Firefox just shows an empty "alert" popup for SSL certificate errors
Whenever I visit a website that has an SSL certificate issue, instead of any kind of actual error page, Firefox just shows a modal "Alert" dialog box with no text.
In the attached screenshot, I visited a page I know has an SSL certificate issue. In Chrome, I get a full-page warning. But in Firefox, just the description-less "Alert" box.
I tried disabling all of my plugins before visiting the site as well and got the same result. I don't seem to have customized any of the SSL or Certificate settings in about:config either.
Does anybody have any idea how I can get something approaching normal behaviour out of Firefox for mac?
Chosen solution
You can check xul.error_pages prefs on the about:config page and make sure they are default and not user set (bold). If necessary then reset the pref via the right-click context menu to the default value (true).
- browser.xul.error_pages.enabled
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.
Read this answer in context 1Additional System Details
Installed Plug-ins
- Shockwave Flash 27.0 r0
Application
- Firefox 62.0
- User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:62.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/62.0
- Support URL: https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/62.0/Darwin/en-US/
Extensions
- Auto-Sort Bookmarks 3.3 (sortbookmarks@bouanto)
- Foxy Gestures 1.2.2 ({e839c3f9-298e-4cd0-99e0-464431cb7c34})
- SuperStop 0.3 (superstop@gavinsharp.com)
- uBlock Origin 1.16.20 (uBlock0@raymondhill.net)
Javascript
- incrementalGCEnabled: True
Graphics
- adapterDescription:
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- adapterDrivers:
- adapterRAM:
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- contentUsesTiling: True
- crashGuards: []
- driverDate:
- driverVersion:
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- numAcceleratedWindows: 1
- numTotalWindows: 1
- offMainThreadPaintEnabled: True
- offMainThreadPaintWorkerCount: 3
- usesTiling: True
- webgl1DriverExtensions: GL_ARB_blend_func_extended GL_ARB_draw_buffers_blend GL_ARB_draw_indirect GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility GL_ARB_explicit_attrib_location GL_ARB_gpu_shader_fp64 GL_ARB_gpu_shader5 GL_ARB_instanced_arrays GL_ARB_internalformat_query GL_ARB_occlusion_query2 GL_ARB_sample_shading GL_ARB_sampler_objects GL_ARB_separate_shader_objects GL_ARB_shader_bit_encoding GL_ARB_shader_subroutine GL_ARB_shading_language_include GL_ARB_tessellation_shader GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object_rgb32 GL_ARB_texture_cube_map_array GL_ARB_texture_gather GL_ARB_texture_query_lod GL_ARB_texture_rgb10_a2ui GL_ARB_texture_storage GL_ARB_texture_swizzle GL_ARB_timer_query GL_ARB_transform_feedback2 GL_ARB_transform_feedback3 GL_ARB_vertex_attrib_64bit GL_ARB_vertex_type_2_10_10_10_rev GL_ARB_viewport_array GL_EXT_debug_label GL_EXT_debug_marker GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample_blit_scaled GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode GL_APPLE_client_storage GL_APPLE_container_object_shareable GL_APPLE_flush_render GL_APPLE_object_purgeable GL_APPLE_rgb_422 GL_APPLE_row_bytes GL_APPLE_texture_range GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once GL_NV_texture_barrier
- webgl1Extensions: ANGLE_instanced_arrays EXT_blend_minmax EXT_color_buffer_half_float EXT_frag_depth EXT_sRGB EXT_shader_texture_lod EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic EXT_disjoint_timer_query OES_element_index_uint OES_standard_derivatives OES_texture_float OES_texture_float_linear OES_texture_half_float OES_texture_half_float_linear OES_vertex_array_object WEBGL_color_buffer_float WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc_srgb WEBGL_debug_renderer_info WEBGL_debug_shaders WEBGL_depth_texture WEBGL_draw_buffers WEBGL_lose_context
- webgl1Renderer: NVIDIA Corporation -- NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M OpenGL Engine
- webgl1Version: 4.1 NVIDIA-10.32.0 355.11.10.10.40.102
- webgl1WSIInfo: CGL
- webgl2DriverExtensions: GL_ARB_blend_func_extended GL_ARB_draw_buffers_blend GL_ARB_draw_indirect GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility GL_ARB_explicit_attrib_location GL_ARB_gpu_shader_fp64 GL_ARB_gpu_shader5 GL_ARB_instanced_arrays GL_ARB_internalformat_query GL_ARB_occlusion_query2 GL_ARB_sample_shading GL_ARB_sampler_objects GL_ARB_separate_shader_objects GL_ARB_shader_bit_encoding GL_ARB_shader_subroutine GL_ARB_shading_language_include GL_ARB_tessellation_shader GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object_rgb32 GL_ARB_texture_cube_map_array GL_ARB_texture_gather GL_ARB_texture_query_lod GL_ARB_texture_rgb10_a2ui GL_ARB_texture_storage GL_ARB_texture_swizzle GL_ARB_timer_query GL_ARB_transform_feedback2 GL_ARB_transform_feedback3 GL_ARB_vertex_attrib_64bit GL_ARB_vertex_type_2_10_10_10_rev GL_ARB_viewport_array GL_EXT_debug_label GL_EXT_debug_marker GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample_blit_scaled GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode GL_APPLE_client_storage GL_APPLE_container_object_shareable GL_APPLE_flush_render GL_APPLE_object_purgeable GL_APPLE_rgb_422 GL_APPLE_row_bytes GL_APPLE_texture_range GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once GL_NV_texture_barrier
- webgl2Extensions: EXT_color_buffer_float EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic EXT_disjoint_timer_query OES_texture_float_linear WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc_srgb WEBGL_debug_renderer_info WEBGL_debug_shaders WEBGL_lose_context
- webgl2Renderer: NVIDIA Corporation -- NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M OpenGL Engine
- webgl2Version: 4.1 NVIDIA-10.32.0 355.11.10.10.40.102
- webgl2WSIInfo: CGL
- windowLayerManagerRemote: True
- windowLayerManagerType: OpenGL
- windowUsingAdvancedLayers: False
Modified Preferences
Misc
- User JS: No
- Accessibility: No
Chosen Solution
You can check xul.error_pages prefs on the about:config page and make sure they are default and not user set (bold). If necessary then reset the pref via the right-click context menu to the default value (true).
- browser.xul.error_pages.enabled
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.
Question owner
Thank you, that was absolutely it. browser.xul.error_pages.enabled was set to "false". When I reset it back to the default of "true", I see the error page again.