Bogus security alert

[Tim Slattery]

My wife's machine runs XP SP3. From time to time (several times a
day), she gets a message box, in which the title bar says "Security
Alert". The text in the box is "This page requires a secure connection
which includes server authentication". On another line: "The
Certificate Issuer for this site is untrusted or unknown. Do you wish
to proceed?" There are four buttons: "Yes", "No", "View Certificate",
and "More Info".

"More Info" brings up an IE help file showing the page about SSL
certificates.

"View Certificate" shows "This certificate cannot be verified up to a
trusted certification authority". The issuer is GeoTrust SSL CA. The
"Valid from" dates include the present date. The Issued-to URL is
javadl-esd-secure.oracle.com. (Images of all these things are
available, if that would help.)

The big problem here is that when this box is about to appear, the
machine locks up for several minutes. And although the "More Info"
button brings up an IE help file, she doesn't use IE, Firefox is her
browser of choice.

Clicking "Yes" or "No" makes the box disappear. Sometimes it reappears
immediately, more often the cycle repeats several hours later (lockup,
then box appears).

My wife would very much like for her machine to stop locking up
several times a day. Can anybody help her?

 

[BillW50]

In Tim Slattery typed:

My wife's machine runs XP SP3. From time to time (several times a
day), she gets a message box, in which the title bar says "Security
Alert". The text in the box is "This page requires a secure connection
which includes server authentication". On another line: "The
Certificate Issuer for this site is untrusted or unknown. Do you wish
to proceed?" There are four buttons: "Yes", "No", "View Certificate",
and "More Info".

"More Info" brings up an IE help file showing the page about SSL
certificates.

"View Certificate" shows "This certificate cannot be verified up to a
trusted certification authority". The issuer is GeoTrust SSL CA. The
"Valid from" dates include the present date. The Issued-to URL is
javadl-esd-secure.oracle.com. (Images of all these things are
available, if that would help.)

The big problem here is that when this box is about to appear, the
machine locks up for several minutes. And although the "More Info"
button brings up an IE help file, she doesn't use IE, Firefox is her
browser of choice.

Clicking "Yes" or "No" makes the box disappear. Sometimes it reappears
immediately, more often the cycle repeats several hours later (lockup,
then box appears).

My wife would very much like for her machine to stop locking up
several times a day. Can anybody help her?

Well you could lower the security setting. One of the settings should be
available whether it should ignore questionable certificates. Although I
really don't care for that plan too well. As the machine is less secure.
You can update the list of root certificates from here.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29434

That freezing bothers me. It reminds me of Windows looking for something
it can't find. Although I wouldn't rule out malware infection either.

 

[Tim Slattery]

Well you could lower the security setting. One of the settings should be
available whether it should ignore questionable certificates. Although I
really don't care for that plan too well. As the machine is less secure.
You can update the list of root certificates from here.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29434

Thanks. We found a like to KB931125, which will update the list of
root certificates, and we're working on that.

That freezing bothers me. It reminds me of Windows looking for something
it can't find. Although I wouldn't rule out malware infection either.

Possible, but I think an obsolete root cert list is more likely. A web
posting I saw said that new OSs will update that list automatically,
but XP won't. I suspect the freeze-up is while XP is trying to find
the appropriate root issuer, which it can't do. It *should* let the
user do something else while it waits, but....

 

[BillW50]

In Tim Slattery typed:

Thanks. We found a like to KB931125, which will update the list of
root certificates, and we're working on that.


Possible, but I think an obsolete root cert list is more likely. A web
posting I saw said that new OSs will update that list automatically,
but XP won't. I suspect the freeze-up is while XP is trying to find
the appropriate root issuer, which it can't do. It *should* let the
user do something else while it waits, but....

I could be mistaken, but I always thought root certificates got updated
through Windows security updates.

 

[bud--]

My wife's machine runs XP SP3. From time to time (several times a
day), she gets a message box, in which the title bar says "Security
Alert". The text in the box is "This page requires a secure connection
which includes server authentication". On another line: "The
Certificate Issuer for this site is untrusted or unknown. Do you wish
to proceed?" There are four buttons: "Yes", "No", "View Certificate",
and "More Info".

"More Info" brings up an IE help file showing the page about SSL
certificates.

"View Certificate" shows "This certificate cannot be verified up to a
trusted certification authority". The issuer is GeoTrust SSL CA. The
"Valid from" dates include the present date. The Issued-to URL is
javadl-esd-secure.oracle.com. (Images of all these things are
available, if that would help.)

The big problem here is that when this box is about to appear, the
machine locks up for several minutes. And although the "More Info"
button brings up an IE help file, she doesn't use IE, Firefox is her
browser of choice.

Clicking "Yes" or "No" makes the box disappear. Sometimes it reappears
immediately, more often the cycle repeats several hours later (lockup,
then box appears).

My wife would very much like for her machine to stop locking up
several times a day. Can anybody help her?

I got that long ago. What I remember is there is a function that allows
messages from a system administrator was turned on and was exploited
over the internet. Turning the function off killed the messages. (It was
something like that.)

Does the message make sense in relation to what she is doing? (Might it
be a legitimate security alert?)

You can try <"Security Alert"> (with the quotes) in google.

 

[Tim Slattery]

Thanks. We found a like to KB931125, which will update the list of
root certificates, and we're working on that.

This seems to have done the trick, but it seems to have reset some IE
settings. Now when my wife uses IE, she keeps getting a "Security
Warning" box that says "The current webpage is trying to open a site
in your Trusted sites list. Do you want to allow this?". There are
"Yes" and "No" buttons. This thing will appear three times at a time
when she tries to do something. I looked around the IE security
settings but didn't see anything that might control this. Anybody have
any clue?

Why ask that question if the site in the Trusted list???

The good news is that she can work with Firefox with no problem!

 

[BillW50]

In Tim Slattery typed:

This seems to have done the trick, but it seems to have reset some IE
settings. Now when my wife uses IE, she keeps getting a "Security
Warning" box that says "The current webpage is trying to open a site
in your Trusted sites list. Do you want to allow this?". There are
"Yes" and "No" buttons. This thing will appear three times at a time
when she tries to do something. I looked around the IE security
settings but didn't see anything that might control this. Anybody have
any clue?

Why ask that question if the site in the Trusted list???

The good news is that she can work with Firefox with no problem!

Open Control Panel
Internet Options
Security tab
Trusted Sites
Custom Level button.

Scroll down to "Enable Display mixed content", then "enable" or
"disable" the setting below.

I would go with disable, as enable will allow an untrusted site to do
anything that a trusted site could.