering why "*icloud.com" is always the 'offending' certificate-giver. To my limited understanding, I wonder if deleting the intermediate certificates would only provide a temporary solution; that is, only until *icloud.com makes a move again.

rangergeee
rangergeee
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hi, i am not certain this will work, but i read a post on another page that this has to with iCloud on one's apple device (like iphone, ipad, itouch) which is enabled and somehow interfering with the home network. in my case, every device connected to my network was effected no matter what browser was used. so i knew it was something to do with the modem or router. see if uninstalling icloud from your devices (or taking you apple devices off the network) can help. i did so, and then rebooted my modem & router. so far so good. I will check back if anything changes.

(how rude of apple!)