Site gets SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER on Firefox, similar issue on Microsoft Edge

My domain is: surfbalbay.news

My web server is (include version): Apache 2.4.57

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): AlmaLinux 9, Linux 5.14.0-70

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know): Yes

I'm using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel): No

The version of my client is (e.g. output of certbot --version or certbot-auto --version if you're using Certbot): 2.11.0

When accessing the website for the first time via the domain name, I get prompted with the error "SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER" on Firefox and "net::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID" on Microsoft Edge. Although I can enter the site with the Certificate exemption options, I do not want new visitors to be dissuade by this error.

Yes, for some reason your server is using a self-signed cert and not any of the Let's Encrypt certs you have gotten recently. See this test site: SSL Checker

If you fill out more answers from that form you were shown we can give better advice.

=========================

Please fill out the fields below so we can help you better. Note: you must provide your domain name to get help. Domain names for issued certificates are all made public in Certificate Transparency logs (e.g. crt.sh | example.com), so withholding your domain name here does not increase secrecy, but only makes it harder for us to provide help.

I ran this command:

It produced this output:

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:

2 Likes

I ran this command: # certbot --apache

It produced this output:
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
We recommend selecting either all domains, or all domains in a VirtualHost/server block.


1: surfbalbay.news
2: www.surfbalbay.news


Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel):
/opt/certbot/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/certbot/ocsp.py:238: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: Properties that return a naïve datetime object have been deprecated. Please switch to this_update_utc.
if not response_ocsp.this_update:
/opt/certbot/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/certbot/ocsp.py:240: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: Properties that return a naïve datetime object have been deprecated. Please switch to this_update_utc.
if response_ocsp.this_update > now + timedelta(minutes=5):
/opt/certbot/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/certbot/ocsp.py:242: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: Properties that return a naïve datetime object have been deprecated. Please switch to next_update_utc.
if response_ocsp.next_update and response_ocsp.next_update < now - timedelta(minutes=5):
Certificate not yet due for renewal

You have an existing certificate that has exactly the same domains or certificate name you requested and isn't close to expiry.
(ref: /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/surfbalbay.news.conf)

What would you like to do?


1: Attempt to reinstall this existing certificate
2: Renew & replace the certificate (may be subject to CA rate limits)

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: None

Those messages look like a problem with your Certbot install. How did you install it?

Hard to say whether that caused the --apache plugin to go wrong. Let's look at your Apache config. Please show output of this

sudo apachectl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS
2 Likes

sudo apachectl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS

Passing arguments to httpd using apachectl is no longer supported.
You can only start/stop/restart httpd using this script.
To pass extra arguments to httpd, see the httpd.service(8)
man page.

I installed the certbot with the "snap" method first but it brought errors running "certbot --apache", so then I walked back my steps and installed it via the Python (pip) method.

Well, something looks wrong with your Certbot install. I am not a pip/venv expert and don't know why snap wouldn't have worked on Alma.

Hopefully someone else will know. In the meantime, try this:

sudo httpd -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS
2 Likes
VirtualHost configuration:
*:443                  is a NameVirtualHost
         default server surfbalbay.news (/etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf:40)
         port 443 namevhost surfbalbay.news (/etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf:40)
         port 443 namevhost surfbalbay.news (/etc/httpd/conf.d/surfbalbay.news-le-ssl.conf:2)
                 alias www.surfbalbay.news
*:80                   surfbalbay.news (/etc/httpd/conf.d/surfbalbay.news.conf:1)
1 Like

Looks like you have two VirtualHost with the same ServerName. The first one is probably being used by Apache. That .conf file probably also has default settings.

Would you show the contents of this one?
/etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

We could advise for sure. Although, I am stepping away but if you want change the ServerName in the VirtualHost in that conf to something like "DefaultServer". That way Apache won't use it for requests to surfalbay.news but still use any default options it has in that conf.

2 Likes
#
# When we also provide SSL we have to listen to the
# standard HTTPS port in addition.
#
Listen 443 https

##
##  SSL Global Context
##
##  All SSL configuration in this context applies both to
##  the main server and all SSL-enabled virtual hosts.
##

#   Pass Phrase Dialog:
#   Configure the pass phrase gathering process.
#   The filtering dialog program (`builtin' is a internal
#   terminal dialog) has to provide the pass phrase on stdout.
SSLPassPhraseDialog exec:/usr/libexec/httpd-ssl-pass-dialog

#   Inter-Process Session Cache:
#   Configure the SSL Session Cache: First the mechanism
#   to use and second the expiring timeout (in seconds).
SSLSessionCache         shmcb:/run/httpd/sslcache(512000)
SSLSessionCacheTimeout  300

