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How to skip SSL authenticity check for local test sites?

  • 2 cavab
  • 2 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by sunheat

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I recently upgraded Firefox to 38.0 and it started breaking when connecting to a local server for testing.

The servers runs (has to run) through HTTPS and has a self-signed certificate.

The error page did not offer much information: Secure Connection Failed The connection to localhost:9578 was interrupted while the page was loading. The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.

I want to know how to skip this authenticity check or add this site to exception list to be able to connect. I have already tried adding it to security.tls.insecure_fallback_hosts list but it did not work.

I recently upgraded Firefox to 38.0 and it started breaking when connecting to a local server for testing. The servers runs (has to run) through HTTPS and has a self-signed certificate. The error page did not offer much information: Secure Connection Failed The connection to localhost:9578 was interrupted while the page was loading. The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified. I want to know how to skip this authenticity check or add this site to exception list to be able to connect. I have already tried adding it to security.tls.insecure_fallback_hosts list but it did not work.

All Replies (2)

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If you can't inspect the certificate via "I Understand the Risks" then try this:

Open this chrome URI by pasting or typing this URI in the location/address bar to open the "Add Security Exception" window and check the certificate:

  • chrome://pippki/content/exceptionDialog.xul

In the location field type/paste the URL of the website

  • retrieve the certificate via the "Get certificate" button
  • click the "View..." button to inspect the certificate in the Certificate Viewer

Check who is the issuer of the certificate.

You can inspect details like the issuer and the certificate chain in the Details tab of the Certificate Viewer.


You can also try to check the connection settings and the certificate in another browser like Google Chrome.

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Thanks for replying. I tried this but Firefox reported:

Unable to obtain identification status for this site.

Firefox v24 is able to retrieve information, but it doesn't need this exercise because the exception page showed in the first place. I tried turning off proxy but it did not help.

I have also tried on Chrome, the latest version failed with pretty much the same symptom. Just different wording: ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED The web page at https://localhost:9578/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

This is happening only on Linux (Ubuntu VM in VMWare Player). On the windows host Firefox ESR on v31.0 and latest Chrome did not have this problem.

Modified by sunheat