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How do I recover accidentally deleted Certificate Authority?

Firefox
Jefreestyles replied
JoeyJoeJoe70
JoeyJoeJoe70

Hi,

Running Firefox 5 on Ubuntu 10.10 and while troubleshooting some other issues, I believe I have deleted a Certificate Authority accidentally. Because of this I cannot securely access Facebook or any https Google sites. I can, however, access Bank of America and other https sites no problem.

Also, I can access these sites in Chrome without issue (but I prefer Firefox).

I'm looking for a way to recreate or repopulate the CAs. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling Firefox but that didn't seem to work. I'm at the point where I feel like I'll have to reinstall the OS, but I don't want to get to that point if at all possible.

Any ideas much appreciated.

Regards, Joe

Hi, Running Firefox 5 on Ubuntu 10.10 and while troubleshooting some other issues, I believe I have deleted a Certificate Authority accidentally. Because of this I cannot securely access Facebook or any https Google sites. I can, however, access Bank of America and other https sites no problem. Also, I can access these sites in Chrome without issue (but I prefer Firefox). I'm looking for a way to recreate or repopulate the CAs. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling Firefox but that didn't seem to work. I'm at the point where I feel like I'll have to reinstall the OS, but I don't want to get to that point if at all possible. Any ideas much appreciated. Regards, Joe

All Replies (5)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor

Which error do you get and who is the issuer of the certificates that do not work?

You can only remove trust bits from build-in root certificates.

Try to Rename or remove secmod.db (secmod.db.old) in the Firefox Profile Folder.

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder

You may have to rename cert8.db (cert8.db.old) as well.
Firefox will create new files.

JoeyJoeJoe70
JoeyJoeJoe70 Úinéir na ceiste

cor-el,

That seems to have done the trick. Thanks for the assist.

JJJ

sharpie8
sharpie8

Thanks for your helpful information! I think you just solved a similar problem I've been having for quite awhile.

Jefreestyles
Jefreestyles

Thank you so much, cor-el! Your steps worked like a charm. I renamed secmod.db to secmod-old.db, closed Firefox, and renamed cert8.db to cert8-old.db. Now when I opened up Firefox, Google Accounts and our JIRA helpdesk site opened up just fine.

A story should be told on how you managed to figure this out.