#
# Use "SSLCryptoDevice" to enable any supported hardware
# accelerators. Use "openssl engine -v" to list supported
# engine names.  NOTE: If you enable an accelerator and the
# server does not start, consult the error logs and ensure
# your accelerator is functioning properly.
#
SSLCryptoDevice builtin
#SSLCryptoDevice ubsec

##
## SSL Virtual Host Context
##

<VirtualHost _default_:443>

# General setup for the virtual host, inherited from global configuration
#DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
#ServerName www.example.com:443

# Use separate log files for the SSL virtual host; note that LogLevel
# is not inherited from httpd.conf.
ErrorLog logs/ssl_error_log
TransferLog logs/ssl_access_log
LogLevel warn

#   SSL Engine Switch:
#   Enable/Disable SSL for this virtual host.
SSLEngine on

#   List the protocol versions which clients are allowed to connect with.
#   The OpenSSL system profile is used by default.  See
#   update-crypto-policies(8) for more details.
#SSLProtocol all -SSLv3
#SSLProxyProtocol all -SSLv3

#   User agents such as web browsers are not configured for the user's
#   own preference of either security or performance, therefore this
#   must be the prerogative of the web server administrator who manages
#   cpu load versus confidentiality, so enforce the server's cipher order.
SSLHonorCipherOrder on

#   SSL Cipher Suite:
#   List the ciphers that the client is permitted to negotiate.
#   See the mod_ssl documentation for a complete list.
#   The OpenSSL system profile is configured by default.  See
#   update-crypto-policies(8) for more details.
SSLCipherSuite PROFILE=SYSTEM
SSLProxyCipherSuite PROFILE=SYSTEM

#   Point SSLCertificateFile at a PEM encoded certificate.  If
#   the certificate is encrypted, then you will be prompted for a
#   pass phrase.  Note that restarting httpd will prompt again.  Keep
#   in mind that if you have both an RSA and a DSA certificate you
#   can configure both in parallel (to also allow the use of DSA
#   ciphers, etc.)
#   Some ECC cipher suites (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4492.txt)
#   require an ECC certificate which can also be configured in
#   parallel.
SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt

#   Server Private Key:
#   If the key is not combined with the certificate, use this
#   directive to point at the key file.  Keep in mind that if
#   you've both a RSA and a DSA private key you can configure
#   both in parallel (to also allow the use of DSA ciphers, etc.)
#   ECC keys, when in use, can also be configured in parallel
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key

#   Server Certificate Chain:
#   Point SSLCertificateChainFile at a file containing the
#   concatenation of PEM encoded CA certificates which form the
#   certificate chain for the server certificate. Alternatively
#   the referenced file can be the same as SSLCertificateFile
#   when the CA certificates are directly appended to the server
#   certificate for convenience.
#SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/server-chain.crt

#   Certificate Authority (CA):
#   Set the CA certificate verification path where to find CA
#   certificates for client authentication or alternatively one
#   huge file containing all of them (file must be PEM encoded)
#SSLCACertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

#   Client Authentication (Type):
#   Client certificate verification type and depth.  Types are
#   none, optional, require and optional_no_ca.  Depth is a
#   number which specifies how deeply to verify the certificate
#   issuer chain before deciding the certificate is not valid.
#SSLVerifyClient require
#SSLVerifyDepth  10

#   Access Control:
#   With SSLRequire you can do per-directory access control based
#   on arbitrary complex boolean expressions containing server
#   variable checks and other lookup directives.  The syntax is a
#   mixture between C and Perl.  See the mod_ssl documentation
#   for more details.
#<Location />
#SSLRequire (    %{SSL_CIPHER} !~ m/^(EXP|NULL)/ \
#            and %{SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_O} eq "Snake Oil, Ltd." \
#            and %{SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_OU} in {"Staff", "CA", "Dev"} \
#            and %{TIME_WDAY} >= 1 and %{TIME_WDAY} <= 5 \
#            and %{TIME_HOUR} >= 8 and %{TIME_HOUR} <= 20       ) \
#           or %{REMOTE_ADDR} =~ m/^192\.76\.162\.[0-9]+$/
#</Location>

