SSL is a standard in web encryption technology. Occasionally, a website will have issues related to this security system, which may cause an error to occur.
What is a Certificate?
A certificate is essentially a badge provided by a third party that verifies that the page you are trying to access is legitimate. Without a certificate, a third party can easily "spoof" a website to steal personal information. Using HTTP instead of HTTPS opens your data and browsing to a wide variety of easily preventable attacks.
Below are errors that usually appear in Firefox or Chrome.
Possible Errors
Bypassable Errors
Some errors can be bypassed by going to Advanced → Proceed to Website (unsafe). For these errors, it is not recommended to proceed, as any information or forms you enter can be easily intercepted.
Currently, the only bypassable error is:
NET::ERR_CERT_CONTAINS_ERRORS
Non-Bypassable Errors
Most SSL errors in browsers are non-bypassable, meaning it is up to the site owner to fix the SSL certificate.
Workarounds for Non-Bypassable Errors
It is possible to fix this in some cases by doing the following:
Manually enter HTTP://site.com.
Most sites use HTTPS redirect, which means they will force you to use HTTPS and this will not work.
If it is an emergency and you are only attempting to view information (no logins), then it is possible to disable browser security.
Launching Chrome with Flags on Windows
Press the Win + R keys.
Enter "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe."
--ignore-certificate-errorsPress Enter.
Launching Chrome with Flags on OSX
Open Terminal under Finder → Applications → Utilities.
Enter
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --ignore-certificate-errors --ignore-urlfetcher-cert-requests &> /dev/nullPress Enter.
List of non-bypassable errors.
NET::ERR_CERT_INVALID - Generic Error
NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID - The date the website provided was not what the cert authority had on record, so it can't be trusted.
NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID - The cert authority the website provided was not who actually issued it, so it can't be trusted.
NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID - The website you are trying to get to is not who the cert authority issued the cert to, so it can't be trusted.
NET::ERR_CERTIFICATE_TRANSPARENCY_REQUIRED - The certificate requires transparency, but the one provided did not match up, so it can't be trusted.
In general, it is NOT recommended to try to fix these errors by disabling or bypassing them. These errors exist to keep your personal information safe, as well as the data integrity of the entire University. If you see these errors, please report them to ITS immediately.