#   SSL Engine Options:
#   Set various options for the SSL engine.
#   o FakeBasicAuth:
#     Translate the client X.509 into a Basic Authorisation.  This means that
#     the standard Auth/DBMAuth methods can be used for access control.  The
#     user name is the `one line' version of the client's X.509 certificate.
#     Note that no password is obtained from the user. Every entry in the user
#     file needs this password: `xxj31ZMTZzkVA'.
#   o ExportCertData:
#     This exports two additional environment variables: SSL_CLIENT_CERT and
#     SSL_SERVER_CERT. These contain the PEM-encoded certificates of the
#     server (always existing) and the client (only existing when client
#     authentication is used). This can be used to import the certificates
#     into CGI scripts.
#   o StdEnvVars:
#     This exports the standard SSL/TLS related `SSL_*' environment variables.
#     Per default this exportation is switched off for performance reasons,
#     because the extraction step is an expensive operation and is usually
#     useless for serving static content. So one usually enables the
#     exportation for CGI and SSI requests only.
#   o StrictRequire:
#     This denies access when "SSLRequireSSL" or "SSLRequire" applied even
#     under a "Satisfy any" situation, i.e. when it applies access is denied
#     and no other module can change it.
#   o OptRenegotiate:
#     This enables optimized SSL connection renegotiation handling when SSL
#     directives are used in per-directory context.
#SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +ExportCertData +StrictRequire
<FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</FilesMatch>
<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</Directory>

#   SSL Protocol Adjustments:
#   The safe and default but still SSL/TLS standard compliant shutdown
#   approach is that mod_ssl sends the close notify alert but doesn't wait for
#   the close notify alert from client. When you need a different shutdown
#   approach you can use one of the following variables:
#   o ssl-unclean-shutdown:
#     This forces an unclean shutdown when the connection is closed, i.e. no
#     SSL close notify alert is sent or allowed to be received.  This violates
#     the SSL/TLS standard but is needed for some brain-dead browsers. Use
#     this when you receive I/O errors because of the standard approach where
#     mod_ssl sends the close notify alert.
#   o ssl-accurate-shutdown:
#     This forces an accurate shutdown when the connection is closed, i.e. a
#     SSL close notify alert is sent and mod_ssl waits for the close notify
#     alert of the client. This is 100% SSL/TLS standard compliant, but in
#     practice often causes hanging connections with brain-dead browsers. Use
#     this only for browsers where you know that their SSL implementation
#     works correctly.
#   Notice: Most problems of broken clients are also related to the HTTP
#   keep-alive facility, so you usually additionally want to disable
#   keep-alive for those clients, too. Use variable "nokeepalive" for this.
#   Similarly, one has to force some clients to use HTTP/1.0 to workaround
#   their broken HTTP/1.1 implementation. Use variables "downgrade-1.0" and
#   "force-response-1.0" for this.
BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-5]" \
         nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
         downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

#   Per-Server Logging:
#   The home of a custom SSL log file. Use this when you want a
#   compact non-error SSL logfile on a virtual host basis.
CustomLog logs/ssl_request_log \
          "%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"

</VirtualHost>

Change the above #ServerName www.example.com:443 to:

ServerName DefaultServer

(no port number after the name and NO comment mark)

Reload apache and probably will work. Fixing Certbot install is for later

4 Likes

And change that line to some place innocuous.
[remove the hashtag]

4 Likes

Done & Done. Great, I've entered the changes and now my website has its issue resolved! It's HTTPS is fully working. Thank you Both!

3 Likes

You might try this to test the Certbot renew process:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

I'd still try to sort out why you get so many messages running Certbot. I just don't have any good guesses on how to proceed with that.

1 Like
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/surfbalbay.news.conf
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
/opt/certbot/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/certbot/ocsp.py:238: CryptographyDepr                          ecationWarning: Properties that return a naïve datetime object have been depreca                          ted. Please switch to this_update_utc.
  if not response_ocsp.this_update:
/opt/certbot/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/certbot/ocsp.py:240: CryptographyDepr                          ecationWarning: Properties that return a naïve datetime object have been depreca                          ted. Please switch to this_update_utc.
  if response_ocsp.this_update > now + timedelta(minutes=5):
/opt/certbot/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/certbot/ocsp.py:242: CryptographyDepr                          ecationWarning: Properties that return a naïve datetime object have been depreca                          ted. Please switch to next_update_utc.
  if response_ocsp.next_update and response_ocsp.next_update < now - timedelta(m                          inutes=5):
Account registered.
Simulating renewal of an existing certificate for surfbalbay.news and www.surfba                          lbay.news

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Congratulations, all simulated renewals succeeded:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/surfbalbay.news/fullchain.pem (success)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yeah It's confusing to me as well.
I'll try to see what it is another time by reinstalling via the pip method. I'll also check out what was the issue with the snap method to see if that can be fixed for me. But again I thank you for your help and quick replies.

1 Like

At least the renewal test worked even with those odd messages.

2 Likes

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